Zach Runs Chicago

When a sidewalk has steps built into it... Chicagoans walk Last weekend Brynn and I flew to California for my cousin's wedding. The wedding was in Santa Rosa so on Friday night we flew into San Francisco to stay with one of my other cousins. On Saturday morning we woke up early for an eight mile run before heading up to Santa Rosa (which is about an hour outside of San Fran). My cousin lives in Chinatown and though we knew it was hilly we were under the silly impression that we would run down to the waterfront trail and then just continue running. Almost immediately after leaving her apartment and starting to run we realized that our Chicago legs were not up to the task and we were going to need to walk the hills. I'd never been to San Francisco before, so even though I obviously knew that it was famous for its hills, I still didn't realize just how hilly those hills are. So we walked to the end of Hyde Street and got on a running/biking trail there and just start

This past weekend Brynn and I headed to Colorado for the third year in a row to hit up the Telluride Blues and Brews Festival . If you haven't heard of it, it's a pretty amazing festival - mainly because the town of Telluride itself is pretty amazing - but also because it's a relatively small music festival that manages to get relatively big bands. Last year we saw Flaming Lips, Willie Nelson and Fitz and the Tantrums. The year before that it was George Thorogood and BB King. This year wasn't a stellar lineup (to me) so we just bought one day tickets for Saturday instead of buying the whole 3-day pass like we've done before. The other part of the festival's title (the brews, that is) is also a big reason we bought Saturday tickets: on Saturday every year there's a three hour window where around 50 microbreweries give out samples of their beers. When you walk in you get a little tasting glass... and then you just walk around tasting as many beers as possib

Okay, the very first disclaimer I have to make here is that this is not a political story. For real. It just involves a politician... so let's not get all political on this. Pretty please. Anyway. So we all know that politicians lie. Right? Obama lies, Romney lies, blah blah blah. Name a politician and they lie (yes, even Ron Paul). Most of us just tend to make amends for the people we like because they're just "making a point" or stretching the truth or spinning the numbers or something like that. Right. But last week Paul Ryan lied about something super-serious: His marathon PR. (Hey, PR also stands for Paul Ryan... coincidence? Probably.) So, on to the real story. If you haven't heard already (and I bet you have if you're reading a running blog) last week in an  interview with some dude named Hugh Hewitt , Paul Ryan (Mr. PR) got asked about his running history and made a claim... Anyway just check out the awesome part of the interview: HH: