Shamrock Shuffle Through the Snow

Yesterday was the Shamrock Shuffle 8K in Chicago. This is the unofficial kick-off to the Chicago area running season. As luck would have it, we received a late wintry blast Saturday night that carried into Sunday. I awoke to a couple inches of wet, heavy snow. Such is life.

Cole, 9, and I donned our winter running gear and headed into the city. After parking we were able to pick our way to the start area. We managed to stay reasonably dry. I also managed our timing about right such that we were at the start area for only about 10 minutes before the elite runners were off. The start area was a sheet of ice. Everyone was carefully walking/skating their way up to the starting line. The course was a WET, SLOPPY, SLUSHY MESS! The first half-mile or so we tried to pick our way along as we ran. Soon our shoes, socks, feet, and pants were soaked and frozen. We gave up trying to pick our way and just ran, managing to avoid only the largest of puddles.

Cole was a Super-trooper. He ran the race with me last year. This year his goal was to beat my cousin's, Krieks', time from a few years back. So I set a pace that would put him ahead of her time. We had planned our walking breaks at the two aid stations and he kept to form for the first half of the race. We took a couple extra short walking breaks in the second half. I kept track of our pace, letting him know where we were on the course and where we were relative to his goal time. With a bit of a mad dash over the snow covered bridge into Grant Park and down to the finish line, we finished right at his goal time.

The results:
Cole's 2008 time: 51:27
Kreik's 2006 time: 50:20
Cole's 2009 time: 48:42

He was 27th out of 58 in his division (17&under boys, I think) and the fastest 9 year old. Most impressive was that he beat the average time for the race, which was 49:07.

Way to go Cole! He earned a clucks & fries dinner at Red Robin from Kreiks.

The race was even good for me, even running at Cole's pace. Running though the snow and slush caused me to high-step most of the way. The thighs were a little sore in the afternoon.

The Shuffle capped off week 13. The rest of the week was as follows:

Mon., 3/23: Off day.

Tues., 3/24: Upper body and core strength training.

Weds., 3/25: 3000 yards in the pool.

Thurs., 3/26: 6 mile run.

Fri., 3/27: Off Day.

Sat., 3/28: 50 miles on the bike.

Sun., 3/29: Shamrock Shuffle 8k (5 miles).