PAWS 5K

Megs participated in her first 5K.  As an alumni of PAWS we wanted to support what they are doing and part for the proceeds from the registration of the race goes towards them.

The start and finish was at Montrose Beach, so we left early so we could find parking and see what they had to offer at the booths.  We thought we saw the family that adopted one of her siblings in the parking lot, but we couldn’t find them at the park.

There were a lot of booths with free stuff for Megs, which she came home with a lot of treats and frisbees.  Before the 5K started they had an Alumni photo and there were a lot of dogs.  We met one of the people that spearheaded the rescue in Oklahoma and thanked her for saving Megs.  Megs came from there and we found out that they were housed in boxes in a high school parking lot and if they weren’t picked up they would have been euthanized.  We are an advocate for pet adoptions, for reasons like this, if you want a pet please go to a shelter and adopt, because your funds would help stories like these.

We lined up with all the other dog walkers and off we went going north from Montrose beach up to Foster and looped around.  Megs did very well, we were concerned that she would get too excited and would tug a lot on her leash.  She enjoyed the walk and especially the water breaks.  She met human admirers and lots of furry friends along the course.

We didn’t time our walk, but it was the longest walk that Megs has been on a leash.  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the morning with our little girl and all the other supporters of PAWS.  She seemed to enjoy it and it will be one of our annual things to do with her.

If you are on Instagram she would love for you to follow her @megs_the_heeler

Soldier Field 10 Miler

Sixth year running this course and even though it is the same course it still one of the ones that I will continue to participate.  It’s always on Memorial Day weekend and has a great charity that it donates to.  You get to run along the south lakeside path and start and finish inside Soldier Field.

This is the first time our puppy Megs was able to come to one of my races and cheer me on.  We got there fairly early, but was stuck in the line to get into the parking structure.  It was ok because we had plenty of time to walk around and get myself to my corral.  This year they placed me in corral M, probably due to my time last year.  I didn’t train at all since the Shamrock Shuffle, so I wasn’t expecting in breaking any records on this run.

In recent years they have been staging the starting corrals inside the stadium.  The higher letter corrals are first organized in the stands and are let out to the ground floor once the early corrals are let out.  It didn’t take them long to send us out.  They lead us out of the stadium and out to the street, where I saw Megs and Rick waiting.  I waved and continued with the group of people.

We ran south and went through the McCormick Place corridor and routed us to Lake Shore Drive where we remained on there for a couple of miles.  We were then routed to the lake shore path and came upon the turnaround just before mile 5.  The temperature started to get warmer and it shade started to become scarce.  After mile 7 I started taking longer walking breaks and enjoyed the lake views and the Chicago skyline.

As I approached the stadium, I texted Rick to tell him where I was so that he and Megs can be aware that I was coming soon.  They greeted me just before I took the last turn into the stadium.  She was so excited that she tried to follow me to the finish, but Rick held her back.

I finished in 2hrs 35min 16sec. I met Rick and Megs outside the stadium and she seemed to of had a fun time.  It turned out to be a nice day, and it was a great way to start our Memorial day weekend.