It is important to know that each time I type BEACHATHON! in my head I am exclaiming it loudly.
The Chicago Beachathon is a 4 mile race, thankfully not all on the beach, but from North Avenue beach to Ohio Beach and back, with "8 tropically outrageous beach obstacles!" You are encouraged to wear costumes, specifically hula girl attire or banana suits. Sounds perfect for us! Although we do have a banana suit, we decided against wearing it. That thing is big and hot, yo! (Thats what she said.)
Fuzzy, Claire and I were all running as a team, so we threw together some ghetto costumes. Fuzzy and I shredded our shirts, we carried big foam swords, Claire and I wore Hawaiian leis that Fz and I got at Leigh's birthday party, and Claire picked up colorful headbands for us. We were set to go!
(all photos by the very talented Steve Delahoyde, filmmaker extraordinaire and Claire's husband)
And we're off!
Awesome pic of Claire and the city. She took off!
The day was hot and sweaty and the place was packed. The obstacles were goofy and fun, like running up a hill, running through hula men and women, running under a giant net, through giant beachballs, and my favorite, a series of muddy kiddie pools and then running through the lake. We finished the race barefooted and happy. Fuzzy and I finished in about 50 minutes, which I am super proud of!
One of the incentives for doing the race was free beer! Nothing like a cold glass of beer at 10:30 in the morning after a good workout. Here are 3 very happy runners:
I think I killed mine off in about 3 minutes.
After that, continued our celebration by getting sassy haircuts from a Hollywood hairstylist (long story.)
Lookin' Good!
