First it was Bucktown, then was Night Nation Run, now my 3rd 5k race is under my belt at the Chicago Bears 5k. By far, this was my favorite 5k so far! They aimed to make this as much of a “game time atmosphere” as possible, so that meant the Bears drumline showed up to play songs, Staley – the mascot bear guy cheered us on, the flag guys led each corral at the start of the race (see the video below) complete with fireworks, and best of all; you finish the race by running through the tunnel and ON TO THE FIELD at Soldier Field!

Another thing, camera operators filmed closed circuit video at the finish line, so I got to be on the jumbotron when crossing the finish line! As a Bears fan, this really was special. It was honestly one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

Wait a second, what is that thing I’m pointing to in that picture? That’s right, we received medals for finishing the race. My very first one of hopefully many!

As for the race itself, it really was a deja vu of Bucktown. I didn’t quite “Bear Down” as a Chicago Bear, but at least I wasn’t a Bear Down passed out on the ground!

Night Nation Run wasn’t timed, so my only official 5k time was 48:22 back in September in Bucktown. Naturally I wanted to beat that time, with push goals of 45:00, and pie in the sky goal of running the entire thing.

Unfortunately, 3 weeks before the race I came down with a nasty virus that put me out of commission for two weeks. That left me with only one week to get my butt into shape.

Just like in September, my final run before the race went really well and gave me a spark of confidence:

I had MapMyWalk tracking during my warm up and cool down, which is why the beginning and end were slower. I found it interesting that I got faster as time went on, even though during the actual run I remember feeling really tired when I was going the fastest. As a friend pointed out, I’m like Secretariat!

Going half a mile longer than a 5k in 55 minutes made me quite confident as well.

I even woke up early every day the week of the race to adjust my sleep schedule. I was ready to go and probably the most confident I’ve been going into a race.

Unfortunately, same as Bucktown, just before the 1 mile marker my calves started cramping up and I started walking. This one was a bit different, instead of the normal main muscle, it was the OUTSIDES of both calves.

It may have been the heat, may have been dehydration due to the heat, might have been my competitive spirit making me run faster than I did when training, or most likely a combination of everything.

Despite the adversity, I power walked until my muscles felt better (and I stopped being angry at/beating myself up) and then give it another go for as long as I could. Repeat until I got to Soldier Field.

Once I got inside the stadium, the 2nd batch of adrenaline kicked in as I heard the echo of music pumping and the announcer saying, “keep going, you’re almost done!” Once I got to the tunnel leading onto the field I broke out into a full sprint.

The on-field portion zig-zagged a couple times before the finish line. Even though I was sprinting at first, once I made the first turn, I saw the finish line and Secretariat’ed a 2nd gear of sprinting. I even surprised myself with that!

I’m really curious as to how fast I was going because my buddy that finished already saw me and said that I was definitely booking it.

I am a little disappointed in my results:

What I learned

All things considered, that I literally was limping when walking out of the stadium (even after being stretched out by the Athletico booth that was there, perhaps my Secretariat’ness wasn’t as good of a thing in hindsight), and this is the worst I’ve felt coming off of a run even in training, being only two minutes slower than my goal of beating the previous timed race isn’t that horrible.

Keeping the larger picture in mind, 9 months ago I doubted my ability to finish a 5k and now I’m bummed I haven’t improved as I would like, but finishing was always a given. That’s progress right there.

Perhaps since I always allow the competition to get the best of me and run faster than I train, the solution would be to start training at a faster pace from the beginning. Of course, to do that I just need to get more fit.

That’s the key, to just continue what I’ve been doing, but step it up:

• Going to the gym consistently will help build strength to increase my speed
• Running outside consistently will help endurance
• Losing weight will just help everything, less stress on the muscles and easier on the ticker
• AND a bonus extra technique I will be starting soon….yoga. I’ll be sure to write about it once I start that!

The Chicago Bears 5k won’t be my last race, that’s for sure. I will redeem myself from these ‘failures’ and I WILL eventually run one without walking. I must keep learning, keep training, and stay disciplined.