Rudolph Ramble 8K - 12/13/15

While it’s a relatively small and short race, the Rudolph Ramble was something I’d been looking forward to for quite some time. It’s not often I can jog to the start of a race from my front door, and Chicago races never disappoint in terms of seeing friendly faces or racing with some quick competition. But most importantly, the race was an 8K, the same distance I’d competed at in college.

See, me and this 8K had unfinished business – namely, I sucked at it during my brief collegiate years, despite literally dedicating my life to training for those 5 miles. With my recent success, new PRs at various distances, and some sick new kicks (thanks Hoka!), I was looking forward to having a little chat with the ol’ 8K distance.

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Waking up race day morning to the weather-equivalent of ‘meh,’ I yogged the 2.5 miles through the puddles and rain to get to the race’s start. Located at Diversey Harbor, the majority of the race was to take place on the paths I’ve been running on since I moved here (it’s not hard, though – there are like, 2 routes to run in all of Chicago).

Despite the rain, feeling pretty meh, and REALLY craving one of those donuts they were handing out (BAD IDEA SAM), I was instantly put into a great mood by all the wonderful faces I saw! From high school teammates (hey Em!) to Fleet Feet staff (hey Bobby!) to college friends (hey Allie!) to my dad (hey Dad!), it was like a mini-reunion with all the runners in my life.

Don't worry - I beat him:)

Trotting over to the start, I made my way towards the front, only to find Logan, another Fleet Feet associate who I’ve been able to get to know thanks to my constant lurking at the Fleet Feet Sports in Lincoln Square. We share similar PRs over the 8K distance, and agreed that we’d stick together, going out in 5:30 pace for the first mile and seeing where that would take us.

After some muddy strides, the national anthem, and a silent pledge to myself to not get chicked by the really fast-looking girl next to me, we were off!

Soaking my feet instantly, I was resigned to stomping around in soggy sneakers the rest of the race; the consolation: everyone else was in the same boat. Logan and I settled into 6^th and 7^th place, along with 2-3 other Fleet Feet racers, as we watched 1^st and 2^nd take off, never to be seen again.

We rolled together nice and easy through mile 1, hitting 5:26 and feeling pretty fresh. Our pack stuck together as we wound our way back on the course, hitting mile 2 right at 11:00, maintaining a consistent 10-second gap from the 5^th runner in front of us. I took the lead of our group here, trying to subtly catch 5^th ahead of us, but the gap remained the same as we came through mile 3 in 16:30ish.

#SQUAD

Here, I told myself I’d start to pick up the pace, as I’d felt relatively relaxed all day. In looking back at my splits, I did no such thing, but managed to keep 5:30 pace and gap myself by 5ish seconds from the group I’d been running with. Rolling through mile 4 and missing my split, I told myself to make the push to catch that 5^th place runner, and actually got within 2-3 seconds of him. However, I was really starting to strain, and hitting the slightest of uphills coming up from beneath the bridge, hit a wall, hard. 5^th place took off, and out of nowhere another runner came flying past me – he ended up beating me by 7 seconds, all in the last 400 meters.

The last stretch was pretty interminable, and my horrendous form combined with trying to avoid the massive puddles made for a pretty ugly finish. But, with a goal of 28:00 going into today’s race, my official finishing time of 27:26 was a mere 6 seconds off my college PR.

Stoked, I turned around to see Logan finishing not too far behind me – later, we rejoiced upon hearing that we’d both won our respective age groups (me, 25-29; Logan, 20-24). Chugging some delicious apple cider, I made the slow trek home, content with the near-PR race and hungry for the next! Which, unfortunately, won’t be until the New Year; alas, I’ve got a pretty awesome schedule lined up for 2016 already, so stay tuned for my next post!