Chicago, New York, Detroit, and It's All the Same Street

Took a 6:30 a.m. run on the glorious downtown Chicago lakeshore trail. If you’ve been to Chicago, or live in the Midwest, it’s a must run area.  Hundreds of runners of all shapes and shoe-sizes and speeds line the lakeside getting their groove on.

 

As cool as it was to run along the lake, I think I enjoyed running the Chicago Streets just as much.

It was early enough that the streets weren’t incredibly congested. I ran by zillions of restaurants with distinct personalities, hotels were I couldn’t afford the handsoap, and of course the early morning expensive suit-guy grasping onto a briefcase, talking into his blue-tooth, and doing his brisk ‘rat-race' walk to work. We're all runners, really.

With streets just an 8th of a mile apart, you feel like you’re zipping by buildings at record speed. It’s like an Urban Trail run where cement blocks replace the trees and Taxi’s replace the wildlife.  Trying to time the traffic lights and make it safely across zooming cars without breaking stride forces you to fartlick.

I remember this same feeling on the streets of New York, on (canceled) marathon morning. I ran through the semi-asleep New York streets towards central park listening to "Empire State of Mind' on my Ipod. It's an exhilarating feeling running on city streets where they aren’t so crowded you can bust out with some speed and be surrounded by all that urban energy. Arrows of neon and flashing marquees included.

 Back home in Detroit, runing the freep marathon gave me the chance to run streets full of my history and identity, and on marathon day, they are cleared out just for me.

The road trip was fun for the whole family. Shedd aquarium lives up to the hype. It was like walking into the Star Wars cantina. Navy Pier and the Ferrish wheel was worth doing twice, and there’s something bizarrely adorable and hypnotizing about the American Girl Store that every mommy and daddy of a doll-loving girl must see. Then it was on to the Western shore of Michigan for a day at Michigan Adventure Park (an amusement park/water park combo perfect for 7 to 11 year olds). First sunburn of the year.

Now I’m back home, where I will patch my bones, and then get back truckin on.

It's good to be running again.