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Showing posts from October, 2012

Newcity Best of Chicago 2012 - Votes Needed From Chicago Runners!

Right now I'm working (along with everyone else at Newcity) on the twentieth anniversary edition of Newcity's Best of Chicago issue and there are a two running-related questions that you Chicago runners should weigh in on to give us the best reader data we can get (you don't want some race you thought was lame being voted the best do you??!). Anyway, here are the categories you should check out: Best Race Other Than the Marathon Best Running Store You can vote on these (along with a ton of other Best of Chicago questions) at Newcity Best of Chicago .

Running in the Texas Hill Country

Over the last six weeks or so I've run a mountain trail in Telluride, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and through Times Square in New York City (along with running in Chicago, obviously). So this weekend I took it all the way back to my homeland and ran the quiet county roads of the Texas Hill Country. I was back in Texas this weekend for my dad's 60th birthday, which we celebrated by going to San Antonio and staying at Hotel Valencia on the River Walk (which I actually always thought was condensed to "Riverwalk" until I just looked it up...). I did some running on the River Walk as well, but it's a pretty tight trail and not exactly ideal for running, even at 7 in the morning with only a few other people out. There were even two bikers, who really had no room at all to pass. But at least they didn't say "on your left" - they just said "good morning."

Men's Health Urbanathlon

Though I've been running pretty consistently, I haven't run a race since the Chicago Half Marathon last month, so it was kind of refreshing to wake up this morning and head south of Solider Field for The Men's Health Urbanathlon . I wrote about the course and the weather and the volunteers in my review for Newcity , but there is something that I want to talk about a little bit more: the hilariousness of watching really athletic dudes who clearly spend a lot of time on their physical fitness try to deal with running 11 miles. I'm not making fun of them (maybe a little) but it offered me continuous amusement on the course. Here's the thing: I know that if I tried to go into some kind of non-running physical challenge I would be crushed, but these bros seemed to think that because they work out their upper body like my homeboy (and fellow runner) Paul Ryan they could speed along this course without any running training. And they did. For a little bit. But that&

Running (all over) New York City

For the third time in a month, Brynn and I were out of town again this past weekend. This time, while everyone was running the Chicago marathon, we were in New York City where Brynn was presenting at the Performing the World conference . Since we have a lot of friends in NYC (and it's just a cool place to visit) I tagged along with her. For the last three years we've gone to NYC for the New York City Marathon (for me in 2009, Brynn in 2010 and me again last year) so it was a nice change of pace to be going to New York in the fall without running the marathon. ( Brynn actually did get in this year but deferred to next year because of Athens). We spent most of the weekend hanging out with friends (and skipping our Saturday run), but yesterday morning we mapped out and ran a fairly epic 20-mile run that covered the Queensboro Bridge, Roosevelt Island , Times Square, the Hudson River Greenway , Central Park, the Columbus Day Parade... and a stop at Pier 54 to see the David Bl