Monday's Featured 5k of the Week - Warm Your Heart 5k

In honor of the Blackhawks Stanley Cup Championship last night - I did not spend time writing the Monday blog entry.  I knew nobody would be reading it last night anyhow.

Also, in honor of the Victory - I decided to write about a Chicago 5k, preferably one that takes place in Grant Park (where the celebration will likely be held).  Found out that I have written about all of the Chicago 5Ks that I have participated in already.  Except this very unique one - the Warm Your Heart 5k.

This is a COMPLETELY INDOOR 5k (during hockey season, so there is the tie-in).  Yep, 100% completely indoors - all 5k.  Not "in a parking garage" - but actually inside a building!

The entire 5k course is laid out using 2 full-size exhibition halls (including the adjoining hallway) inside McCormick Place.  The course starts in one hall - weaves, weaves, and weaves some more - then moves into an adjacent smaller hall - and weaves, weaves, weaves again.  Then there is a rather long straight-away (at least, in comparison to the rest of the course) which leads runners to the next exhibition hall.  At this point the course crosses a hallway - which provides a perfect spot for supporters to cheer on the runners, albeit briefly.  Then into the next hall, which, you guessed it, has weaving, weaving, then some weaving, and then, weaving.  The course ends by running the perimeter of that exhibition hall, which allows for 3 decent size straight-aways leading to the finish line.  The course begins in one exhibition hall and ends in another.

The major plus to this event - is PERFECT "weather", as the building is climate controlled and has no humidity, rain, or snow.  The running surface is basically concrete, but somehow feels softer than a street.

The negative, for those looking at setting PRs - with at least 100 hairpin turns - this course would be considered "slow".  There are no elevation changes though, so that's a plus in that department.  But really, this race isn't about setting speed records, it's about the novelty of running indoors.  It also provides Chicagoans a winter race that isn't snow covered, ice covered, or brutally cold.

Definitely a fun race, kinda cool seeing people over and over - runners almost become best buddies while on the course as they keep seeing each other after every turnaround.  Early passing opportunities are hard to find due to the narrowness, but it's not too bad - the race gets into a rhythm pretty quickly and becomes less congested in a rather short time.

100% indoors!!!