Off and Running

Added three more races to the May's calendar - two in Aurora and one in West Chicago. One of them is a combination 5K-dodgeball event. Sounds cool.
Go here to see the full list.

Back in 1978, Mark Hanley lined up for the Elgin Fox Valley Fox Trot. I was there, but I had one of the worst possible views for the race. I was in my mom's belly.
So was born a lifelong obsession with running.
Thirty one years later, the Fox Trot is still one of the best races in the area. It draws some of the region's top athletes and it's well organized. Plus, it's an interesting, but not obtuse, distance: 10 miles. Along with the Great Western Half Marathon, the Fox Trot are the gems of a light month of local racing. Still, there's a race available every weekend.
And May offers the rare chance to pull off running races three days in a row if you bookend the Soldier Field and Fox Trot 10 milers on Memorial Day weekend with an out-of-towner.
I won't be able to go to the Fox Trot this year, but I hope everyone enjoys a safe, fun race. See you on the trails.

Did you miss me? Sorry, I have been MIA for a while. April has been a cruel month in the newspaper industry and with the furloughs all over the office, Off and Running had to take a back seat for a little while. But I think we're back on track now. I promise to hopefully try not to let that happen again. Maybe. How's that?
And this week I'll debut a fun new feature and at least on contraversial topic. Something to look forward to. (Plus, I'll update my running log - I have kept running and even did a race.)
On to running news. I'm pretty sure that the first year I did the Chicago Marathon (1999) there was race weekend sign up. Since then, they've expanded the race by about 15,000 runners and now the race closes six months early. Amazing.
They announced earlier this week that the marathon is full, except for a few charity spots.
Did you get signed up? What's your goal?
And...has anyone signed up as a charity runner before? How did it go?
Marathon press release after the jump.

Like most people I know, I've never won a race or even been close. I run for with other motives: a good time, a strong finish, even splits, a free shirt.
And while it's always nice to get a personal record, that can only happen so often. So, I set other goals. For instance: when I was younger, I always tried to finish ahead of the first woman runner.
But I can't run faster than all the women anymore.
Then, I didn't want any kids (14 and under) to beat me.
But I can't run faster than all the kids anymore.
So, now I've changed my strategy: I don't want anyone wearing headphones to finish ahead of me. You gotta have goals.
The good news is that I'll have lots of chances to attain these peculiar objectives in April. Nearly every weekend has more than one race, many that support good charities. Hopefully, I'll see you at one of them. And if you're wearing headphones, warning: I'll be gunning for you.

Yes, the weather and I decided to go out like a lion. OK, maybe not a lion.
A tiger, maybe?
An annoyed terrier?
Well, anyway, I made some progress on my goals for the year.

I assume most of you heard about this or saw it somewhere.
Apparently, there is a race called the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Simple premise: run two miles, eat a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts, run two more miles. All in under an hour.

In this story, the reporter for ESPN calls it a combination of running and competitive eating. From the story:
"You've got the mass of doughnuts in your stomach that's sort of sloshing around," winner Ben Gaddy said. "Then you start sweating, and you're sweating glaze, you're sweating Krispy Kreme glaze, and it's coming out of your pores. You feel your arms are sticky, you're starting to salivate, but it's not saliva, it's syrup."

I can't decide if this is the most wonderful or awful thing I've ever seen.

U.S. Olympian Deena Kastor led a field of 13,714 runners through the snow Sunday at the 30th Shamrock Shuffle 8K (4.9 mile) race.
Temperatures were in the low 30s and there was steady snowfall throughout the morning.
At 1:45 p.m., the winner of the men's race was listed Chicago's Jeff Sabella, who ran a startling 11:53 for a 4.9-mile race. That has to be a record.
(Me thinks there may be a chip issue.)
But plenty of local people did quite well in the Shuffle.

More after jump.