Shamrock Shuffle Race Recap

Thanks to The Crew and Nike Chicago, I won a free race entry to the Shamrock Shuffle this year! This was my first time doing the shuffle and it was a blast! It seems like everyone in Chicago does this race to kick off the spring running season. I've been running all winter so this race was just a fun break from the long(ish) runs of half marathon training.

I went to the Shamrock Shuffle expo on Friday afternoon to try to beat the crowd. I decided to get my easy 4-mile run in by running from the L to Navy Pier (about 4 miles roundtrip). I got my packet and walked around for a bit. Tried a couple samples and bought some Nuun tablets because they are cheaper at expos and I love them for travel. I always love the view of the city from Navy Pier.

Ryan and I had some friends in town this weekend so I took a rest day Saturday to hang out and watch basketball with them all day. Eating fried bar food and drinking beer probably didn't help my time on Sunday but hey, it's March Madness! I did go home at a decent time, picked up a burrito and went to sleep early. But of course my friends came home rowdy and so my sleep was pretty interrupted. So I woke up Sunday tired and a bit dehydrated but I took all of my usual pre-run liquids and met Lindsay to head over to Grant Park.

I was in Corral C, which was so crowded that there was spill over to the outside. The first mile was very crowded and it was hard to go fast. I just wanted to enjoy the race and not use up a ton of energy weaving through people and risking injury so I stayed with the pace of the crowd, which was about 8:30/mile. The temperature was great once I warmed up and I'm still glad I wore long sleeve, long pants, and a headband even though I was a bit hot. I even wore some shamrock socks, which you can kind of see in the pic below. The course weaved through the loop and went by fast and before I knew it, we were going up that treacherous "Roosevelt hill" to the finish. I finished in 42:01 with an average pace of 8:27/mile. Not bad for a fun race and it was a PR since this was my first time running an 8k! This time was actually very similar to a 5-miler I did in Florida at the end of last year (post).

After the race I met up with The Crew (above) and we hung out, trying to pretend it was warm in the sunshine. We then headed over to the Resolution Crew Celebration with NTC Chicago. I was in the "get a PR" crew with Kate, since my goal is to get a PR in the upcoming Indy 500 Mini Marathon. We had a 5-week program leading up to the Shamrock Shuffle with running and cross training. I'm going to continue the pace of the program for the next 5 weeks of training! Below is a picture of our crew at Rockit.

Overall, I enjoyed my first Shamrock Shuffle and loved kicking off the spring race season with a fun race. I did skip my 11-mile long run this weekend so I'm trying to figure out if I should make it up this week or not. I already have to run 12 miles next weekend!


Did you run or watch the Shamrock Shuffle this weekend?

Do you make-up long runs if you miss them in a week of training?