Let’s catch up on the important business of this blog, shall we? How did I do in some rando race like 3 months ago?

I’m a sucker for a ridiculous race challenge, and a sucker for a ridiculous piece of race schwag, so how could I not do the Polar Dash Yeti Challenge (1 mile, 5K, and 10K distances) and earn this ridiculous hat doing so:

The course was nothing special—it started at Arvey Field in Grant Park and went down through the Museum Campus to Soldier Field, which feels like the course of half the races I’ve done in the last year. But for the multiple races, the whole day was fairly well organized: there were three different runnings of the 1600m race and plenty of time between the 10K and 5K, which made scheduling your own challenge pretty easy. And it was a cold and drizzly day, but the race provided a heated tent city with both Gear Check and plenty of hangout space, which was a nice respite between races.

I ran alone, but happened to run into my friend Antonio who was taking advantage of the Polar Dash’s half-marathon for his own, self-imposed, ridiculous running challenge: a Runner’s Dozen. That is, he and a friend were planning on doing 13 half-marathons in 2016—one a month, plus an extra somewhere in there.

The below time is by no means my best mile time, and I hasten to add that I ran it last, so I was a little tired and cold by that time. But I realized that it’s my only chip-timed mile, so up on the records page it goes.

Total time: 1:49:59
Overall Place: 146 / 288
Place in Age Group (M40-49): 25 / 39
10K Time: 1:09:53
10K Place: 144 / 288
5K Time: 29:27
5K Place: 156 / 288
1600m Time: 10:39
1600m Place: 158 / 288