Start Today

So, here I am back again after a bit of a lazy hiatus. I've mostly been sitting on my ass playing Halo 3 online against various students, basement dwellers and assorted unemployed bums like myself. However, last night I was given the motivation I needed to get off my duff and get moving. Pinky emailed me and several other people about running this years Shamrock Shuffle. At 8k, it'll be the longest race I've run so far. I'm hoping to get in a 10k this year, possibly even a half marathon if I can get my legs/knees to cooperate.

I decided that today would mark the official start of my training and attempt to get back in shape. Over the last couple of months since my Grandma died and I passed the bar I haven't done a whole lot of running, however, I have done a lot of stress eating. I had managed to get myself down to a svelte 190, today I weighed in at a rotund 210. I guess no more cake, candy and extra food for me.

After the weigh-in I stretched out and went out for a run. Do you know what running in 22 degree Chicago weather is like? Well, let me give you a frame of reference. Fill your bathtub with ice and cold water. Then, if your bathroom is small like mine, position a window A/C unit on your toilet and point it at where your head would be. Then, take two ice packs and wrap them around your knees. Next, jump into the ice filled tub and switch on the A/C so that it's running full blast into your face. Finally, have someone, CAREFULLY, stick a hair dryer down your shirt. That should give you an idea of how pleasant it truly is.

I set out to only run 8k today but then I got angry at my current life situation and ended up running 10k at 1:08:48. Only about 2 minutes worse than my best 10K time. And considering how frozen I was I'll take that as a pretty good time for me. Now, If I can manage to shave like 10-15 minutes off that, I'll be a happy boy.

High Trek Adventure Race

So the Saturday after Race Judicata, my buddy Sean and I did one of those “urban adventure” races. It was basically a giant scavenger hunt, where you get a sheet of clues to figure out and then go to that place and take your picture with it in the background. Pretty simple. There are 12 clues to locate and you can skip one. For each clue you get wrong though, you get nailed with 30 minutes tacked on to your time. However, you get to have a partner back at home that you can call up and ask for help when you need it. Before the race you take a short trivia quiz and for each question you get right, you get a minute taken off your time. As for actually going to the clue locations you can either walk/run or take public transportation. No bikes, skateboards, cars, taxis or transport. They did have a couple of those igo cars roaming around that you could flag down, but we didn’t see them.

We got there and milled around a bit before the quiz. Sean was impatient that I actually read the damage waiver. If law school taught me anything, it’s read what your signing. We were in one of the last groups to actually get started. We got there a little late and they staggered the start based on when you got there. Once we got started though, we flew. The first two clues were on North Ave. and we knocked those out fast. A quick run to the Armatidge bus and we were on our way to the next set of clues. I figure we must have pounded out the first 6 pretty fast, maybe like 45 minutes. When we got to the DePaul quad for the next 6 clues we were the first there.

The second set took us up Lincoln and were a bit harder. We were also getting a bit sluggish. We stopped for Gatorade shortly after running through a park full of girls wearing bikinis that should have been wearing burkas. After a clue up on Clark St. we ran back to the Brown Line at Belmont and went up to Lincoln Square. The last two clues were tricky, they seemed really far away, but were actually within two blocks of each other. We ended up getting a rest for a few minutes on Western Ave. waiting for the bus to take us back to Division St. The bus ride was about half an hour and Sean was antsy. For the last clue we had to run down Division towards the bar where it started. We snapped the last picture and Sean wanted to sprint, I wanted to die, but ran anyway.

As it turns out, we were also the first team back. The guy running the race seemed a little surprised that we got back so fast. We got our schwag, which consisted of; a shirt (that I’ll get in a couple days), a Goose Island 312 hat and bottle opener, some food coupons (sushi, bleh) and tada! a free pint of 312. We had lunch while we waited for the other teams to show up. It took about an hour for us to get our food and about the same time for the next team to show up. They looked a little shocked that we were there. We joked that we were “Fat Man and Lazy Guy”. The 3rd team came in about 45 minutes after the 2nd team. Sean had to go to run in the “Elvis is Alive 5k” so I waited at the bar for the results. I’m glad I didn’t sign up for that race. I was dead while I waited in the bar. I had another 312 and inadvertently took a nap. I was shot. My legs were stiff and felt like hamburger.

I was sitting, talking to this group of people when they announced the results. The 2nd place team got a pair of shoes and scowled at me when they left early. The people sitting next to me took a second and were like “holy shit, you won!” and congratulated me. It was pretty sweet winning that race. For our trouble we got roundtrip tickets on Southwest. Our final score for the race was 2 hours, 17 minutes. We got all the clues right and got 17 trivia questions right. Now we just have to figure out where to go.

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.