I ran my third 8K today and set a new personal best. I wasn't aiming for a PR, as I didn't think I had trained hard enough to pull it off. But something musta gone right for me this morning at the Shamrock Shuffle, the race reputed to be the largest 8k in the country if not the world. Twenty-two thousand, four hundred ninety-nine people and I started at the corner of Jackson and Columbus in Grant Park, ran north to Michigan Ave, back south to the loop, west across the river to Canal, back east to the park, south to its bottom and then back north to Balbo. It was a good run, with the last leg up and down a hill that is considered mountainous for the Midwest. It is a dumbed down version of the Chicago Marathon, which I have vowed to run this year!

There is just something about running...something that makes all the sweating and the huffing and puffing, the five a.m. alarm clocks and the muscle-aching worth enduring. In the past for me, the triumphant ascension to the top of the medal podium has been that "something." I did triple salchows on cloud 9 when I came in at the top in figure skating.

But my geriatric 9 minute per mile pace keeps me far far outside of the winner's circle. And it does not discourage me one little bit. Today I raced with an Olympic bronze medalist and several other world record holders...even at my fastest, I'm still the snail to their cheetah!

I have been a competitive athlete since age 8. I live for game-day pressure and the thrill of showing off and making everyone else eat my dust. While racing in its essence is competitive, in actuality, the experience for me has been quite the opposite.

For those of us who aren't Speedy Gonzales, the thrill comes from going the distance. You compete not against the other people running beside you--you compete against yourself. Simultaneously your own harshest critic and greatest ally, you never have anything to lose. No titles to defend, no favoritism and no outside expectations. No one to push you but yourself. It is true exhiliration in the sport of running to breeze across the finish line and see that you have done so a minute faster than you had ever done it before. Taking it to the limit, baby. Lord, you feel like an Olympic champion!

And in this respect, that is why anyone can be a runner. Today I ran in a crowd of thousands of people--young and old, short and tall, fat and thin. It doesn't matter who you are, what you look like or most importantly, how fast you run. The goal is the same--to go the distance. And then you can look back and say, I did it...I ran 3 miles or 6 miles or 26.3 miles.

And it goes beyond one's self. The culture of running is steeped in charity. The proceeds of every certified road race go to various charities. Organizations will train beginning runners for marathons in six months on the promise that those runners will raise a certain amount of money. Organizations run the gamut from the American Cancer Society to homeless shelters and food pantries to child abuse prevention.

The key here is that by training, running and raising money, you push yourself to the max for the benefit of others. You are doing something to save lives or make lives better, even if you are not doing so directly. Knowledge of that can be just as rewarding as setting a new PR.

I talked to three breast cancer survivors yesterday at Navy Pier when I picked up my registration materials for the race today. They were representing the Y-Me Breast Cancer Foundation here in Chi-town and they are dead set on running a full marathon. They were recruiting people to join their training team and raise $750 each for the foundation in the next six months. (Sounds like a lot, but it really is a piece of cake to raise that much money, I did more than that in 2 months for Dance Marathon!) I would have joined the team, but I'm moving to DC in a few months...I can't imagine a better inspiration to get out there and push myself to run farther and faster...

Anyway, thus ends my epic poem in honor of road racing. I can't urge people enough to get out there and try it. It is rewarding in so many ways! And if what I said above isn't motivating enough, I'll say from experience that when you run regularly, you can eat gallons of ice cream at a time and not gain a single pound!

Next races are going to be a 10k and a 10 miler coming up in the next few weeks. The training will keep me sane, balancing out the insanity of Chicago Broadcast.