Do you want to make lots of money? Well, the solution would seem to stage a Lakefront 5k and give the participants bags of colored powder to pour on top of themselves! There was just that kind of a run held yesterday, called the Color In Motion 5k. Apparently, there was such high demand for the race that they had to move it from Saturday so the city could accommodate more runners on Sunday. There is also another similar 5k later this month which is already sold out!
Anyway, the weather was perfect yesterday for a long run, so instead of resting on the day after my 10k, I went for a Lakefront run. That's when I stumbled upon this 5k.
I think the average age of participants was about 16, so it is kind of a colorful mini-Lollapalooza-5k for the high-school set. Here are some pics:
Some race volunteers, yes, the road is pink from the bags of color!
Girl racing while talking on cell phone
Nice color combo!
A bag of color dye. 100g!
Walkers
More walkers and another cell phone (kids these days!)
All blue. A Smurf look, perhaps?
The dance stage post-race with pounding, pounding techno music
Craziness
More craziness
A puff of blue powder
Friend coloring a friend
More blue clouds of color
After watching the colorful spectacle, and trying to avoid getting any color on my shirt/hair/face, I headed out to the Lakefront Trail for a long run in the pristine weather. It was 50 degrees and drizzling, amazing for early June! The weather reminded me of almost exactly how it was for the L.A. Marathon was in 2011, when it rained almost the entire marathon. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt as I was on that day, so I could not take any walk breaks or risk hypothermia setting in. On the upside, it was one of those days when you could just run and run and not worry about breaking a sweat/over-heating!
Boston Marathon biker
Rain on my shades!
Nobody on the beach, no life guard either!
An almost empty trail. Yay!
Finally, I ran to my 'hood and passed our local German Mayfest beer tent (before it opened)!
Lately, I haven't been putting in the training miles. In fact, the 10k I ran at the "Run for the Animals" in Wheaton this morning could actually be considered a long run based on the length of my runs in recent weeks. I want to run more, but I think I have to admit that I have still not recovered from the Boston Marathon. I have heard that some marathon recoveries can take about 8 weeks and I am still in week 6 post race. Groggy and lacking energy has been my state lately, so I can only muster short training runs. The upside of these shorter training runs, is that I am able to push myself to run faster and therefore, have kept most of my speed.
Run for the Animals Background:
This is the home of my 10k PR (2010) and it is mostly flat, with a few small "hills", but nothing major. The race is a combo 5k/10k.
Race Goal:
It turns out I was the oldest person running in my age group today, so I had no dreams of placing in the top three. However, in my race next Saturday, I will be one of the youngest in my age group, so maybe I'll AG place a little higher than I would have otherwise! Anyway, going in to today's race I wasn't quite sure how my short speedy training runs would translate into a 10k race time, so my goal was to start a little on the conservative side, then let loose the 2nd half of the race. The forecast was for upper 70s at start with high humidity.
Anyway, I went to the race with my dad who was running the 5k. We met my sister and her husband and kids near the start line. They would be the cheering section for my dad and me.
My dad, me, my nephew, sister and niece
The Race:
Here's something I haven't had to write about a summer race in a long time: But, just before the race started, the temperatures started to drop and the wind picked up (wow, did I actually write that?)! So, there actually are summer races where the weather is cooler than planned - go figure.
A couple of minutes before the start
After a half mile warm-up jog, I made my way to the start line. The National Anthem played, and we were off!
Mile 1: I started off too fast because the wind was to our backs, we ran gradually downhill and I was trying to keep up with the 5kers. Running this pace, however was so effortless, since my training runs had been fast. I was barely breathing hard or sweating. 6:23/mile.
Mile 2: Running through residential streets,I tried to force myself to slow down, but was not successful because dreams of a sub-40 10k started dancing in my head. Four minutes into this mile, the 5kers started to turn up the speed because they only had 1.5 miles left, I again, got sucked up with them. Unfortunately, I still had 4.6 miles of racing left! 6:18/mile. Mile 3: Despite the weather being in the upper-60s, it was still humid and my shirt was getting drenched. At this point, I realized I needed to slow down, or I would be walking by mile 5! Near the end of this mile, we lost the 5k runners and headed on the 2nd half of the course, which would take us through a park with a lake. 6:28/mile.
Mile 4: This is where the race started to get lonely real fast as about 2/3 of the runners were running the 5k and had left us. On the positive side, it was a relief that it was more quiet and solitary. On the negative side, there weren't many runners pushing the pace to get swept along with. Lots of nice neighbors were handing out their own water. Oh yeah, that slow start with a fast finish strategy was thrown out the window at this point! 6:36/mile. Mile 5: Apparently they made a new course this year (as opposed to 3 years ago). We got to run through "North Park" and around and over the bucolic little lake that is the centerpiece of the park. We got to run over a couple of quaint little footbridges. A police truck along the course was blasting out "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller, so I shouted to the guy, "In the Mood!" and he said, "looks like you're in the mood!" By the way, this is the best version of the song IMO. It's a mashup with Glenn Miller and Rage Against the Machine! 6:45/mile.
Mile 6: All hope of a sub-40 race had gone out the window, there was a headwind, and I felt like it wouldn't be such a bad idea to walk it in. As I considered throwing in the towel, a couple of much younger runners passed me. Although I had no energy left to respond with, I was determined to not lose contact with them. If only I'd run five miles/week more the last few weeks, they would have remained in my rear view mirror, but what could I do? My shirt and shorts were drenched and I was hitting my limits. 6:56/mile. Mile 6.2: Turns out I had a little more gas in the tank, but just a little. The two runners ahead of me accelerated just as I accelerated and they were out of reach. I couldn't see anyone behind me, so I ran over to the sidelines to high-five my nephew, sister and dad (who had already finished the 5k) and darted to the finish line. My nephew said that at the finish, my clothes looked like I had been in a pool for 16 hours! 6:23/mile.
My Results:
Total time: 41:11
Age Group: 1 out of 26 (On the last day of my old age group, I was first! Yay me!)
Overall: 21 out of 608
My Dad's Results:
In the 5k, my dad got first out of three in his age group (75 to 79) and placed in the top 50% overall! Awesome!
My dad finishing #1 in his AG
Post Race: We ate breakfast at Egg Harbor Restaurant in downtown Wheaton. My niece and nephew gave me a cool Cubs shirt and my nephew drew me a couple of awesome Star Wars pictures. They are going up on the fridge! We also walked over and I met my sister's hair stylist Alicia,who is a reader of my blog. Hi Alicia! :-)
Summary:
It was nice winning my age group, as I was the oldest person in that group. However, I need to pace myself better now that the hot summer temps are here. I also need to get some rest for next weekend's half marathon, but I'm itching to get in one long run between now and then!
I took advantage of the nice early-spring-like-temps and headed out to the lake to get a recovery run in. (Recovery as in recovery from the long weekend!)
Boat and skyline
I heard that some of the marathon training groups start this weekend, so the number of relatively empty Lakefront runs will be reduced until mid-October. Add to that there will likely be plenty of 80+ degree brutal days from now until then, and this was really a run to savor.
Selfie At about mile 4
8:45,7:53,7:58,8:47,7:50,7:34,7:40,7:08 = 7.45 miles @ 8:00/mile average
I was out of the running scene most of last week due to a cold. It may or may not have been related to a Saturday night out with friends at Del Frisco's on Oak St. and ending up at Pippin's Tavern past 4am. Haven't done a night like that in about 20 years! Anyway, on the plus side of it all, I am all healed up from whatever shin problem I was having and my legs still feel fast. I don't know how much longer I can keep having fast runs without putting in more than 20 miles/week, but it sure is fun!
My 2nd Run today at Horner Park!
A congrats to all of you guys who PR'd yesterday in pristine weather conditions for speed at the Soldier Field 10 Miler! With my luck, I'll run it next year and it will be 95 degrees!
I ran my long run this morning along the lake, with the sky as blue as I can remember. The temps were fantastic for this time of year, hovering in the upper 40s to low 50s.
North Avenue Beach House
Hancock Building
Break Wall
Navy Pier
Sea Gulls
I did the run-walk-run method (5 min run, 35 second walk) again and still did a quality workout. I am thinking that for the time being, my long runs will all include a few walk breaks. 15 miles at 7:56/mile.
I took a nap after my run. In the early evening, the weather was still incredible, so I ran through my neighborhood. 2.25 miles at 7:45/mile. Hope this weather hangs on for a little while longer!
This morning, I woke up early, eagerly anticipating my first speed workout at the North Park University track. It has been about three months since I set foot on a track. After I had recovered from my injury, I did not do any speed work, as I did not want to risk injury during my crash course final six weeks of marathon training.
So after getting ready, I ran a 1.5 mile warm-up to get to the track, mentally preparing for for the workout as I ran.
However, once I got there, I saw a big construction fence encircling the entire track. Sure enough, when I looked over the fence, I saw that the entire track surface had been removed:
The remains of what used to be the North Park University Track.
By the looks of it, they are going to resurface the track. I am all in favor of a new track surface. Many non-runners use the track to launch fireworks and there were several deep burn holes in some of the lanes. Also, lots of people used to ride their bikes around the track, so it has seen lots of wear of the years. However, I am sad that it will be closed just as I wanted to get back out on the track. Also, I'm a little nervous as I see the construction crew is building an actual permanent fence with a gate around the perimeter. Hopefully we don't get locked out!
Trucks working on the Track
So, instead of running my speed workout on the track, I did it over at the Chicago River North Branch trail. During my workout, I waved at some familiar faces from the track who were also using the trail for their workouts.
The North Branch River Trail where I did my workout instead.
It's a little different doing speed workouts on the trail, because there are several mini hills that either slow you down or speed you up, so it can be more of a struggle at times. The effort I need for each interval may have been different, depending on the terrain. Also, you don't get the cushioning of a track as the trail is all asphalt and concrete. Anyway, despite all of that I was able to run my intervals:
2.0 mile warm-up run
1.0 mile @ 5:55, .25 mile walk
.75 miles @ 5:58, .25 mile walk
.50 miles @ 5:54, .20 mile walk
.25 miles @ 5:29
1.1 mile cool-down run
I have a feeling that my legs will be a little extra sore today because I ran a track-like workout on a hard surface. Hopefully, the new-and-improved (i.e. firework proof) track will be fixed and open to the public (i.e. me) again soon!
It's been almost four weeks since I've run down to the lakefront. My mileage since Boston has been minimal, so in order to ease back into my long runs, I decided to do a run-walk-run. My goal was to run five minutes then take 35 second walk breaks and see how I felt.
At my turnaround at Oak Street Beach (looking sweaty)
I started my trek at around 7 am. I was super excited to finally get down to the lake after my layoff! The sky was blue, and the weather was cool. It was one of those days where you want to just run and keep on running. In fact, I ended up running 13.1 miles. That's more mileage than I ran all last week combined! Anyway, what a great day for a run!
Boat from Norway?
Sun over Belmont Harbor
Action shot while running near Diversey Harbor
Fisherman at Diversey Pier
North Avenue Beach House
Skyline
My legs feel tight right now, but I don't think I did any damage. The walk breaks are supposed to help with keeping injuries to a minimum. In any case, I'll probably sleep well tonight!
13.1 miles @ 7:37 mile = 1:39:46 (including walk breaks).
If you show up to spectate a race with a camera, runners will tend to strike some wacky poses for you. At the Ravenswood Run on Sunday, I think a lot of runners thought I was the official race photographer by the way they were hamming it up in front of me. I thought I would post some of my favorite pics:
Runners in German Garb in front of German Restaurant "Chicago Brauhaus"
