Friday's Featured 5k of the Week - O'Hare Runway 5k

Continuing with our them of airport 5Ks - today is the O'Hare Runway 5k.

The O'Hare Runway 5k usually takes place in October - their registration site it not up yet.

This 5k starts in a remote parking area adjacent to the airport property.  Participants park for free.  Prior to the start of the race there are several food trucks and booths to visit with excellent breakfast foods, and warm drinks, as is usually needed on an October morning.  In addition they have fitness booths and they do lead the participants in some warm-up exercises and aerobics.  One very nice aspect of starting in a parking lot - runners can park very close to the start/finish line!

The course then heads down a service road for about 1/4 of a mile then turns onto another service road for a short distance, then through the gates onto a narrow access road over a drainage ditch (providing the only elevation on the course - about 6 inches) and then onto the runways!!!

The airport is live at all times and planes are coming and going overheard constantly.  With O'Hare being much larger than Midway, these runways are quite a distance from the active runways.  And here is the major difference between the two 5Ks - this one actually puts runners on real runways, where Midway stayed on access roads and taxiways.

This course, as expected, is a fast course for those that run for speed and personal records.  Very (very) long straightaways throughout and very flat (naturally).  Basically the course goes down a very long straightaway then turns to another long straight, then hairpins back to a straight, and then another near hairpin onto another straight - and then the coolest part of the course....

The track heads straight towards a giant United Airlines jet - parked at the end of the course just before another turn.  Runners almost (almost) run directly underneath the wing.  This also provides the only congestion of the race as participants stop for photo-ops or slow their pace.  But there it is, larger than life - a full sized jet - right on the 5k course.

The course then heads back across the access road and onto the service roads for a nice long sprint - in front of many spectators back to the finish line.

Upon completion, the food trucks are still there, now offering cold drinks instead of hot drinks.

AND, up on the stage, a live band!!!!

A great race - one of those cool opportunities to do something different.  How many people can say they've run on an actual runway?