Shamrock Shuffle 2019 {Race Recap}

Ran my 8th Shamrock Shuffle on Sunday! 

TL;DR version: I got my 2nd fastest time and had fun with some great people. 

Saturday morning we ran over to the expo with our neighbors and met up with some of our run club. 

Did the expo thing, got some swag and had fun. It seemed better than last year-maybe more consolidated. Last year I kept thinking “where’s the other room of vendors?”

This year we had a record 41 people and 8 teams running for Our run club- Mikkeller Running club!

When I signed up for the race back last year, I had grand goals to train for low 6’s and try to place in my AG (you never know who’s going to show up, blah blah) but in December I started feeling really crappy. I gained 10lbs and a lot of body fat. I attribute it to the residual effects of Ironman training and elevated cortisol. 

I trained fairly well, but never felt great despite an average of 45 miles per week.  My speedwork was around 6:00/mile but I always felt really tired and not fresh, even outside of running. 

Goal for Sunday was revised to: sub 35 and I’ll be happy. I ran a 10k with Ze avg 7:00, so I figured that not being dog aided (pulled) I could probably hold it for 5 miles.

Woke up Sunday morning, had a coffee and a slice of my latest homemade red fife wheat loaf.  We walked over to grant park to meet our team. 

41 people ran with us. I’m still so blown away at what this community has become.

We dropped our bags after pics and headed to our corrals.

The cool thing about having a running club is that you’re never alone- especially at this race. There were at least 10 people from MRC in the same corral as me.

Obligatory skyline shot. 

We lined up initially close to the start- I remarked how empty it was but then realized it was still pretty early. As the corral filled up, I decided to get out of the herd of 5 minute milers and start at the back. Didn’t want to get trampled- yes I still have trauma over the Chicago marathon 2011 when I got tripped in the first 400m due to idiots.  

A few of us started the race together- which was nice. I felt really good maintaining high 6’s but didn’t feel mentally into this race while running. I stuck with Matt and MH for like 2 miles and eventually they started pulling away. I tried to keep up but was stuck on my pace. 

Crossed the 5k in 21:17 - not bad considering how I’ve felt for the past few months.

(Actual manually lapped splits)

Finished in 34:19. I was happy to break 35 again and was content with my time.  We ran into more teammates since about 10 of us finished within a few minutes of each other. 

Its where we discovered that we placed 2nd in the team division!

We got our bags and walked towards the fountain to chill while our other teammates finished. We ran into MRC Seattle captain John at the fountain. It was great to meet him finally!

We made sure to get a group picture post race too. 

I am just so proud of our entire group- people PR’d like L by 5 minutes!! For others it was the longest they’ve ever run.  So inspired by these folks. 

I wasn’t too far off my time from last year despite feeling quite meh. I have to thank my rabbits Matt and MH- I wouldn’t have run as fast if it wasn’t for them. To see people I knew ahead of me kept me more engaged had I been there all alone. 

8 years of shamrock data. 🤓

We went to Ballast Point to celebrate and hydrate and eat. I love these people.

And then went to Lone Wolf where potentially bad decisions were made.

Overall, I’m really happy with how this race went, and how I paced with relatively even splits. I’m going to go to the doctor soon to see if something is out of whack because I’m sick of feeling dull. And I want to be 100% for Chicago Marathon Training.


8th Shuffle in the books! Looking forward to doing a 10k in a month and then really getting into marathon training. (And also looking forward to figuring out why I feel so flat all the time and fixing it!)

Extremely thankful for this amazing group of people. 

Housekeeping: (40f/calm)

Took a sis gel 10 min prior to the race

No water during the race

Long sleeve with singlet and shorts- overkill. Drop the long sleeve. 

Shamrock Shuffle 8k 2017 {Race Recap}

I ran my 6th Shamrock Shuffle 8k on Sunday. Although it's an extremely large race, I love it because the course is like a mini version of the Chicago marathon. There's very few times you can run on closed streets through Chicago- otherwise it's lakefront running the rest of the time.


L and I met up with our MRC Chicago team members for a pre race photo. This year we had 5 teams running in the shamrock! We all had good runs and absolutely smashed our goal of having the most fun. Join us on May 6th for our next run. Info {HERE}


Bag check was a breeze and I waited in a seemingly endless portalet line while counting down the minutes to the corrals closing- surprisingly people finally got a sense of urgency and the line moved quickly. I got into the back of corral A (my usual spot so I don't get trampled) and took a few pics of downtown when all of a sudden, Pete B flew into my frame!


We met up with Eric and Jeff and waited for the race to start.

Since I'd run 13 miles the day before, and 5 miles pre race, my goal was simply to run even splits at a good pace- likely around 7:10-15. Boston marathon training doesn't stop for a fun run.

The gun went off and we inched closer to the start-and then we were off! I saw Kimberly and we chatted a bit while heading into the tunnel. I think we've bumped into each other during the past 3 shamrocks.


I got behind Eric and trailed him for a good 2-3 miles and felt really good. He had just ran a marathon the day before and I was amazed that he felt so good! I crossed the 5k in 22:32.

Around mile 4 I decided to pick up my pace a bit and get done with the race. On Michigan Ave, I saw 2 beautiful border collies and loads of spectators. I knew that it wouldn't be a PR day for me due to all the marathon training Ive been doing, but tried to kick it in the last quarter mile to the finish and break 36:00. Which I missed by 3 seconds. Accurate manual splits below, the buildings screw up the distance.


Final stats:

47th/2256 AG
247th/11305 Women
1191th/19995 OA

MRC Mixed red team: 6th place

I was happy with my effort and somewhat even splits considering my tired legs.


Post race, MRC Chicago met up for beer in the park before heading to brunch at Villains.


I really like the medal- another bottle opener! (Which will likely go into my medal shoebox never to be seen again)


We truly have the best run club ever. I had no idea 2+ years ago that we would have the amazing community that we've built. I'm thankful for run club.


Post post race we went home and chilled out and ordered Chinese food. The pup was tired too.


Housekeeping:

I learned from my last race not to overdress, kind of. I wore a tshirt, but should have worn a singlet because the low-mid 40's with calm conditions at the start meant I'd feel overheated early on.

The capris were also overkill.

I took a salt tab pre race.

I didn't drink any water during the race- it's only 5 miles.

Overall, I was really happy with my effort and clocked my 3rd fastest Shamrock and hit my arbitrary goal of averaging 7:16's.

Shamrock Shuffle 8k 2016

This was my 5th time running the Shuffle- the only year I didn't run it was 2014 when I ran the Knoxville Marathon. (Race recaps here: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015) It's a race I enjoy immensely since it is practically in my backyard (logistics are a dream!), it's well organized,  and because the course is entirely not on the lakefront.

L and I went to the expo on Friday and we ran into Eric. We had our game faces on.

Sunday morning we got ready and scooted over to the meetup for MRC/anyone else who wanted to join us.

I wore my new Mikkeller Running Club singlet, which I had only previously worn for the F^3 half back in January. It was cold out. Like 30's and a little windy. Pretty much exactly the same or very similar to last year.

We took a team #mrcchicago photo before we scampered off to our corrals. I cannot say enough how awesome this running club is.
After our team photo, I dumped my bag at gear check, contemplated using the portapotty one last time (but didn't because of long lines) and got into the corral. While waiting and freezing my ass off in corral A, I ran into Eric and Pete and we chatted a bit. Pete had just spotted Desi, and I tried to look for her doing strides through the fence, but she likely had just wrapped up her warmup.

Going into this race I didn't have a goal. I knew this would be the first year I would not PR either because I've gotten to that point as a runner where you have to do focused training to PR for whatever goal youre chasing. Ive been marathon training and not running much more than 5K pace for speed work. Where as had I been training for a 5K i would have been running speed work 20-30 seconds faster than that. I also didn't want to jeopardize my health for Carmel. I set a loose goal of 36:00-30 but in reality I just wanted to run a nice tempo, whatever pace that ended up being.

Spliz from the race- they are accurate, the distance not so much due to the buildings/tunnel.

I took off and Eric darted ahead, I figured I wouldn't see him the rest of the race- and just tried to settle into a comfy hard pace, which is so hard given that it was cold, and I did not warm up at all beforehand. I knew my garmin would be useless for pace, so I set it to "manual lap" so at least I could have accurate mile splits as long as I remembered to lap the miles.

Goal forever and always is to negative split races, so my plan by mile 3.5 was to start pushing the pace. Of course mile 3.5 is where we were running into a brisk headwind. Oh well. I charged on. Somewhere on Michigan Ave I passed Eric and then we started fartleking back and forth. He ended up out sprinting me to the finish by 2 seconds. I really wish I had tried to pass him earlier since he was 15-20 feet ahead of me the entire race and it could have been fun to push each other more earlier. Next time. Challenge ON!
                                         
I ended up finishing in 35:29, which was 12 seconds off my PR. WUT?! I for some reason thought my PR was 34:xx and figured there was no was I could have touched that- guess I should double check my blog stats pre race next time. I felt way too comfortable during the race and could have easily shaved off more time- but I am really happy with how I felt and how I performed for this race.

I was once again concerned about the "Mikkeller Salute" on the back of my singlet, but at least 5 people came up to me during the race and said "awesome shirt" or "I ran fast to catch up to you to tell you your shirt is cool." It was fun spreading our club love out on the streets of Chicago during a race. I hope we have some new folks join us in May.

Official Stats:

Time: 35:29
46 of 2718 AG
211 of 13,527 women
1150 of 23462 OA

Once I finished I grabbed some snacks and stared heading back to bag check when I ran into more MRC folks. We eventually got stopped by a camera man and may be appearing in an ad for the Shamrock next year. "We'll be back.... Next year!"

Our Mikkeller Running club teams came in 14th and 26th places and kicked major ass.

Post race we got our beer flavored kool aid and waited for everyone to show up. We also supplemented with our own hydration before heading to Kaiser Tiger for our celebratory team lunch.

"Can we go drink in the park now?"

After lunch and some additional rehydration we landed at Goose for one final beer. Did I already mention that we have the best running club ever? I'm serious. I had no idea that this run club would turn into so much more than just a first Saturday gathering. 

After a fun day, it was time for puppy snuggles.

Housekeeping:

• Ate a powerbar oatmeal pouch thing 2.5 hours pre race + some osmo pre load.
• Ate a GU 15 min pre race
• Did not take any water/gatorade at the aid stations since it was a short race.
• Wore my nike hyperwarm + MRC singlet, felt hot by mile 3.
• Wore my Track n Field tights + nike lunar tempo shoes
• Owl head hat FTW

Next race: Carmel marathon next Saturday!

Xaarlin

Shamrock Shuffle 2015

Time: 35:17  (a PR by 1:42!!)

AG: 52/2785 (1.87%)
Women: 204/12847 (1.59%)
OA: 1080/22877 (4.72%)

Expo:

We went on Saturday morning to the expo for our bibs and swag- it wasn't too crowded at McCormick place which was nice... We also ran into Emmers and walked the expo with her.


There were a lot of vendors and races present- I found a few races I hadn't heard of before which sounded interesting- mainly the Tiki Run.

Shamrock style...

We took it easy on Saturday night and had tacos.... And margaritas. And a couple of beers. Because of course we had to have a Mikkeller beer.. Might not have been the smartest to have a 17.12% abv Mikkeller beer the night before, but I'm sure it helped us sleep well.

We woke up to a gorgeous sunrise sunday morning. I wish that was an omen for good weather... But it was super cold and super windy.

We got to grant park and met up with some of our Mikkeller run club teammates as well as some Chicago running bloggers. It was nice seeing everyone!

We had 12 folks on 2 teams running for our Chicago MRC chapter. Spoiler alert: we ended up 8th and 24th out of 58 teams!!!

L and I bummed around grant park for a bit before I bag checked my puffy jacket.

We were pretty cold.


Race expectations:

I threw any real expectation out the window for this race because of the weather. With it being low 30's and 20-30mph gusts, the feels like was just too damn cold for me. If this was a non race day, I wouldn't have run outside because I don't fare well in cold conditions. My plan was to take the first mile easy and slowly negative split the race. Also, I knew I would PR because of all the quality workouts I have completed over the past few months...

Race:

I got into the back of the A corral and immediately saw Eric and Mo. Those badasses ran a marathon the day before!! We chatted a bit and I "warmed up" by doing a few half assed strides in the back of the corral. But I was really cold, especially after I shed my old jacket.

I took off and slowly started passing people. My garmin was hovering around 7:1x before the tunnel and I felt good. I saw Kimmie and chatted with her for 10 seconds before continuing on my way.

*i manually lapped the splits *

The first 4 miles felt really easy. Like thinking about it now, maybe I should have pressed a bit more. BUT I walk a fine line in the cold with running- I go from being able to breathe to almost hyperventilating very quickly. I kept expecting the wind to be bad but it didn't really hit me until mile 3.5 near Willis- but since the course turned a lot we were fortunate not to experience that strong blast of wind too long.

I passed the 5k in 22:04.

At mile 4 I decided to pick up the pace more and consequently had a really difficult time breathing. Add to that was the strong headwind while running south on Michigan Ave. mile 5 was slowly sucking the life out of me.

Post run I was shivering as I walked a long way back to bag check to get my puffy jacket. I got my PR beer mich ultra and hung out with a big group of friends while waiting for L. By then I was shivering so bad the beer was barely staying in the cup.

Post race thoughts: I was really happy with how I ran given the circumstances of shitty weather. I had a lot of fun singing along to the 5 songs I put on my iPod for the race. I think the music helped keep my energy level up because I tend to get pretty defeated in the wind and cold. Also, starting out slightly conservative and passing people the entire time was also a big boost for me. I never found the course to be over crowded or anything. Yeah there's people running alongside you unlike any of your training runs, but it was far from brushing shoulders with them.

We went to Kaiser Tiger post run for brunch with friends. It's always nice to celebrate races with friends, beer and brunch.

By the evening the effects of running outside had caught up to me and I was feeling the usual headache/fever/funk I get when I run in the cold. Add to that incredibly achy calfs and I was a joy to be around! I took some aleve and called it a night.

Housekeeping:

I wore: owl head hat, Nike ear warmer headband, sunglasses from the expo, MRC shirt, armwarmers, my Nike tights, swiftwick socks, Saucony A5 shoes, Saucony Mitten/Gloves.

I brought a small bottle of Osmo with me during the run and took sips as necessary.

I ate a small bowl of oatmeal before the race.

Yay for another fun race!! I've taken the train to PR City and am not looking back! Yay no injuries!

Next up: a 5k in Copenhagen unless I find something else in Chicago first.