Just Shuffling Along: 2022 Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle Race Report

Usually heading into at race there are two things I know with certainty: (1) what my target is for the race; and (2) a reasonable expectation of what I am capable of. Going into today's Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle I knew neither. While my fitness level was fairly decent, my left knee has continued to be balky for the past few weeks, preventing me from doing any significant speedwork. In addition, I could not completely rule out the possibility the shooting pain that had led me to abandon a couple of runs a few weeks ago would not return mid-race. I actually considered just skipping the race, but given the fact my last several runs have been relatively pain free (including six last week), I decided to go for it.

I arrived in Grant Park about an hour before my wave was supposed to start, giving me plenty of time to warm up, hit the bathroom a couple of times, check my stuff in, stretch, and head to the start line. I was in the first wave after the elite runners and positioned myself toward the middle of my start corral. The first mile felt relatively comfortable, although I was surprised at how slow I was running (according to my Garmin it was 7:03, but I passed the mile marker at least five seconds before). I quickly realized I was once again overstriding and focused on shorter, quicker strides in order to increase my cadence. It worked like a charm and my second mile was 6:44 (having my body warmed up probably helped as well).

The next two miles went by pretty quickly. According to my Garmin they were 5:53 (highly unlikely) and 6:32 (fairly reasonable); at that point I knew I could no longer trust those splits, as there was little correlation between when my watch said I had run a mile and the actual course markers. I felt like I was passing and being passed by runners on a fairly regular basis, which made sense to me given the fact I started with racers fairly close to my ability level. Before I knew it it was time to crest the final hill on Roosevelt Road before turning onto Columbus Drive and heading to the finish line (the last couple of streets are the same route as the Chicago marathon, which is pretty cool). I picked up the pace considerably and overtook several runners in the last few several hundred meters.

I crossed the finish line in 33:34, which placed me 19th in my age group (top 3%) and 715th overall (top 5%). I also beat my time from the only other time I did the race 15 years ago by 1:38. All in all I am happy that I ended up doing the race and with my results, especially considering all of the uncertainty I felt going into it. Thanks for reading!