Several months ago, I found out that Brookfield Zoo hosts an annual 5k. I found a race report via Chicago Running Bloggers (and that’s how I ultimately became one of the bloggers as well!), and when the race registration opened, I decided to sign up.
Prior to reviewing the actual race, it is essential that you know what happened to me on Friday. I normally follow a very strict running schedule. I run Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. This past Thursday, I was so exhausted that I skipped my run and decided to run on Friday. I had my last exploration run of the season, and I ended up running about 5.5 miles (2.5 miles more than I had originally planned). Towards the end of my run, there were two teenagers on the sidewalk, and rather than freak them out by yelling, I decided to just run around them. I’ve done this numerous times in the past, and I’ve never had an issue. On Friday, however, it was a bad idea.
I ended up placing my right foot half way on the sidewalk and halfway on the grass. Because of this, I started falling. I somehow ended up on the sidewalk having done a somersault while falling. I somehow only bruised my right thigh, scraped up my right wrist, and bruised my right arm near the elbow. I quickly gathered myself and ran away, absolutely embarrassed and mortified. This will come up again later.
(The view from the passenger seat on the drive to Brookfield today!)
Today, I arrived at the zoo with my mom around 7:15 am. The race did not start until 8:30 (although I was under the impression it had started at 8:15), and this left me plenty of time to be cold and psych myself up for the race. I had chosen to have my race packet mailed because organizers believed there would be long lines for packet pick-up on the day of the race. This may have been true later, but it wasn’t true at 7:15 am. Oh well. At least I had my race bib!
I found the start line and the corrals in the Discovery Zone Parking Lot, and I immediately got excited because I saw corrals!! This is the first race that I have done that has been big enough to use a corral system, but it is still small enough that they had people place themselves into these corrals. When it was finally time to line up, I decided to place myself at the front of the 9:00 min/mile corral which was a mistake. I should have lined up towards the back of the 8:00 min/mile corral.
(The group that had gathered about 20 minutes before race time.)
(Others gathered about 20 minutes before race time.)
The race started promptly at 8:30, and it took me about 30 seconds or so to get to cross the start line. Once I began running, I struggled to find my pace especially because I was currently running around an 8:30 min/mile pace surrounded by people who were running 9:00-9:30 min/miles. After a bit of dodging and weaving, I was able to make my way to where I wanted to be, and I was finally able to fall into my pace.
The start of the race winds through a parking lot and a frontage road, but the rest of the race takes place inside of the zoo itself. That being said, the race route is super goofy in order to keep it inside of the zoo. Basically, we took every single possible turn, and there were very few simple straight ways. This is very different from my road running, but I think my indoor track adventures recently helped me be able to maintain my speed. Regardless, I very quickly decided that I hated the race route.
I struggled a lot during this race. My bruised thigh really hurt every time that I placed my right foot down while running. My breathing didn’t fall into its normally easy pattern. I decided very quickly on that a PR was not likely, and I decided to just enjoy the novelty of running in the zoo.
It was honestly super cool to run past the animals. I ran past a zebra during the race! How many races can you do where you can say that?!
With all my struggling, I reached the mile 3 marker, and I decided to try to turn on whatever energy I had left. I started running faster, and when I actually saw the finish line, I ran faster than I think I’ve ever run in my life. I was so grateful to be done, and I grabbed water from a kind race volunteer. Immediately though, my body let me know that I ran too fast too late, and I started dry heaving. That’s the first time that something like that has happened to me during a race, and I decided to just sit down and hope that I didn’t puke. (And if I did, at least a garbage can was about 3 feet in front of me. ) Thankfully, I did NOT puke, and after drinking some water and sitting, I was good to go for the rest of the day.
(The post-race after-rest-and-water selfie. 🙂 )
I was disappointed that they only had bananas for post-race food. This was the first race I’ve finished where I really did want food at the end, AND I really wanted part of a bagel. Bananas don’t agree with me, so I had to forego any food.
The very nice part about this race is that it allows race participants and guests from the same car to enjoy the zoo the rest of the day. I brought my mom with me, and we had decided on Saturday which exhibits and animals we really wanted to see. We had fun walking around and visiting the animals. It was also nice to be in the zoo looking at the animals for about a half hour before the zoo actually opened…very calm and peaceful.
Finally, at one point, I decided to actually check my race results.
My time: 26:59.
Overall place: 256/1340
Female: 75/815
Age Group: 8/72
!!!!!!!!
This is a new PR for me! On a course that’s not supposed to be good for PRs! Additionally, look at that female and age group place! I’ve done a lot of small local races which do not attract many from my age group. Because of that, I’ve frequently placed in the top 3 of those races, but I knew I wasn’t really that competitive. I still know that in the larger Chicago races that I’d hardly be competitive, but these places have really shown me concretely that I’ve made some amazing progress because of my summer work.
Summary of this race: Course with lots of turn, parking and zoo admission included in the ~$33 race fee (bring your family in the same car for a day at the zoo), plenty of water, lots of bananas but no other food, and a very good one time serious novelty run.
Picture of a giraffe seen afterwards just for fun 🙂 
Still Too Early to Quit 
I did this one two years ago and felt very similarly. I hated the course even with running by the animals – so windy!
They also told us to get the bibs ahead of time, but no issues two years ago either. So shrug!
They had better food two years ago though, that’s lousy! Great job on the PR though!