Shamrock Shuffle draws record number of runners in humid race
BY MITCH DUDEK Staff Reporter/mdudek@suntimes.com
A sheep, a bumblebee, a chick and a flower — these were the costumes of four Advocate Christ hospital emergency room doctors who ran the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle Sunday.
All along the 8K route, they formed an orchestra of “Baaas,” “Bzzzzzzes” and “Peep Peeps.”
And then there was the flower.
“She couldn’t say anything,” said Elise Lovell — a k a the sheep.
The goofy, the determined, the fast and the slow all celebrated spring and the beginning of the Chicago running season under blue skies and sun.
Kat Lichtenwalter, 29, of Edgewater, who is training for the Chicago Marathon, growled as she ran.
Why?
“ ’Cause she’s a beast,” friend Kelly Walker said.
A record-high 40,000 runners registered for the race. In all, 32,631 crossed the starting line, and 32,427 finished the 4.97-mile race.
The one constant complaint (a welcome one compared with sleety years past) was the heat — which hit 80 degrees by 11 a.m.
“It was especially humid . . . and of course, it could have felt a bit warmer with the sun beating down on the pavement,” National Weather Service meteorologist David Beachler said.
Three people were hospitalized for injuries. But the hot spell didn’t faze the thousands milling about Buckingham Fountain sipping post-race beers.
First over the line was 27-year-old Simon Bairu, a Canadian with a race time of 23:38. Bairu attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
In the women’s field, Oregon native Amy Yoder Begley, 33, won with a time of 26:50 — an impressive feat coming off of heel surgery last year.
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