Thursday, April 3, 2014

Shamrock Shuffle 8k Race Recap

This past weekend, I ran my 8th Shamrock Shuffle. Hard to believe I've had such a long history with this race. It really is one of the best races in Chicago. If you haven't run it before, I highly recommend you do so at least once!

The expo is always the Friday and Saturday before the race. This year I was asked to volunteer at the Zooma booth and I was able to coordinate with Amanda @ Get to Goal to volunteer with me.
Oh yeah, side note. Patsy joined us at the expo as well! She enticed some people to our booth and she was a very well behaved little girl the whole time. She made some new friends at the expo too!

We visited Maggie at the ACS booth and Patsy really wanted to be held by the leprechaun. He didn't mind at all which was pretty great.

Fellow Oiselle ambassador, Kim Pearlman, met up at the expo as well to exchange our team bibs. Patsy enjoyed hanging out with a fellow Wee Bird.

When it came time for the race morning, it was a little chilly to start but temps warmed up later on. In true new mom fashion, Patsy was a little under dressed for the temps. Thankfully, my SILs came downtown to watch Patsy while I ran and they improvised by bundling her up nicely.

I haven't been able to run as much as I would have liked in recent weeks/months, so I decided to just have fun with the race. My BRF Maggie was in a similar predicament and we decided to run together. Since Maggie is now a city dweller, we don't get to run together as often, but with how much fun we had at the shuffle, I'm hoping that changes in the future.
Photo in the starting corrals
We started in the back of B which was a great decision. It wasn't too crowded. People weren't speeding past us. The course changed slightly this year but it was still extremely smooth. This race is always so well executed. The water and gatorade stops were well marked and predictable. The volunteers were organized and had things ready to go.

But first.... Let me take a selfie

My biggest criticism with the race this year was that there was no music. There is usually boom boxes jamming Black Eyed Peas or a very trendy jam. They had 1 person yelling/talking over some beats at one of the water stops, but that was about it. Um, that isn't music. I know the Lululemon people are usually out there but I didn't even hear them... Maybe because we were in corral B, things were really pumped up later? Either way, it was kind of disappointing. Thankfully Maggie and I made the most of it. I just turned on my itunes music OUT LOUD and we danced our way along the course.

We finished the race in 47:10 (9:26 pace) which actually was a semi-progressive run. We started off slower and picked it up with each mile. I was kind of expecting a 50:00 (10:00 pace) so this was a welcome change. I didn't run with my Garmin so I wasn't too concerned about pace. Thanks for the fun run Maggie! Let's do it again soon!

After the race, I shuffled over to the Congress hotel to meet up with fellow Oiselle ambassadors that were also in town for the race. I always love meeting other ambassadors!
L to R: Kim, me, Kim, Hyedi, Kristine

Next up: BRUNCH. Obviously this was what I was looking forward to the most. :) I took my SILs out as a thank you for watching the baby while I raced. We ended up at 11 City Diner and the food was phenomenal. Also, the place was very family friendly so that was a definite plus. I highly recommend going there after a race sometime as it was walking distance from the finish line.

My smiling happy girl!

EAT ALL THE FOODS
I completely forgot to get a picture of all me with my SILs during the day. I'll have to remember that for next time!

All in all, another fantastic Shamrock Shuffle race is in the books and I'm very excited for the upcoming year in racing!

10 comments:

  1. Congrats on the strong finish and your 8th shamrock! That's awesome! Little Patsy is super cute and always seems to be smiling :) it's funny you mention the bit about no music on the course- I cannot remember there ever really being music on the course the past 3 years. Guess I was focusing on other things.

    What's next for you?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congrats on the time! You are right back in the saddle after baby. Impressive!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Michelle @ Crazy Running LegsApril 3, 2014 at 3:55 PM

    Congrats on a great race! I feel like you and Maggie are the Chicago version of Paula and me. I love it!

    Patsy is looking adorable as always -- and are those rogas I spy? Do you like them? I now have 4 pairs.

    Oh - and we were total breakfast twins this weekend. You've GOTTA do eggs, pancakes, AND hashbrowns after a race. And a little bacon too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks! I don't really know what's next for me. I think I need to get some sort of training schedule together once the weather gets nicer so I have something to work towards.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It really is a great race. You should check it out!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks! I had a lot of fun. YES! I totally forgot to mention the rogas. I have never worn them before and I had purchased a pair of the long ones when I was still pregnant. You know, in case I wasn't ready to show off too much of my post-baby body. I get the hype now. I totally get it. I think I need to pick up another pair!


    Oh yes, that is the magic breakfast trifecta! The breakfast actually came with sausage and bacon but I asked for double bacon instead. Because bacon > sausage.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds like a fun race!! I live about two hours from Chicago...I really should venture out and try a "big city" race one of these days. The biggest race I've done is the Bix7 and I'll admit that freaked me out a little bit. :) The expos are so great at the big races, though.

    Your daughter is just precious! I enjoyed all of your pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Patsy is just too cute! And happy! I'm so glad we were able to run together! Since we ran my first shuffle together, and I ran my second AS you, and now we could run this together :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Bix7 is a road race in Davenport, Iowa, which is about 45 min. from here. It has between 12,000-20,000 people so by far the largest race in our rural area. It has a pretty strong elite field. When I ran, I recognized Meb & Desi Davila...not sure who else was there.

    ReplyDelete