Race Recap: Storm the Stadium

Solider Field, the day before the Bears vs Rams game

Yesterday (Saturday the 22nd) I headed out on a beautiful fall day for Storm the Stadium, my second stair climbing race of the year. This one was quite different than Hustle Up the Hancock - outside instead of inside, up and down instead of just up, and different sized stairs in each.

This is the first time that this event has been put on, and man, the organizers have a LOT of kinks to work out. After having done so many races this year, there are things that I have come to enjoy, and even rely on, like a cool race-specific tech shirt, signage and helpful volunteers to tell you where to go, Gatorade to guzzle when you get thirsty, a gear check to store your stuff while you're racing, and open bathrooms to use after you've drunk all that Gatorade. Storm the Stadium was missing all of this stuff!

Plus I'm almost positive that the friendly but clueless volunteer at the start screwed up the official timing; there was a chip reading mat at the start that he unplugged because he was annoyed with the beeping. But each beep is the confirmation that each person's unique chip has been recognized at the start - right before I started, a guy ran up and was working on it, but they had me start anyway. So we may never know my official time!

But the core race experience was actually really cool. We started at the bottom of the highest deck of seats, on the west side of the field where the stairs are really steep, and climbed up and down seven flights. At the top, the view was gorgeous, and I couldn't help but stop, catch my breath, and get a picture.

At the top! Gorgeous view of the lake.

Then I had to run down to the lowest level of seats on the east side of the field, and climb up and down all the really nice shallow stairs from the concourse to the edge of field, from one end zone to the other. And that was that!

If I ever manage to watch a Bears game from these seats,
I might pass out with joy. :)

Today, the day after, my calves are KILLING me. But I still went out and did my 12 mile run at 6:00 am, and the crazy thing was that my legs didn't hurt at all while I was running, but after I stopped ... ouch. Despite stretching and using The Stick to massage/roll out the muscles, now I can barely hobble around the room. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!