The 2009 Shamrock Shovel

That line is courtesy of Tiffany. The 30th annual Shamrock Shuffle happened to be my first. My string of terrible weather for races triumphantly continued. The course was very slushy and slick. It was also snowing for much of the race and there were some pretty big wind gusts from time to time. There were times where I felt like I was going to slip and fall running over the bridges and when I'd step on some wet manholes. On other parts of the course, I was constantly getting slush splattered against me if someone was running next to me. I wore my Nike LunaRacers, which most likely was mistake. More on that later though.

I took the L down to the race. Here's a shot out of the window as we went over the river.


I was able to meet up with my friends Walter and Rich before the race in the A Corral.

It was very nice shooting the breeze with these two guys. It was kind of strange, because Walter and I stood in nearly the same spot a just a few months prior for the Chicago Marathon. The only difference was the weather. It was in the 80s that day. It was in the 30s and snowing today. Nice.
Here's a shot of the start line:


I think all of us had frozen feet before the race started. The corral and the first half mile or so were pretty ugly. My heart monitor was sliding down my chest for some reason the first mile, so my HR numbers are a little out of whack. I also forgot to turn off my auto lap, so the five mile race turned out to be 5.24 miles for me. Here are your Garmin splits:
Mile 1- 6:57 - Average 130HR? No way
Mile 2- 6:16 - 176HR
Mile 3- 5:35 - 183HR
Mile 4- 6:31 - 181HR
Mile 5- 6:33 - 181HR
Bonus .24 - 1:34 - 187HR
I did hit a max of 205 sometime in Mile 2. Take away the first mile and my average HR was a 182. My official time was 33:30, good for a 6:42. My watch was a second off the official time, but said I ran at a 6:23 pace for my 5.24 miles.

All in all, I am pleased with the race. My shoe choice was not the greatest. By the end of the race, all of the slush and snow made the top of the back of the shoe rub against my achilles tendon area pretty bad. These LunaRacers have a reputation for doing this. It didn't happen to me until today for some reason. I took a look at it once I got back on the train and it looked a little raw.




Walter finished in 32:19 and Rich came in at 33:52. It's a good start to the 2009 racing season and I'm glad to get this race in the books. Here's a shot of the skyline as I was walking back to the L on my way home. My apologies for my glove getting the way of the top of the picture - I was a little cold.