I plan to write something semi-profound about why I run over the weekend. Suffice it to say, my reasons and motivations are different from both of my fellow bloggers. Nor can I wax eloquent about triathlons since I have never done one. (Was signed up for a sprint one once but it was thunder storming that morning so I went back to bed).
All I can offer for the moment is a lovely 10 miler as I prepare for the Chicago half-marathon in a couple of weeks. I was a little bored running up and down the lakefront so I zigzagged my way south west through the back streets of various neighborhoods on my way to my turn around point in the middle of Humboldt Park. This is the old immigrant neighborhood which Saul Bellow made famous in The Adventures of Augie March ("I am an American, Chicago Born..."). It also happens to be where my dad grew up. The park itself is gorgeous and the neighborhood was begun to gentrify particular on the east and north sides. Sadly that gentrification has swallowed my dad's former home, which is now a Walgreen's.
It was glorious weather, a good pace even with occasional breaks for traffic, and plenty of neighborhood sights. Given that Chicago is a basically a grid with few diagonal streets (and none running the proper way on my way home) I didn't have to worry about distance and once I hit my turn-around, I could take any combination of streets home. The feet held up nicely even on all pavement, which was an important test for the Chicago half which is an awesome race but all streets.
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