What a beautiful spring weekend for racing! The Good Life Race on Sunday was a fun, unique race in Oak Park convenient for both city-dwellers and suburbanites, brought to you by the Oak Park Runners Club. It’s also both a CARA Circuit race and RRCA Championship race.
Early bird packet pickup is held at Fleet Feet. The technical t-shirt is beautiful dark aqua blue color this year with the virtual packet being available online with coupons for local business and races.
There’s four unique race options- Youth Mile, women’s 5k, men’s 5k, and junior dash. The four races are held separately, making it the ultimate family friendly event. For example, father and the children can watch the mother race the 5k, the mother and children can watch the father race the 5k, and then later the parents can watch (or run with) their children in the Junior dash. The 5k course itself is fairly fast with only few turns and a downhill for the finish line. The turns make it tricky if there’s quite a few people near you, but the downhill for the finish make it a worthwhile 5k race.
This was the first year that Lively Athletics, local women’s athletic store, sponsored the women’s race. The women’s 5k had almost 500 participants (slightly more than the men’s). The course was slightly sunny, but also had some shade covering. The weather was ideal with 55 degrees for the race, e.g. warm enough for a racing outfit of shorts and a singlet.
There was only five people in my age group, so while I did not PR, it was easy to place fourth in my age group. The Good Life race is one I’d definitely do again (I’ve now done it three times), since there’s great course support and organization.
Post-race, there’s lots of snacks including Kind bars, bananas, Gatorade in the finish line chute. There’s also pizza, Jimmy John’s, inside the Oak Park and River Forest High school (so yes, there’s also real bathrooms for usage). The award ceremony is also held inside with plaques for top three participates in each age group. Bonus, there’s also a Health Fair in the high school with free massages, discounts, swag, and more.
Top 3 Female
1 Kristen Heckert 16:21.7 30 5:16 min/m
2 Alyssa Schneider 16:42.2 24 5:23 min/m
3 Chirine Njeim 17:27.7 32 5:37 min/m
Top 4 Male
1 Kevin Havel 14:33.0 27 4:41 min/m
2 Oscar Medina 14:46.1 24 4:45 min/m
3 Matt Marol 15:02.3 25 4:51 min/m
Top Youth Mile
1 Liam Newhart 6:14.5 12 6:14 min/m
2 Cole Shepherd 6:25.3 11-12 6:25 min
3 Deo Campbell 6:26.9 9-10 6:26 min/m
