Danny Cox for the RedEye

The alarm goes off to the tune of “Danger! High Voltage” by Electric Six. It’s 7:30 am on a Saturday and a number of questions race through my mind, the first and most pressing obviously, “why the hell am I up at 7:30 on a Saturday?” The three word answer floats uneasily to the top of my head like a Magic 8 Ball: “Race to Wrigley.”

A recent Saturday marked the Cubs’ 5th annual 5k to help support local charities, and thanks to a generous contribution from my employer, I laced up my Nike kicks bright and early and hit the bricks. Kicking off to a hauntingly beautiful, albeit rain-soaked, rendition of “Go Cubs Go” by Mr. Cub himself, it occurred to me that this was the first time I had run in any context not involving catching public transportation in nearly a year. It also occurred to me that drinking with friends at Goose Island until close might not be the best pre-race strategy.

As the group turned on to Ravenswood and started to spread out, I could feel myself settling into a nice pace behind what appeared to be an 11 year old. My inner champion refused to allow this to remain a reality for long, and I was somewhat relieved to discover it was, in fact, a 12 year old. The course was planned out to give a nice cross-section of the neighborhood: start off down Addison, move up Ravenswood to Irving Park, finally finding its way home down Clark.

Approaching the field, runners were greeted by friends, family, and my personal favorite: a group of octogenarians in Cubs gear playing tunes from their heyday in a delightful brass and woodwind ensemble. Always liking a strong finish, I kicked into a sprint for the last 100 meters through the outskirts of the ballpark and crossed the finish line like a champion. In this context, champion is short for soaking wet, tired as hell and mildly hungover.

The record breaking 8,000+ runners helped raise more than $150,000 for the Chicago Children’s Hospital ($1044.69 of which from yours truly), ran a good race and got to see some of the most beautiful parts of Chicago this side of Division. I’d say that merits waking up on a Saturday morning any week of the year.

Danny Cox is a RedEye blogger.

UPDATE: I finally found out how to access my time, for those of you who may have wondered what ‘finishing like a champion’ means in quantitative terms- 23:40.

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