Monday, April 8, 2013

Shamrock Shuffle 8k

36:59 avg 7:26/ mile

A 3 minute PR whoo hoo!

I went into this race with one goal in mind- to have fun. A smaller secondary goal was to break 37 minutes. Mission accomplished on all accounts!


I've gotten a little too doughy for my Lulu shorts.

L and I walked over to Grant Park and met up with my friend and fello Fleet Feet Cheer ambassador Vicky- since we were planning on starting together. Getting into the corral was a bit of a cluster because it was the entrance for 3 corrals and there were people checking bibs to ensure people started in the correct herd.


I soon spotted Maggie and we took a quick photo together. (Photo stolen from her)


looking back at 40,000 runners.

While in the back of corral A, I ran in place for 10 minutes to "warmup" as best I could. The plan once I crossed the start was to begin conservatively and then gain momentum and negative split the race.


Looking forward to the start.

Soon we were off on our journey through the streets of Chicago. I purposely started at the back of the A corral so I wouldn't get trampled by the faster people or get caught up and go out too fast. Since the garmin is practically useless due to the tunnel at the start, I had to run by effort- which is difficult since I'm so freaking addicted to my garmin's stats.


Obligatory pre race shoe shot.

Around mile 2 I saw Jenny and Hillary cheering complete with cowbells an vuvuzelas! Somewhere before mile 4 I saw Pete who took some awesome videos of the runners flying by.

As I turned onto Michigan ave around mile 4, the crowds were going crazy with excitement. They gave me even more motivation to keep pushing the pace harder. I flew up the "hill" on Roosevelt ave and passed more runners, and just locked onto the finish. After doing some quick math, I decided to try to run hard to break 37:00.


At the finish I met back up with Vicky who also had wonderful day of Shamrocking through Chicago. PR city baby!


Garmin Splits vs Official Shamrock Splits

I manually lapped each mile because I knew the garmin would not be too accurate due to the tunnel and buildings. At each mile and also the 5k mark, there were timing mats to record our splits. I'm not sure why the 2 are so different. But either way, I negative splitted the race! I was happy to cross the 5k mark in 23:21, which would be one of the fastest 5ks I've clocked in a while.


After I finished I went to mile 4 to cheer for L. He was having a banner day also and got 5 minute PR! On our way to brunch I stopped to spectate and hopefully catch my coworker running by (for her longest race yet) but didnt see her.


Post Shamrock Shuffle Brunch

Final Thoughts

While PR's are a fantastic ego boost and a nice way to chart progress, I was more jazzed to be around friends and enjoy the race atmosphere. Hanging with Vicky and Maggie in the corral, then seeing Jenny, Hillary and Pete spectating, and then cheering for L at mile 4 definitely added to the joy i felt taking 3 minutes off last years Shamrock time.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy to achieve a new milestone but I'm even more excited that for once I am healthy and have no injuries to speak of. And instead of solely celebrating a PR, I am basking in the fact I can run pain free and enjoy every step, and that I'm much stronger this year than a year ago.



Next up for me is The Soldier Field 10 miler!




- xaar

22 comments:

  1. Congrats! What an amazing time! Yesterday was seriously perfect. I definitely lost my C corral start for next year due to my time, but I am ok with it:)

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    1. Thanks! You'll make up for it with another race :)

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  2. Congrats on the killer sub-37 PR! And an extra "yay" for running injury free! At mile four you looked relaxed and looked like you were having lots of fun! Too bad I left mile four before you got there. I had already seen everyone that I had come up to cheer for, so I decided to beat the crowds and head home. Anyway, it was a great day for you, and you finally got the good weather race you were waiting for! Congrats again! :-)

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    1. Thank you! This race definitely made up for the last 2 races. It was refreshing!

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  3. Woohooo! Congrats on your awesome PR! And L's too! So glad you had such a fun race - I really did too. It's too bad I couldn't make it to the meet-up...next time, for sure!

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  4. Congrats on the PR, and I love your attitude about just having a good time. Sometimes when we go into a race without crazy expectations we are pleasantly surprised! Way to go!

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    1. Hey- for me its not about the PRs its about the experience. :) HAve to have FUN!

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  5. Congrats on both of your PR's! I agree, the Shuffle is a great day because of all the friends you see, plus it's an awesome course. It was great to run into you in the corral! I love our pre-race shoe pic! Also I noticed my pace at the 3M and 5K mats were pretty different. Maybe that was the pace for the 0.1 between the two? Who knows. Good luck training for the Soldier Field 10!

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  6. Congrats! What a great race for both of you! And what a beautiful day for it! It definitely sounds like this race has a great vibe.

    I have to ask about the Fleet Feet Cheer Ambassador thing. You've mentioned it to me a few times. What does being an ambassador entail? :)

    A few people in my club mentioned having to jump the fence to get in to their corral! I have to ask them more about it! Sounds a bit hectic at that part.

    I had a comment in here about your splits but I am going to email it to you because it sounds bitchy.

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  7. Boom! I love the "happy race" feeling. Add a PR to that and it's hard to beat. I'm so glad we were able to catch you at 2. Awesome way to start the race season!!

    I was amazed by the number of timing mats/info they were providing runners. It's kind of cool to have that amount of data for such a short race.

    I'm sad to be missing SF10 this year (I've done it the past 5!), but timing doesn't work with the marathon a few weeks prior. ll definitely be out there at SF cheering, though -- I'll make sure horns and bells are involved. :)

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    1. YES. I need the Vuvuzelas and Cowbells blaring! :)

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  8. Glad you had such a great race and way to go with the negative splits. so happy to hear that things are going so awesome for you this year, especially compared to last year!

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    1. Thank you :) To finally be healthy makes me sooooo happy!

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  9. WOOHOO congrats on your PR!!!!! And negative splitted the heck out of it, nice work!!!! A 7:09 at the end, that's awesome!

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    1. Thank you! COuldnt have executed it any better :)

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  10. You so speedy!! Congrats on an amazing race! Also, your next race is on mah' birthday! Woooo!

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    1. Aww thanks :) I'll have to run extra fast to celebrate your birthday!

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  11. HUGE congratulations to you, and how awesome that L ran the race, too! Also huge congratulations to both of you for your shiny new PRs!!! You look freakin' awesome in that sparkle skirt. Those shoes rock (I don't think I've seen you wear them before). Are they Sauconys?

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    1. Thanks lady! My mom made the sparkle skirt. She was so happy I wore it.

      The shoes are Saucony A5's. I wont wear them for anything longer than a 10K/ speed training since they are very minimal racing flats.

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  12. Congrats on the PR, that is a perfectly split race!

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