Zach Runs Chicago

Every year Chicago adds a few more races to the running roster. In 2013 I ran 37 of them. And though I did repeat a few of the same races that I ran in 2012 I tried to find new ones as well, occasionally even making it outside of the city for those - I KNOW, what an explorer right? For 2012 I did a Top 7 Race Shirt post so I thought I'd do it again this year. It was actually harder this year to find seven shirts that I liked out of the 37. There were a lot more cotton shirts this year (both long and short sleeve), which could be because I ran eight less races than last year but could also just be a reflection of the races I chose to run (smaller, newer races). Probably it's a combination of the two. Either way, the trend towards athletic shirts that I noticed last year still seems to be holding true, but there is a bigger-than-you'd-expect contingent that is still holding out with the cotton (including one sweatshirt from the Muddy Monk Frozen Five). To me the key to ...

A foolish fool before 2013's Muddy Monk Frozen Five An open letter to Muddy Monk: I was just taking a look at the viewing statistics for this blog and noticed that the story about Chicagoland's First Annual February Fool's Goal Half Marathon/Debacle has gotten a big jump in views lately. So I decided to do a little research and see if this epically foolish adventure would be possible to duplicate in 2014. As it turns out, things are shaping up quite nicely. Carpe Diem Races and the Channahon Park District are keeping it old school and sticking with their schedules from last year. Check out the current schedules for these guys on 2/9/2014: Cupid's Love Dash 5K at 8:20am Channahon Frosty 5 Mile at 1pm So, Muddy Monk, now we're just waiting on you to schedule the Frozen Five Mile. According to your website , you've already got it set for February, but are just waiting to nail down the exact date/time. Might I suggest February 9th at 10am? Prett...

If you were outside running yesterday, or even if you were just sitting inside looking out the window, you are probably aware that yesterday was a terrible weather day. All day. The temperature stayed between 34 and 40 with freezing rain falling on and off throughout the day. But that didn't stop a trio of foolish runners from Chicago from completing the inaugural running of Chicago's newest half marathon: Chicagoland's First Annual February Fool's Goal Half Marathon/Debacle 

A few weeks ago I was looking through the race listings for the month of February and noticed that there are three different races this coming Sunday. All in different cities. As I was trying to decide which one to run I realized that they're all taking place at different times... and then I started thinking... Why not just run all three? I talked to my running homey Antonio and after some discussion about logistics, we realized that based on the timing and location of the races, this would be an insane dash from Chicago to Highland Park to Hoffman Estates to Channahon and back to Chicago, with just enough time to park, get our bibs, run the races and (after carefully stretching, of course) head off to the next one. That's also when we noticed that by a pretty sweet coincidence, the three races just happen to add up to a half marathon.  So, obviously we decided that it had to be done. We registered for all three and created a new race: Chicagoland's First A...