Race Judicata

Race Judicata 07 was supposed to be my triumphant victory over my buddy, Pookie. You might not guess by looking at her but Pookie is perhaps just a touch faster than say, Speedy Gonzales. We made a nice little bet, 20 bucks followed by an automatic rematch at the Bucktown 5k. Pookie was even handicapped by 3 minutes to give me a fighting chance.

The race took place in Grant Park at 6:30 on a muggy Thursday evening. For whatever reason, maybe it was the desire to see a bunch of lawyers pushed off path in to the lake or get run over by a bike, the organizers left the course open. It might not have been as bad had there not been some 3000 runners. It was hot and the humidity was oppressive, but I was optimistic (stupid).

I got there, listened to some pretentious twit whine, met Pookie, stretched and milled around waiting for the start. Once the race started the chute was so clogged with people that it took a couple of minutes to actually move forward. My Nike+ gear decided to act up while I was going forward towards the start. I really need to figure out a better system for getting that settled before a race. Once we got going I freaking flew! I killed 2k in 10 minutes. I would have made a record time and perhaps even won 20 bucks. The race gods, they thought differently.

I wanted to puke at about 2k and had to slow down. Pookie passed me on her way back at about 2.33k. By 2.5k I was walking, jogging and simply willing myself to finish. I finally got in at 34:18, worse than even my training runs. Obviously, I lost the 20 bucks and a small portion of my dignity. I blame three factors for this poor showing; the heat and humidity, bad pace control, and to a lesser extent the race format (evening start, open course).

After the race Pookie and I stuck around for the post-race entertainment, Chicago's own Ska gods, Skapone! I haven't seen them in years so that was a treat. We were also treated to a bunch of free beer, which went down nice after the race. The schwag from the race was pretty sweet; concert, shirt, USB thumb drive, beer coozie and a stress ball, oh, and free beer.

Great race, but I have to do better.