United Run for the Zoo 5k Race Recap, June 5 2016
Adding pics tonight off my phone, so if you don't see them come back later 
I originally signed up for this race after my big Cincy 10k. I was experiencing foot soreness but I thought it would go away in time for this race. I wisely decided to go with the 5k and not the 10k and in hindsight it was the right choice. I ended up being off my foot for a lot longer than planned but the rest really helped me AND the new shoes didn't hurt either.
So my training for this 5k was pretty thin. A couple of neighborhood miles, mile and a half, two miles, here and there, walking, walk/running, etc. I finally ran 2 miles at a 10:18 pace during the week in my new shoes and that was as far as a I got before race morning. This race was run #3 in the new shoes.
Goal - just run at a normal/not crazy pace until my foot told me to do something different...in either direction of slower or faster. So basically no goal. I love zoos and I really just wanted an excuse to spend some time hanging around Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and running through it past the animals sounded like a good time. My mind and body told me I'd probably finish in the 33-36 min territory unless I really had to finish walking.
Secondary goal - show my kiddo the meerkats and warthogs...aka Timon and Pumba
Race was at 7:45am and they had packet pickup morning of!!! Not very common for Chicago races due to the shear volume of runners. But since this one was on the smaller side (still not that small) we could pick up at the race sight. As we drove past the start line my hubby let me out of the car so he could go find parking with the kiddo in the main zoo lot. Ended up being a good thing because I was just fifth in line for my table in the alphabet but quickly there were like 20 people behind me. I have a popular initial My stomach was doing the pre-race nervous dance and so I was thanking the heavens that I got out of the car and there was a bank of like 20 port-o-potties with no lines next to the tent. Luckily, like always, it's all in my head on race morning and my stomach always ends up totally fine. What is with that? Chalk it up to anxiety.
The t-shirt was black and tech and cute, but will go in a drawer for the summer until fall or until a gym day. Black + sun = nope.
I met up with my hubby and kiddo and got my pic taken at the zoo entrance.
Decided to wear my flying pig shirt because there are pigs at this zoo. The weather was amazing and so I did not need to go with tanks and shorts...it was the perfect mix of cool and breezy and sunny but not too sunny. That made me a happy camper. I loaded all my gear into my personal gear check aka my kid's stroller and had a sip of water from the table of free water. I like races that have water tables at the start line (like disney.) I never drink a lot because I've already hydrated generally, but I enjoy having a sip or two.
There were no assigned corrals but they did have pace signs in minute increments. The corrals signs were so far apart that we literally walked back like three blocks to get to my speed. I lined up in the amorphous blob between the 9-10 and 10-11 signs. We ended up all walking forward at the end and the space between the paces was a bit silly. Weirdly, although my final avg pace (9:41 spoiler alert) was right in line with where I was standing, I felt like I had A LOT of people to get around during the entire race. So maybe assigned corrals aren't so bad after-all? I get the feeling that people who didn't feel like walking like 4 whole blocks back to the walker corral just kind of hung out on the sides and worked their way in. Just a guess (tin-foil hat.)
My wave left at 7:58 and I was maybe 5th from the front which was a cool feeling. I blew a kiss to my kiddo and hubby who were taking pics at the start line (after a ton of swinging in the park conveniently next to the corrals...which was a fun distraction pre-race.) Being 5th back was A) awesome feeling...so much room...like I was some elite person and B) prime time to accidentally go out too fast. Luckily I've gotten good at the staying to the right and letting people fly past me in the start now so I made sure not to get too crazy out the gate.
Let's see what I can remember of the course without boring anyone
Mile 1:
We got to run past the Nature Conservatory and gardens in Lincoln Park which are super pretty! Then into the Zoo past Mr. Rhino (no pics taken during my race so everything I have is from my hubby this time.) Down past the lion house and a whole bunch of flamingos. Out past the zebras and the big pond and back out the side exit into the big closed Chicago street near the zoo. At this point I (and many of my wave-mates) had overtaken the back of the wave before us. So the first part of the running through the actual zoo was so free and clear and roomy but that changed. We got to mile 1 and the clock was at like 20+ minutes cause of gun time so I peaked at my garmin and 9:37! That's pretty spot on to my race pace from before I was injured and I had a moment of "ummm, do I ease back or just keep going." I felt fine and it was so cool out and it was just 2.1 more miles so I just kept metronoming it. Until we turned left and headed onto one of the lagoon paths near Lake Michigan.
Mile 2:
MUD PUDDLES MUD PUDDLES MUD PUDDLES. EVERYWHERE.
At this point in the race it was already dodgem with the shear number of children walking. This is definintely a family friendly race which I am A) 100% for and B) can't wait to run with my kiddo if she ever wants to. But my thought over and over was "where are these kids parents." I'm sure they were nearby...I can imagine them running slightly ahead or having meet up points, but I was just shocked at the sheer number of tiny people walking like zombies this early in the race. It could also be they RACED too fast and their parents were catching up with them...Hadn't thought about that until now. They were easy to get around until MUD PUDDLES MUD PUDDLES EVERYWHERE!
I had three choices.
A) run through the puddles in my brand new shoes and not knowing what was in there. PASS
B) run in the grass with the rest of the people who were just ignoring the path...tempting...did it a couple times and was too afraid of injuring my happy little feet. PASS
C) just grinning it, laughing about it, and jogging single file around the puddles with all my race-mates doign the same, whether they were running my pace or faster or slower or walking. I chose this option.
I kid you not, this last a full mile if not more. I thought it would end but it kept going. I never came to a full walk, but there was a lot of shimmying slowly like a cat being held back and ready to pounce. The one awesome thing was we were running past the lagoon where the Lincoln Park Boat Club rows and I used to be a member and rowed there in the summer when I was not rowing in college. Made me miss it a bit. On the path I pounced where I could and then a magical thing happened. We turned into the zoo parking lot, turned around and ran back the way we came on a new path....A CLEAR PATH...WITH NO PUDDLES!
Mile Three:
To say that gave me some form of crazy new life and energy is an understatement. I channeled my inner pac-man and got to chomping. There were people chomping me too I'm sure but it felt great being unleashed. So much so that I forgot about worrying about my foot and was just having a really great time. Did I mention this whole mile was literally in the shade? I'd say the course was about 75% shade total. We turned back into the zoo and started running north through it. Past Mr. Camel and Mr. Yak thing? and Mrs. Also maybe a Yak thing? and there was one steep-ish hill before mile 3. I remembered the hills in Cincy and how my foot felt and I just decided in the moment to speed walk the hill. Not because I was tired, just because. I justified it later because I passed the people that ran past me while I was speed-walking after I started running again. So that counts right as being okay? This race for me was a good test of "anything I decide to do it ok, just have fun."
There was a 10k starting at 8:30 so it was kind of fun to run past the 5 mile and 6 mile clocks along the way. Literally everyone made the same joke every time in rapid succession. I feel great for 5 miles, etc. Or Omg we ran 6 miles!, etc. haha
The real mile 3 clock came and I looked at my garmin and it had 28 something...like 28:30 or 40 or I can't remember. And I thought was "no way, there's no way, omg, run"
So I literally sprinted like a mad woman (including a little hill) all the way to the finish. My husband caught like 6 pictures in a row of me looking like I was in the 100yd dash. In that moment I all of sudden went from "eh, if I finish in the mid 30's or even at all, I'm good" to "omg let's sub 30, go go go"
I'm so competitive even when I'm not.
So my garmin read 29:58 as I crossed the finish. I knew from past that garmin in the city never equals official because of the cell signals being worthless with all those buildings and runners. But it came pretty closes. Ended up with 30:05 official. Realized later my watch auto paused at some point and had a total time of 30:03 and moving time of 29:58. No idea why. Don't care, so happy with my crazy little zoo race.
I totally missed the fact the the finish line was the big row of outdoor monkey cages until I met up with the hubby and kid. We took some monkey pictures together.
Aaaand TBContinued after I go eat my anniversary dinner with my hubby tonight. Adding pictures soon and adding the rest of our fun zoo visit including me and my kiddo running together in her kiddy race
(spoiler alert, she beat me)
