The better part of valor

Well, the short version is I decided not to do the Race to Wrigley 5K this morning.

The long version is that I was still not feeling quite 100% on my knees. Knowing I also have the Ravenswood 5K tomorrow, I didn't want to run today and not be able to run tomorrow. Of the two, I'd rather run the Ravenswood race. Plus, an extra day would help my knees rest up a little more.

I'm a bit bummed out that I missed the race, but my goal right now is being ready for the Soldier Field 10-mile on Memorial Day Weekend, and that means not injuring myself between now and then.

I still got my race t-shirt, and it's a nice one, so that's good. In fact, that's a whole other story about the worst race packet pick-up setup I've ever seen. The Wrigley race people never sent out an email letting us know where/when to pick up race bibs/T-shirts, so most of the racers looked this week at the website only to see that there were three dates we could do so - two of which were last weekend, which had already passed. The final date (other than picking up the packet at 6:30 AM this morning) was from 9:00 - 6:00 Friday. So I rushed from work to some Andersonville running store. When I got there, the line was down the street and around the corner for half a block full of people, like me, who had just gotten off work and didn't want to be picking up their packets at 6:30 AM the next day.

The line was moving very slowly. There were only two people handling the packets for everyone. Then the store closed and kicked the people out, so they started handing out the packets on the street, all the time threatening rain. There was one really bitchy lady who kept threatening to send everyone home despite the fact that it was their fault they were so woefully unprepared. Eventually, some kind-hearted racers volunteered to help out to get the line moving. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get my packet - enough time for me to have run the actual race...twice!

Anyway, I'll know to avoid that race next year. But I did get a nice technical shirt out of it.

Tomorrow - Ravenswood 5K!