With very little training and not quite knowing what to expect, I headed downtown yesterday morning with one simple goal: to finish the race ahead of a least one other person.  Was the mission accomplished or was it a day filled with failure?

The day started at 4:30 in the morning with a quick shower and breakfast before hitting the road at 5:00.  There is not a lot of public transportation options from the suburbs at that time of day, and I didn’t want to spend $20 for parking, so I drove down to 35th Street and switched over to the Red Line, which got me down to the greater museum campus around 6:15, an hour before the race started.

Everything was going down on the south side of Soldier Field, which is where I met up with my old friend Tina and her friends that were also participating in the festivities.  It basically turned into 45 minutes of pictures before it was time to line up in the starting corral.

The race took us south from Soldier Field, past McCormick Place, then along the lake front nearly down to 31st Street, and then back up north to the east lawn of Soldier Field.  Along the way, I modified my initial goal and found myself determined to finish ahead of certain people, specifically the older couple representing the University of Michigan where the gentleman was wearing his free race shirt despite the fact that it did not fit him properly.  At all.

We did manage to get ahead of them, but they retook the lead as we stopped for untied shoes, picture opportunities, and a small tumble by yours truly.  However, I was not about to be shown up by a 56 year old who doesn’t know that your shirt needs to cover your considerable gut.  As we neared the finish, we did manage to pass them again and beat them by nearly a minute.

After we hit the third mile marker, we picked up the pace and finished the walk with a sprint towards the finish line.  As luck would have it, the first few finishers of the 10K were coming in at the same time, so the crowds were cheering wildly.  I finished in 1684th place, with a time of 54:10 and an average pace of a 17:26 mile.  There were 85 people that finished behind me, so my original goal was easily met.

After the race, there was a tailgate with booth’s representing each school where you could get freebies, like a BTN foam finger, or purchase shirts.  Surprisingly, the Penn State booth did not have much of a line compared to the other schools.  In fact, from what I could tell based on apparel choices, Penn State was the least represented school.

All in all, it was a good time and a great experience.  If they hold it again next year, I would definitely do it again.