Pounding the Pavement

I've been "running" pretty regularly now since June. I started out as downright horrible, and now I'd like to argue that I'm only fairly terrible! Honestly, I am not great at pushing myself physically. I have to play mental games with myself continuously. Now beyond my personal pride issues, there will likely never be a pressing reason that I'll need to be able to run 14 miles... but it's a life goal of mine none the less.

The city poses as quite the obstacle when it comes to distance running. The busy sidewalks, the noise that competes with my motivational music, and the potential stop-light every block or so really creates for an interesting atmosphere. Therefore, I've made it a habit to run to, and then along, Lake Michigan. Lately it's been a place of extremely high traffic as many (much more conditioned) runners are training for the Chicago Marathon on 10/10/10. I recently found myself in the middle of a group of runners with numbered tags, huffing along with them until there was a grassy clearing in which a woman was collecting cups that runners had tossed aside. I took this as my out, and began to help her throw the cups away. She kindly informed me that this was the "20 Miler", a marathon preparation run. Holy cow! Maybe someday I'll be that legit? Okay, probably not... hahaha!

On a different occasion I was running through an intersection and stopped stunned in my tracks as I saw Vince Vaughn approaching. I kid you not. Now as I said, I was running; so I didn't have a camera, my phone, or even a pen and so you'll just have to take my word. It wasn't until about ten paces after he'd passed that I found myself wishing I would've at least said good morning. Hopefully I'll get another chance to interact with someone of that status. After all, I live in Chicago (which is pretty stinkin' cool).

I had a another crazy running experience this past Sunday. I ran into, (don't worry , not literally), a man from the new church I've been attending/helping-to-plant (details on this to come soon, I promise). His name is "JeDay", and he's from Niger. It was a special treat to meet him that morning as he was 6 miles from his home and I was 3 from mine. The city can seem overwhelmingly big sometimes, but moments like this balance my perspective. All this to say that running has been such an awesome way to interact with the place I live; I may need to periodically consult my legs on this one, but I think I'll press on :)