Take Me Out to the Ball Game--and Score an Entry to Strike Out ALS 5K

Just me and my media team buds after last year's race.

Baseball and beer? They go together: You’re most likely going to sip—or slam—a brew when you’re at the ballpark. Baseball and brats? Maybe it’s a brat or maybe it’s a hot dog, but it’s the meat in a bun that you’re ordering at the concession stand before the 7th inning stretch. But baseball and running? Sure, there’s plenty of running on the field between rounding the bases and sprinting for fly balls. But if you really want a connection between the two sports, or just run a 5K anywhere besides the lakefront or Lincoln Park, you’ll find it at the Strike Out ALS 5K, which does a riff on Take Me Out to the Ballgame that any runner can appreciate.

The Strike Out ALS 5K trades the typical Chicago 5K backdrop—the lakefront, the park, the city streets—for one of the ballpark variety with a course that starts outside U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox, and finishes inside with a loop around the warning track (or at least that's how the course flowed in 2012 and 2013, but more to come on that.) And as its name would imply, it’s a race that sticks with the baseball theme from its location to its beneficiary. The 5K serves as a fundraiser for the Les Turner ALS Foundation, which is “Chicago’s leader in research, patient care, and education about ALS,” according to its website. ALS, short for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Gehrig was one of the most iconic and respected players in baseball who unfortunately had to quit the game far too soon.

Better Than Baseball: Freeing Is Believing

What's better than baseball, beer, and brats on Opening Day? Adding a little run to that season opening mix. No, it's not an April Fool's joke, only some creative planning that Chicago runners have come to expect when Nike is involved (remember Run Lucky and the Freedom Run?). Whether you've been looking forward to baseball's season to start or you just need a reason to run Friday morning, you're in luck.

NIKETOWN Chicago and Fleet Feet Chicago are teaming up once again to bring on the running fun.  This time it's all about Freeing Is Believing with the opportunity to test drive the latest Nike Free Run+ 2, get an early start to your Opening Day plans and run through the "baseball-inspired revelry of Wrigleyville." You don't need tickets to the home opener to get excited for the 162 games your favorite team, just your running buds. Right? I think so, especially since my favorite team is hundreds of miles away.

And it even seems like April 1's weather will be on their side--sorry, I'm remembering the snow that covered Chicago mere hours before the Lunar Eclipse run took off in December--with warmer temps and sunshine in the forecast. Granted you may not feel that warmth when the runs gets underway at 6:30 a.m.--7 a.m. if you're taking off from Fleet Feet--but do you really care when you're running? Not me, especially when I factor in the other bonuses that I wouldn't get if I ran alone. Running to a surprise Wrigleyville location, the chance to win prizes, a light breakfast and refreshments (but remember to bring your ID), gear check, and special T-shirts (while supplies last). And you can choose to run from three locations--Niketown, Fleet Feet Piper's Alley or Fleet Feet Lincoln Square--all based on your desired mileage for the morning and convenience.

Planning to run from NIKETOWN Chicago, at Erie and Michigan along the Magnificent Mile? You'll want to check in at 6:15 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. departure. And expect to run roughly 6 miles.

Planning to run from Fleet Feet, either Piper's Alley (1620 N. Wells) or Lincoln Square (4762 N. Lincoln)? You can check in at both locations at 6:45 a.m. for a 7 a.m. departure. It's about a 4-mile run from Piper's Alley and a 3-mile run from Lincoln Square. For more info and to RSVP, visit this event page.

Consider it your excuse to skip out on work for the day and one that your boss can't blame completely on Opening Day. Even if you can't have a completely free day as Nike has deemed this April 1, the event should wrap up before you have to be at the office. And just think: your workout will be done before the baseball games even begin. I'll have to remind myself of that Friday morning when my alarm goes off and I want to hit snooze.

14 Days to Boston Marathon: And It's One, Two, Three Strikes You're Out

If only marathons allowed for a seventh inning stretch: Stop the clocks when a runner needs to break, maybe stretch sore calf muscles, chow down a gel without its contents sloshing through your system, visit a porta-pottie. But alas, that's not the case, and my reference to the famed chorus that reverberates through the stands at a baseball game refers not only to Opening Day of the 2009 baseball season but to an event that coincides with Boston Marathon race day.

While the runners travel from Hopkinton to Copley Square, they know they'll pass through several towns; the campuses of Boston College, Boston University and Wellesley; and pass by Fenway Park and the Citgo sign that dot Boston culture. But what you might not know is that the marathon isn't the only event taking place on Patriots' Day in Beantown...Fenway is packed to the rafters with Red Sox fans for a special midday game that typically wraps up as the marathoners are making their way into Boston proper. The crowds thicken, adding to the race fever, and the cheers roar on.

Local legend--or one passionate fan--professes that the Red Sox have played on their home turf every Patriots' Day since 1960, with the exception of off days in 1965 and 1967 and the players' strike in 1995. They're also the only team in major league baseball to host a morning game, a tradition they've stuck to since 1903--at least for the most part since they had to share daytime rights with the Braves when Boston was still a two-team town. The game starts at 11:05 a.m. and spectators flood into Kenmore Square to watch the runners afterward.

The Red Sox record on Patriots' Day stands at 65-48 through 2008. In 2008, the Sox won 8-3 against the Texas Rangers. This year, they're set to play the Baltimore Orioles. And the stakes are on the line for the Sox to keep up their winning streak: They haven't lost on Patriots' Day since 2003, and the streak started with a win against the Yankees in 2004. Photo grabbed from Claire A Taiwan. Posted by Kate