Zach Runs Chicago

A foggy morning for a swim/bike/run On Saturday morning at Montrose Beach I completed my second triathlon: the Chicago Triathlon SuperSprint. There were a few differences between this one and the North Shore Triathlon that I did last year . The first difference was that this was a SuperSprint rather than a Sprint distance (375m swim | 10K bike | 2.5K run vs 750m swim | 20K bike | 5K run) or about half the distance. The second was that I was a part of the inaugural Divvy Wave of the SuperSprint, meaning that rather than needing to bring my own bike (or in the case of last year, Fuzzy's bike), I just showed up at the race site in the morning, grabbed a Divvy and set up my tri station stuff around it. For your typical triathlete I would say that this is a less than ideal set-up. You're not going to have the bike you want and definitely not the speed you want and if you're going for time, you're going to be disappointed. However, for someone dabbling in the tria...

Runners shaking servicemembers' hands before the Soldier Field 10 Mile As you are well aware, this past weekend was Memorial Day, which is all about celebrating freedom and remembering the men and women who have died serving the country. Like every other holiday, there are plenty of races in Chicago to help those who are so inclined celebrate appropriately: by going running. Because of the long weekend I was able to make a double-header race weekend out of it (perhaps it can be classified as a triple-header, but more about that later) while still getting a rest day in between the races; I ran the Soldier Field 10 Mile on Saturday morning and the Ridge Run Challenge on Monday morning. Both races celebrate Memorial Day and both are races that I've done in the past (past Soldier Field and Ridge Run reviews) and knew I would enjoy. And I did: the weather was nearly ideal (it got a little warm on Monday morning), the races were well-organized, the themes were solid and in...

My running hair could use a little work The Tough Mudder is only a few weeks away and in terms of half marathon training (the Tough Mudder is only "10-12 miles" but I figure I should be able to at least do a half to compensate for the obstacles and the mud) I was supposed to run 11 miles today. I didn't do that. But I did do a little bit of what could be considered interval training (with a little imaginative considering). Making use of Chicago's crowded spring running calendar I scheduled two 5Ks back-to-back, leaving enough time to run from one to the other: Ravenswood Run (Hermitage and Wilson): 8:00am Phi Delta Chi 5K (Montrose Harbor): 9:30am Luckily, the first race started only about a mile from my house so I met my friend John at his place down the street at 7:30 and we jogged over to the starting line to get a little warm up in. As with most races put on by Fleet Feet, the gear check was easy, the corral system was clear and the takeoff was s...

Inside Doyle's Cafe before the race Since I'm in Boston this week visiting Brynn I figured we should be hitting up some of the Boston-area races (especially since neither of us is fast enough to run the Boston Marathon). So, in searching for the most convenient race for us to take on this weekend I stumbled upon the Doyle's Emerald Necklace Road Race - a race now in its 18th year and deemed "legendary" by race organizers. It didn't hurt that this race started at 11am and that the weather was predicted to be sunny and in the mid-60s. Unfortunately, Boston chose not to cooperate and the weather was in the mid-50s and raining yesterday morning as Brynn and I made our way to the starting line (via bike - her on her own bike and me on a Hubway - the Boston equivalent of Divvy). We got to what we thought was the starting line at Doyle's Cafe - a small pub/cafe in Jamaica Plain - and checked in to get our race bibs. Here we found out a few things: 1. T...

Starting line of the Chi Town Half Marathon & 10K In the middle of last week I decided that after running outside for the Shamrock Shuffle last weekend and then hitting up the treadmill again all week I needed some kind of race to get me outside again this weekend (well... last weekend now). I did some searching and decided to sign up for the Chi Town Half Marathon & 10K . I thought about signing up for the half but I figured that after running on a treadmill for distances only ranging between 3 and 6 miles all winter I would just end up hurting myself like I did early on last year and ruining the rest of the year for myself again. So I signed up for the 10K instead. Good idea. Good advice that I gave myself a while ago that I hardly ever follow: When an event has two distances, sign up for the shorter one. So, I did some hill work on Saturday (and by "hill" I mean setting the treadmill to random elevation) and then Sunday morning Divvied over to Lincol...