Schaumburg runners go for the chilly chili race

For about 10 years, local runners have gambled on the weather of the first Saturday in December to take part in the Schaumburg Park District's 5K Chilly Chili Race at the Schaumburg Golf Club.

And while temperatures have sometimes been worse than this year's windy 30s, they've rarely been better.

"This is actually really nice," said winner Omar Alhayek, 18, of Schaumburg. "It's ideal."

A member of Harper College's cross country team, and an alumnus of Schaumburg High School's, Alhayek led Saturday's pack of 114 runners through the hilly course with a time of 18 minutes, 28 seconds.

Alhayek has run the race in brutally cold temperatures as well as in the relatively balmy 40s. But in terms of how warm he felt after running 3.1 miles faster than anyone else, Saturday was just perfect.

Though she took more than twice as long as Alhayek, former Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 director of academic improvement Sonya Whitaker considered the day of her first 5K race to have been just as successful.

Now superintendent of Fairmont School District 89 in Lockport, Whitaker wanted to set new goals of physical fitness for herself this year, as well as pay her respects to the community where she got her start as a school administrator. The 5K Chilly Chili Race allowed her to do both at once.

Cheered on by her husband, mother and young son Jalen, Whitaker met all three of her goals - to finish, to run continuously throughout the race and to not be last.

Though she felt prepared, there was one moment of panic when she passed the one-mile sign and realized she was farther from the end of the course than she'd imagined.

"When I saw that one-mile sign, I dug deep down and said, 'I can do this!'" she said.

As someone who speaks nationally, Whitaker said she plans to incorporate the experience of her first race into future talks.

Schaumburg Park District Fitness Supervisor Alyssa Danca said that although part of the race's appeal is the challenge of colder weather, the presence of slippery ice is the only factor that could cancel the event and did one year.

Having vanquished this year's cold, the runners eagerly tucked into chili, hot dogs, bratwurst and beer in Chandler's restaurant in the golf course clubhouse afterward.

The race is sponsored by Alexian Brothers Health System and Dick Pond Athletics.