Do the Shuffle!

First race of 2008: great time and sore thighs.

The morning started out very chilly. I wasn't sure how to dress for the race. I knew it was cold, but I get hot and sweaty very quickly. I opted for pants and a long sleeve shirt, but I carried the short-sleeve technical race shirt just in case. Boy, am I glad I had the extra shirt. I was freezing in Grant Park so I put the extra shirt on, it was 41 degrees, and windy. I love this race. It's a huge race (22,000+ finishing runners,) but it never feels like it's too big or crowded. Before walking over to gear check I get a message from Imelina wishing me luck. She's running it too along with her brother and brother's girlfriend. We don't meet before the race because we're running in different pace groups, but her message was very encouraging.

As I'm huddled with the thousands of runners before the start I realize how huge this race is. The gun goes off (is there really a start gun? I have no clue,) and we start shuffling along to the start line. It takes me 23 minutes to cross the start; that's some serious shuffling. I make it a point not to start out too fast. I'm getting better at that. In my usual style of feeling unprepared, my main goal is to finish and to run the whole thing. If I can do it as close to 49 min, that would be gravy. That was my time last year, so I figure I should shoot for the same. My running throughout felt very consistent. My goal is to maintain at least a 10 min/mi. pace. I don't want to run it slower than that. I decide to trail a runner ahead of me and stay as close as possible for as long as I can. I want to feel like I'm making an effort. I was feeling unprepared so I need to push a little to stay on pace.

It helped being familiar with the streets and the course. It helps with the inner pep talks. All along it was very uneventful. The only time I remember having to push through anything was after mile 4 turning onto Michigan Ave. That's the only time I felt the wind head-on, ugghh. Then turning onto Roosevelt I had to push a little more. At this point we're very close to the end and there's a bit of uphill on this section of Roosevelt. I was very tempted to talk myself into slowing it down a bit, I had been doing so well the whole race, never slowing or stopping, I deserve a reward for doing good thus far. But I didn't talk myself into anything. I forged ahead, (damn incline) and looked forward to the end.

I love turning onto Columbus Dr. and seeing the finish line, here I push some more. You have to. I remember smiling as I neared the finish thinking to myself, "that was fun."

stats: 8k; 45:57