Shamrock Shuffle!

Sorry it took a while to get this posted, it's about a week late.  I had to find the pictures in order to make this a fun post.

So last Sunday the Shamrock Shuffle 8K was held in Chicago to kick off the racing season in the city.  Over 43,000 runner participated, making this the world's largest 8K race, which is pretty cool. I took the bus downtown in order to check by bag and stretch and get to my corral (corral B, thanks to my marathon time!).  I met a couple nice men and we talk about running and the marathon before the race. It helped kill the time before the gun went off. Here are some pictures of me before the start:

So it was actually really weird mentally because the race starts the same way the marathon does, with the same corrals and everything. I could feel my brain freaking out and I had to remind myself it was only a 5 mile race, not 26! It followed the marathon course for a little while, then cut over and then followed the marathon's same finish course. I saw some really weirdly dressed leprechauns and men painted in all green (still nothing compared to Bay to Breakers though).

It was a great day for the race. I ran at 8:30AM, perfectly sunny, but still cool and with a nice breeze. I maintained a solid 6:45-7:00 min/mile pace for most of the race and finished in 35:19! I was actually the first 20 year old female to finish :) Sadly, since I've moved up an age group I now "race" against the 20-24 year olds... but I still can still make my own 20 year old category just for me. Overall, I had a really great time! Looking forward to some more races coming up soon.