By now, if you have read any of my posts, you have probably inferred that I dislike most race t-shirts, unless they meet two qualifications:
1) Women’s cut
2) Dri-fit/technical material
Since most races (except for half-marathon distances and higher) don’t offer shirts in a combination of these two things, I usually don’t take the t-shirt unless it’s included in the price of registration. And if I do, I just get a size large so P can wear it.
On the other hand, my husband P is ALL ABOUT the race t-shirt. A cool shirt design will sucker him into any race. He’s easy like that.
We are big University of Michigan fans, so imagine how excited P was when he stumbled upon the Big Ten Network 10k/5k/FanFest, held in Chicago, IL. For the registration price, you also got a technical shirt specific to the Big Ten school of your choice. After he heard about that shirt, he was IN, no further questions. Happily, I found that the shirts are ALSO gender-specific…and, since I’m always up for a trip to Chicago, we registered for the 10k – but not early enough to get our packets mailed to us.
Last Friday - the day prior to the race - we made the 4 hour car trip to Chi-town (3 hours, really…if you count that you gain an hour on the way). There was no day-of-race packet pickup, so we took the day off work and headed there to get our stuff. As soon as we rolled into town, we navigated straight to Fleet Feet sports to get our bibs and other race goodies.
Packet pickup was pretty well organized – I was expecting it to be a mess, simply due to the number of participants - the website said they had over 12,000 registered runners. Pickup was a breeze though – we were in and out in 5 minutes. After pickup, we had some lunch and checked out what was in our goodie bags. Aside from the BTN bag and t-shirt, there was also a snack sized Clif Bar (chocolate mint, yum), race bib/pins, a race info booklet, and a nifty little zip-tie to strap your gear check ticket onto your bag with.
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| BTN 10K goodies |
We headed down to McCormick Place (after getting lost in a really shady looking area), and after we checked into our hotel we decided to go out and have “a beer”. We left at 4PM with the intent of returning around 7PM for some light dinner and shut-eye. However that turned into us walking from our hotel all the way down to the Mag Mile (about 3 miles). We kept stopping at bars on the way and had a drink or two at each. I discovered my new most favorite summer beer (Revolution Brewing Rosa), which made the excursion totally worth it. Around 11PM we finally wandered back down over the river, hit up a Panera for some light dinner to-go, and hailed a cab back to our hotel where we sat in bed and watched TV and ate soup and salad til midnight. Totally not part of the plan, but it was fun and most definitely worth it.
The instructions in the packet said to arrive to the course Saturday morning no later than 5:45am (SPEW!)….but the gates to the starting area weren’t open til 6am. Our hotel was running nonstop shuttles to and from the Museum Campus from 6a-9a that morning, so we knew we’d get there in plenty of time as long as we left around 6-6:15. At 5am P stumbled sleepily down to the lobby to get us some large Starbucks coffees and I flipped on CNN. I ALWAYS drink a big cup of coffee while I watch the news before I run. I also had packed my favorite pre-race meal –whole wheat bread with a generous spread of Jif creamy peanut butter – so, I feasted on that as well. P had cereal.
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| Race morning necessities |
At 5:45am I was adequately caffeinated/awake, and breakfast was sitting good in my tummy, so I threw on my race clothes. The “theme” of the BTN10K is, of course, “school spirit” - so the goal was to put on as much “fan wear” as you could! I sported my Michigan race shirt, Athleta Swagger skort, and knee high Michigan socks. I wore block “M” earrings in my ears as well. P was garbed up in his race shirt along with very stylish matching Michigan sweatband and wristbands.
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| Looking very stylish |
After we crammed ourselves onto one of the hotel shuttles with lots of other runners, we made it to the start line around 6:20a. The temperature was absolutely perfect – I have no idea how we got so lucky in July!!! It was the only random day, after a 2 week long heat wave (heat index 100+), where the high was only supposed to hit 70. It was about 55 and sunny and I was loving it.
The starting corrals were in front of the Adler Planetarium. It was a teeming mass of humanity. There were people EVERYWHERE and navigating around was a little rough. We asked several volunteers where gear check was, but no one seemed to know; we just ended up following everyone else with bags and asking a couple of other participants before we found it. The lines to the porta-potties outside the gear check area were huge….but inside the area, they had a ton of toilets and no real lines to speak of. We took one last bathroom break then went and stretched before they announced that we needed to get to our corrals. Getting to the corrals was a whole different story that I won’t elaborate on too much except to say that it was a giant cluster____!
P registered me and I’m not sure what he put down as my projected finish time, but I was in the ABSOLUTE LAST CORRAL. The only thing that was making me nervous about that was tripping over people and getting blocked in over the first mile or two. I had a time goal in mind and I really wanted to finish in under 60 minutes, so I knew it was going to mean a LOT of maneuvering around people.
The race started at 7:00a sharp, but by the time us last-corral-ers even started moving forward toward the start, they announced that the lead runner had just passed the 5K mark. By the time we made it to the start line, over 18 minutes had passed. Just then, it hit me….I had to PEE. AGAIN. And it was definitely too late for that. I turned my Garmin on as soon as I crossed the start line and told myself to get ready to settle in for a while.
As I feared, I didn’t get very far before I ran right into a wall of people. Had this been a marathon, I would have just plodded along and waited for the crowd to thin out. But I was running for a specific time. People were everywhere with of course no traffic pattern (ie, no “slower runners to the right/faster to the left”- type of organization AT ALL). I decided to be a little rude about it because I wanted to get away from the slower runners and walkers, so I was all about pushing my way through tiny spaces, cutting people off (while yelling “Sorry!” of course….I can’t be TOO mean about it!) and generally running just outside of cones, up on medians and sidewalks and just trying to get around as many people as I could. I wasn’t the only one, trust me, so don’t be mad.
The course was an out-and-back right along Lake Michigan, with the start line just north of the Museum. It was flat and on paved park walkways – not very wide at all. I was at the 5K split in 30 minutes – not as fast as I normally run but not bad for such a crowded start. I really believed that I could make my goal if I kept going. It would have to be a fast few miles, but I could do it. My pacing was right on and if I could keep it up I could do it.
At mile 4-ish I wanted to stop for water. FATAL FLAW. So did everyone else. I literally STOPPED and stood in line to get a cup of water. I watched people slip on the piles of paper cups that were built up all over by the tables. I took a few sips while walking; merging back into the crowd was a mess. I pushed my way back in and had to run on the side of the path in the mud and grass to pass all the people I’d already made such an effort to pass. That was my slowest mile (10:01 pace). I felt so defeated – I knew I probably wouldn’t make it. I flip flopped between just finishing out the rest of the run at a comfortable pace, and busting my rear to try to make it to my goal – but I refused to quit. My full bladder was making its presence more and more known with every step I took, so I tried to zone out, to look at everyone’s costumes, and to pass as many people wearing tutus as possible (don’t ask, I just really don’t get the whole running-in-a-tutu thing and they sort of make me angry).
I did not make my goal – I crossed the finish line in 1:01:11. 1 minute, 12 seconds under my goal of 59:59. I tried really hard not to be bummed out and told myself that the crowded course did not help my efforts. I really had given it my best shot, although I suppose I could have skipped the water stop which might have aided me a little more. All in the past by that point….
P found me within a few seconds and handed me a bottle of water. He was super happy with his time of 55:04, and I was very proud of him. We funneled into the “tailgate party” area where we got our medals. We waited in line at the U of M tent to get our U of M sunglasses and football posters. I was ready for that free post-race beer….until we saw the lines. There were 2 beer tables and the lines to each were literally never ending and eventually crossed into each other. It was like the one time I tried to go to Target at 7am on Black Friday and couldn’t even find the end of the line to stand in. We said forget it and decided to just head back to the room to clean up.
We had missed the last shuttle back to the hotel by minutes (literally) so we walked. We got cleaned up, hopped on the El up to Wrigleyville and continued our Chicago adventures from there:
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| Some rooftop bar in Chicago |
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| The Bean |
Would I do this race again? Sure, I would – but I would not set any kind of time goal for myself. The number of participants in 2013 was twice that of 2012 and I’m assuming it will be even bigger next year. So I’d do it again as a “fun run” and as a reason to spend a long weekend in Chicago….but I would NOT put any pressure on myself to make a specific time though. The course is not really proper for the number of people participating, although maybe if the number of runners keeps going up every year, that will change…I’m assuming that shutting down the major streets of Chicago would be an issue though.
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| BTN10K race bling |
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