The Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago has grown to the point of absolute ridiculous proportions. I believe the race director now allows 35,000 people to participant in a 5 mile run. Well, it's not exactly 5 miles but it's pretty close.
I used to run this race in the 90's. Back when the run was on the closest week-end to St. Patrick's Day. It was much smaller back then. Maybe 3,000 people. Maybe. A lot of runners would be up the night before celebrating the Irish holiday. They would re-celebrate during the 1st mile or 2 of the run. Reliving all that they had taken in the night before only during the run it was coming back up in just a matter of seconds. It was never a pretty site. You could be guaranteed to see at least 10 participants hurling on the side of the road. After seeing this several years in a row and having the race grow each year, I stopped running it.
Well, it's 2009 a couple of the pre-school moms asked me to run it with them. I love these guys. They're funny and very down to earth. So, I guess I have a 2 ways to look at this,
1. Run in a race that is so over crowded that I will probably walk the 1st mile and then elbow my way thru the rest of the miles.
or
2. Go into the city, laugh on the drive down, hang out with 3 people I like being around, and then drive home probably laughing all the way home.
Hmmmm, I still don't know what to do ....
1 comment:
man, i used to really like this race too - until the year that i was forced to run mor than a minute per miles slower because of the crowd.
but crowd shmowd - it your going with a group of the lady friends, go get your run (or walk!) on! sounds like it will bea good time!
Post a Comment