Team DMC competed for the fifth straight year in the Shamrock Shuffle, an 8K (4.97 mile) race in downtown Chicago.
This year the weather was a little wet and chilly but nowhere near as bad as last year. There was a lot of internal and external competition for this race, which I am certain helped all of us improve our health, get in a little better shape, and give some pretty impressive results in the race.
DMC 2010 Shamrock Shuffle Race Results
| |
Racer |
Time |
Improvement from 2009 |
| 1 |
Johnathan Sullivan |
33:32 |
n/a |
| 2 |
Jody Koplo |
34:08 |
n/a |
| 3 |
Jesse Batsche |
34:39 |
0 |
| 4 |
Eric Nielsen |
35:26 |
3:33 |
| 5 |
Frank B Riordan |
37:28 |
4:40 |
| 6 |
Cesar Pena |
37:29 |
3:30 |
| 7 |
Nick Shea |
37:34 |
4:09 |
| 8 |
Tim Jager |
37:37 |
7:32 |
| 9 |
Kristie Simon |
38:51 |
3:25 |
| 10 |
Jessica Mlinaric |
47:05 |
n/a |
So, a couple of remarkable things about the above numbers:
- The improvements in time, for a five mile race, are almost dramatic (with the exception of Jesse's exact time in both races which is remarkable in and of itself)
- How close finishers 5, 6, 7 & 8 were. Can you imagine the four of us, running neck & neck for the entire race (through a field of 25,000+), getting to within site of the finish line and then all of us sprinting to the finish with me just barely pulling ahead of Cesar? Good, because I can imagine that as well except it didn't happen like that at all. We all ran the race separately and finished within a +/- 0.2% range.
So, second part of this blog post is "Commitment Contracts." DMC regularly sponsors athletic events and we all do pretty darn well. Competing at one's own highest potential certainly is fulfilling. Having someone to compete against, I feel, makes it a ton more fun and meaningful. That is why I will throw out wagers to almost anyone who will take them. Sometimes I lose, sometimes I win, but, until there's a meaningful elliptical machine contest, I think that these races, with the bets we place on them, are among the best motivators to get and keep in good health.
Basically what I've realized I've done is created commitment contracts with myself, coworkers and friends. There's a great web site that does this very formally - www.stickk.com - but the idea is the same.
By now, you must be curious about how Team DMC and I did on our wagers.
Team DMC 1st -
We had wagers against Maddock Douglas & Instep Software. I am happy to say that we will be enjoying a Pizza & Beer Party from Maddock Douglas and at least I will be enjoying a steak dinner from John at Instep.
For my personal wagers, Nick & Kristie will be helping me with some spring cleaning around the house (I would have helped them paint Nick's condo had I lost), my friend Mark Thomann will be helping me clean my boat (he lost 20 pounds getting ready for this so I think we both won) and my friend Rob Lindemann will be taking my wife & me out to dinner.
One acknowledgement I must make here is to my friend Gary Michalek who helped pace the run for me, kinda like the "rabbits" at the start of competitive marathons...except the rabbit isn't supposed to beat the person he's pacing.