Race Information

• Name: Shamrock Shuffle
• Date: March 24, 2024
• Distance: 8 km
• Location: Chicago, IL
• Time: 27:06

Goals

Splits

Training

I ran a ~8 minute marathon PR last fall (2:43:40 at Indianapolis in late October), which got me pretty pumped up, so I decided to run hard through the winter with Shamrock Shuffle as one of my target races for the spring before I jump fully into marathon mode for Grandma's in June.

I took a couple weeks down-ish after the Indy marathon, and then started building up again. Went from 60-65 mpw up to consistently 75-80 mpw from November to January, with some occasional but pretty light threshold work thrown in every now and then, and occasional down weeks. Ran a 1:16:15 half in early Feb, which I was really happy with, then did a month of ~80 mpw with a bunch of double threshold interval days (e.g. 4x2k in the morning, 8x1k in the evening, all on 1 min standing rest...this was challenging but doable as long as I was getting good sleep etc). I've been less able to string together good workouts in March. Partly this was due to some work travel, but also I've been simultaneously viewing this time as base building, so I think the mileage is more important than the workouts, and some days I was just a little too gassed to do a workout. I've probably still been averaging at least one day of quality per week during March, and the mileage has been consistently high around 80, so it's been a successful winter cycle.

I planned a big down week to coincide with this race so I'd be well rested. At this point, anything under 15k feels very fast for me at this point, so I wasn't totally sure how fast I could run. Based on my recent half, VDOT said 27:19. That's 17:05 at 5k. I'd not run a sub 17 5k since college, but also I also hadn't really tried since I'd gotten back into good enough shape to do so.

Also, this is the first 8k I've run since college XC. My PR there was 26:50, so I figured I had a shot at that on a really good day (though obviously XC courses are slower), but it seemed like a stretch.

I usually am slightly conservative in races and will run slight negative splits, so I decided I would be aggressive and set my C goal at going under 17 at 5k, B would be to then hang on and at least beat the VDOT equivalent from my half in Feb, and A would be to hang on for <27:00.

Pre-race

We drove part way into downtown, parked and then took the Brown line down to the start. Discovered the expo tent was warm, so mostly hung out in there when not actively warming up. Ran a 4.5 km easy warm up, and then didn't really do the hard strides I'd meant to cause I spent too long dawdling and figuring out exactly what I wanted to race in. It was pretty chilly, and I almost went with two layers, but decided on just arm warmers, gloves and a hat in addition to my jersey and half tights. First time racing for the Fleet Feet Elite Team (“Elite” feels like a stretch here for sure, but anyways…); it was fun getting to race in some flashy new kit. Stashed my bag at the team tent and then headed over to the corral just before they closed it with 10 minutes to go.

Race

It is honestly mostly a blur. The race is so big, I was basically running in traffic for much of the way. The start goes below street level on lower Columbus after like 400m, so there’s time for a GPS vibe check before you go under, and then you are on your own pace-wise. Settled into what felt like the right pace, then completely missed both the 1 and 2 mile marks, so the first info I go was coming through 3 miles in 16:15, and then hitting 5k at 16:51. Everything according to plan at that point, but also I could tell the end would be a struggle. I just tried to make sure I was at least consistently passing some people between 5k and 4 miles. I also remember somewhere between 5k and mile 4 two people next to me got their feet tangled up and one nearly fell, but both managed to stay upright. I hit 4 miles in something like 21:35, so I knew 27:00 was possible, but I melted pretty badly in the last half mile, and missed it by 6 seconds. Still generally happy with the result though!

Post-race

Seems like everyone in the city runs this race, so it was fun to check in with other folks finishing around me who I knew. Did a short cool down with some Fleet Feet people and then headed home. My ultimate A goal for the year is to run under 2:37:20 (6 minute mile pace) at Grandma’s Marathon in June, so this is another good incremental step in that direction on the VDOT chart.

Overall, I'm very happy with the way my training is going and the progression across races. I've been focusing on getting a lot of total volume in, even if a lot of the miles are slowly relative to other runners at a similar level (I run at lot of 8:00-8:20 miles, and it seems like everyone on my strava runs 7:30s), and on getting a lot of total volume at threshold pace (a few weeks I was up to 16-18 miles total), and it seems to be working. Will probably keep doing a lot of that, but mix in some occasional marathon pace stuff as well as it gets closer to June.

Made with a new race report generator created by /u/herumph.