Chi town urbanathlon Oct. 18, 2008

I was excited at the idea of traveling to chicago and running a race, but the fact that this was an obstacle course over a good distance, 10.5 miles, intrigued both my adventurous and endurance sides. I was also pumped to see my high school buddy Todd since we had been planning this trip for a couple of months.

The day started at 5.30 am in the hotel. Normally, i enjoy staying at hotels because of the breakfast in the morning, so imagine my excitement when i found that there was no complimentary continental breakfast. NO FREE BREAKFAST!!! I was devastated. To add insult to injury, there was a resturant in the hotel that offered a buffet but that didn’t start till 6.30. We left at 6.

Despite the service shenanigans, we headed out to Grant Park on the shore of Lake Michigan partly satisfied by the odd bits of food we had brought with us, namely a couple of oranges, an apple and a couple of power bars from the pre-race shwag. A breakfast of champions it certainly was not. We arrived at the park to find a small village of tents and sponsors and began milling around, checking out the area. We scouted the tents and found one of them offered free post-race Blue Moon beer. If we needed any extra motivation, we found it.

As the start of the race approached, I began my typical warm up, namely jogging a bit and talking. As we “warmed up”, we took note of the people we saw. Since this was sponsored by Men’s Health, there were a lot of “image conscious” guys walking around. The crowd basically broke down along a simple line; on one side there were true athletes, wearing the standard apparell of broken-in running shoes, shorts and some sort of running top. On the other side were the “jocks”; clearly athletic guys who may have played sports in high school or college but who were now more interested in looking good than competing. They were characterized by styled hair, obviously new clothing and an aversion to any activity that may stain or mess up their desired look. We had a good laugh picking out these guys, more than half of whom were wearing the skin tight, form fitting shirts, despite the fact that the temp was in the upper 50’s/lower 60’s. we were so distracted by these individuals that we nearly missed the start of the race. We managed to get to the front of the pack in the starting chute and after a few words from the race organiser and from celebrity chef Rocco deSpirito the race began.

From the start, we ran north to a bike path along the lake and followed that to Navy Pier and the first section of obstacles. My strategy for the race was not to push hard but instead work on pacing myself. I have a difficult time restraining myself and often find myself trying to outrun those around me. Considering my upcoming schedule of events (the Bluff followed two weeks later by Stone Cat 50mile), i realized that being able to properly pace myself would be necessary for a strong finish in each. So I set off at a brisk but comfortable pace, keenly aware that while I was near the front, I was being passed by a large field of runners. I had the feeling that wouldn’t last and sure enough, about a mile into the race, the racers slowly began to drop off, unable to maintain their pace. It was about a mile and a half into the race that I spotted one of the most unique runningn outfits i’ve seen. Picture this: baggy cargo shorts, an undershirt and a long sleeve RipCurl t-shirt. It looked like he’d just rolled out of a frat party and joined what he must have thought was a sprint to the next bar. At least he was wearing running shoes. After a couple of miles, most of the over-eager, over-confident runners had dropped off and we turned on to Navy Pier. The first obstacle we had to maneuver were the road-barrier hurdles and culvert crawl. 4 hurdles, crawl through a culvert, 2 hurdles, another culvert, 2 hurdles. Nothing too difficult, but it’s surprising how much energy your body using when you engage all the muscles of the body at once.

I was able to continue running while my body recovered (thank you trail running for that technique) and ran the next couple of miles to the next obstacle. Outside Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, 4 Dodge Ram pickups (another sponsor) were parked on an incline, two side by side facing the other two, and we had to crawl underneath them to the other side where it was straight under a cargo net set about a foot off the ground for about 20 yards then across a set of monkey bars. If you fell from the monkey bars, you had to run a penalty lap before continuing. I made it safely across. Todd did not. Fortunately, it was only around a cone about 50 yards away and he was back in (in all fairness, the ground we crawled on was very wet from the dew and by the time he crossed the monkey bars, the bars were dripping with the water left behind by other racers making them very slippery). From there, it was along the waterfront to the next obstacle. The view of the lake was beautiful and offered a wonderful distraction from the race. The weather that day couldn’t have been better and in the early morning, the lake was calm and dotted with dozens of sailboats and yachts which made for a very picturesque scene. Soon enough, I reached the third obstacle: marine hurdles in the deep sand of the beach. The hurdles were wooden beams about 5 feet high which you had to climb over. Easy enough except for the sand. For me this was the most difficult as the sand seemed to suck you down as you tried to jump up and over the beam. I grabbed some water as I exited the area and headed back north along the same path we had just run down. At this point I was pumped because I knew it was only about 3 miles to the finish line and the only obstacle left would be the taxi cab hurdle and an 8 foot wall we had to climb over just before the finish. Easy. Except I forgot one tiny obstacle. The stair climb. As we returned to Soldier Field, we were directed inside where the race took a decidedly steep turn. We climbed the stairs to the walkway around the inside of the stadium (where all the concession stands and bathrooms are) which seperated the two tiers of the seating areas. We then followed the arrows of the course inside the stadium to the seating sections where we had to climb the stairs of the upper tier all the way to the top of the stadium and back to the bottom of the upper tier 3 times. My first strategy was to take the stairs two at a time to catch a group of runners ahead of me (my competitive side started worming its way out) but that lasted maybe 5 steps before my legs had had enough. I then switched to a single step routine that allowed me to jog up the steps and in the process pass several runners (thank you Bluff training). I felt good coming out of the stadium and ran confidently to the last obstacles. I could hear the crowd as I neared the finish and as I entered the final stretch inside the park, the onlookers lined the race corridor and were cheering loudly. I was near the front of the pack so I didn’t have to worry about any interference as I attempted my cab hurdle. I couldn’t simply run straight over the cabs; I needed a bit of style and chose the old hood slide. I must say that I pulled off a textbook slide, gliding over the hood and landing nimbly on the other side. No embarrassing fall, much to the crowd’s dismay I’m sure. I lept at the wall, pulled myself over and crossed the line, very pleased with my accomplishment.

My official time for the race was 1 hour 17 min 50 sec. Not too shabby and good for a 26th overall finish (out of about 1200 individual runners). As for my strategy of pacing myself, that went well for the most part. I must admit though, with about 2 miles left, I couldn’t hold back from passing the only girl ahead of me (i apologize for any sexist tones, but I just couldn’t let a girl beat me in an obstacle course race). I ended up passing her on the stair climb and held her off for the remainder of the race.

I waited around for Todd (1hr 24 min, 125th place) and we raided the food tent before heading to the beer tent. We got our fill there before wandering around and checking out the other sponsor tents. We got a free mini basketball and immediately started juggling it (soccer style, with our feet). After annoying several groups of people in our general vicinity with an errant ball, we climbed the climbing wall they had there and watched others attempt the final obstacle. We saw plenty of slides across the hood end in embarassment and sore asses, others simply ran over it (boring). The best part was watching people struggle and squirm to get over the wall and there’s nothing like watching somebody take a running leap at the wall, only slam into it and slide off Wil E. Coyote style.

The race was fantastically organized and well planned. We had a great time and we were very lucky to have a gorgeous day of weather. I definately recommend this race no matter what your athletic level (trust me, I saw the whole spectrum out there). You will clear all the obstacles and you will have an awesome time doing it.