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| At the start line. |
RAM Racing Bucktown 5k was held on Sunday, September 17. This was my second year running it (2016 was my first; recap here). Though I have been trying to mostly run 10k or longer distance races, I couldn't help but register for this Bucktown 5k. Why? Because of the goodie bag. This year's included a super soft, Chicago flag blanket, and when I saw it in person at an expo/felt it, well, it was just too good to pass up.
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| At the finish line. |
My mom picked up my bib for me on Friday afternoon at Fleet Feet Sports in Old Town. She said pickup was easy and no problems. We left the house around 7 and got to the race around 7:30. I went to where I parked last year, and both sides of the street were full. This put me in panic mode, even though we had a lot of time still. Parking in the city isn't easy, and since the course was a no parking zone, it meant all of the cars that normally were parked there were displaced, which means there was going to be limited parking in the area.
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| The photographer told us to do it haha. |
In our search, we came across a policeman on the course. We asked if he knew where some parking might be and he said he had no idea. So, we just drove around. Eventually we found some metered parking on the street maybe mile from the race. A lot of other runners parked here as well, and in the end, though it cost us $4 rather than being free, it was closer to Starbucks and Stan's Donuts, so worked out better haha. I tried to get my mom to get out of the car near the race so she would have time for the bathroom in case we were cutting it close, but she refused.
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| Free race photos for the win. And there were actually a good amount. |
Anyway, we were parked before 8, got our gear ready, and walked over to the race site. Plenty of time to use the portapotties, which didn't have very long lines, and all was fine. There was a DJ and an announcer letting people know when to go line up in the corrals. The race start was different than last year, moved up just a little bit so all of the corrals were on one street rather than being 'L' shaped, turning down a different street.
There were 6 corrals released every 3 minutes or so. We were in the second to last, and I ran with my mom the whole way with her intervals (45/45). The congestion seemed a bit better to me than last year, not running into as many people. I'd say the course was pretty wide in most cases, and MOST cars had parked elsewhere (there was an occasional car you had to weave around). Two sections you ran on half the street, as the other half was for another portion of the course, but it wasn't long or bad, and it was cool to watch the other runners go by.
There were plenty of volunteers and police out to keep the runners on course, safe, and keep traffic off course. There was one water stop (there might have also been Nuun, but I couldn't tell for sure - I skipped it).
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| The course. |
There were so many families out cheering for all of the runners, it made the race seem very special and local.
At the finish line, we were given a cup of Nuun, bottled water, a banana, and a bag of snacks which included Soy chocolate milk, a plain bagel, Clif mini bar, Rice Krispy treat, and a piroucrisp. Post-race site had a DJ, games, and a photo backdrop.
We didn't stick around too long. We headed back to the car to drop off the extra stuff and then headed over to Stan's to grab some amazing donuts. Then we got some iced beverages from Starbucks next door. It was a delicious morning haha.
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| I shared, I promise. |
Definitely looking at running again in 2018 – looks like they are voting between a chicago flag blue long sleeve tech shirt with the 4 stars on the sleeve or a duffel bag. They both looked pretty cool.
Have you ever run this race? Did anything I mention make you want to register? :)
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