5k #2 is in the books! Night Nation Run was a blast, Team “Dat High Hat Doe” had a good representation and we did our thing. This was a much different experience than my experience at the Bucktown 5k last September, that’s for sure.

While Bucktown was more of a competitive/traditional race, Night Nation Run was more of a fun run environment, both of which has its pros and cons. But before I get into that, let’s do a breakdown of how the night went.

Got to Soldier Field in downtown Chicago at 6:30pm and met up with the rest of the team (as pictured above). There was some mingling and a pre-party dance party. Night Nation is all about blasting EDM and getting everyone pumped up. Soon after the sun set, it was time to get the race started. You can see the starting line way at the far end of this picture!

Finally, we were off. The beginning started off well, I found a good pace and was really feeling the groove for the first mile. Unfortunately, I had not trained as well as I should have and just like Bucktown took my first walk break after about a mile. However, unlike Bucktown, my legs weren’t hurting quite as much, which let me walk quicker when I walked, and allowed me to get back into running a lot sooner than in September.

So while last time I feel that I spent a lot of the time being angry with myself, this time I was much more positive, if I needed to walk a little bit, so be it. Catch my breath, then get back to it. I was even feeling good enough with myself to take this pic just after passing the Mile 2 marker (I had to show off the glowey foam stick I caught that they threw into the crowd while we were waiting to run)!

Before I knew it, the finish line was there, so I sprinted to the end and finished strong. So strong, that I actually felt like I could have pushed myself harder because I wasn’t completely spent. Anyhow, the team regrouped and we joined what makes Night Nation Run special, the after party! Full on EDM concert!

Overall, I’m really happy with how things went down. It was a really fun time, the experience was definitely unique, and my performance was on par with or even better than it was in September, even though I weight probably 20 lbs more now than I did back then!

Now that I have two 5k runs under my belt of different varieties, I feel that I really have a full grasp of the experience and how I can use that to better my performance in the future.

One tip for running a 5k that I didn’t read anywhere else:

• When you’re a slow runner like me, there can easily be a half an hour delay between when you line up and when you actually begin running. This time delay can lead to the adrenaline wearing off before you even begin running, which can lead to starting off sluggish.

Just at the starting line I easily got hyped up and then calmed down TWICE before we actually took off. Luckily, they did a good job pumping us up right before running (you saw my excitement for the glowy stick even at Mile 2)!

Fun Run vs Competitive Run

Here’s a list of notes with pros and cons about the races:

• There was much less pressure at the Night Nation Run. It would be a pretty good first 5k if you just wanted to see if you could do it, or if you just wanted to experience the event which was awesome. With Bucktown, I felt a lot of pressure because the website stated a few times you needed to have a 15mph pace etc, so I felt like my lack of performance there would get me kicked out or disqualified or something.
• However, I feel like Night Nation was TOO relaxed for what I’m trying to do
  • It was not timed, so I don’t have any definitive numbers to track my performance vs Bucktown
  • They didn’t split up people into carousels. So fast runners were mixed with slow runners, mixed with walkers. Which I feel feel was detrimental to my performance.
    • There were multiple times where I had to slow down because there was a wall of people walking in front of me and I couldn’t get around them. Stopping the momentum is when the muscles start tightening up and led to me taking more walk breaks than I needed to.
    • Going around groups I turned my ankle a couple times, luckily I was loose enough that I didn’t injure anything, but it for sure made me timid
  • Although, I’ll admit, a positive of the relaxed feel was it did help my confidence passing up crowds of walkers, hahaha.
• Bucktown 5k had people cheering along the way, which was cool, while Night Nation was more of a closed event and there were DJ stations, selfie stations along the way. That one is just personal preference whether you want to run or have a party.

In the end, it’s just what you’re looking for in a run, so next fun run I won’t go in with expectations to get a PR and save that for the competitive 5k runs. I would definitely do both again. Right now, I’m just satisfied that I kept up with it and had a decent performance, especially considering the most recent adversity.

On to the next one and keep pushing forward!