Zach Runs Chicago

It snowed all night. And it snowed all morning. And, as I write this, it is still snowing. In short, it's pretty snowy out there in Chicago right now. This morning - along with a number of other people who didn't know whether to be excited or concerned about all the snow - I ran the  Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis . And as the title of this blog implies, it was way more than just a typical Chicago road/sidewalk/Lakefront Trail race:

Before 6 hours of city chasing ...based on the challenges we did (and didn't) complete. If you did City Chase this year then maybe this list will remind you of the challenges you chose to take on (assuming there was some overlap). If not, maybe this will inspire you to take it on next year. If you're into the element of surprise (which is part of what makes City Chase so fun) then don't read any further (spoiler alert and all that). I won't be listing all the specifics about any of the challenges so there should still be some mystery around the challenges but this list should definitely give you a leg up if you're just looking to know more before you take this thing on yourself. For a review of the event as a whole (not a detailed recounting of this year's challenges) check out my Newcity review . Anyway, here we go. Since we picked up our packets and whatnot at one of the locations earlier in the week we didn't have to arrive at the starting lin...

Brynn and I went to the " Eat & Run Experience " at Fleet Feet last night and it turned out to be an even better event than we expected. First of all, there were wayyyyy more people taking part in the running part than we expected - more than a hundred (maybe 150). We got taken out to the Benjamin Franklin statue in Lincoln Park to get ready for the run and Scott Jurek and Chris McDougall joined everyone around 6:30.  There was a moment of silence for Caballo Blanco and then we just started running. Scott and Chris (who was running barefoot) were just running in the pack along with everyone else. We ran next to Chris for a while and listened to him talk to people and basically just have a good time. When we turned around at Fullerton, Scott was waiting on the side of the trail giving everyone high-fives. It was just a really awesome run and a great experience. One thing: it was listed as a 4-mile run but ended up being just short of 2.5 (but who's counting right...

This morning my wife and I woke up around 6:20, and not just to get the most hours out of our 6th anniversary. We were celebrating by running the United Run for the Zoo together. She's been pretty busy with school over the last several months so this is the first run she's been able to do with me, which was pretty exciting. We took a bus to the starting line and walked around the zoo for a little while - we had plenty of spare time since packet pickup was so well-organized. We were going to walk over and see the polar bear (I pretty much always say hi to the polar bear, the sun bear and the lions when I run through the zoo in the morning), but instead we just said hi to this big pacing cat. He really seemed like he wanted to take part in the run:   ...or maybe he was just weirded out by how many people were walking around so early in the morning.  After getting our bibs and race shirts (which are pretty impressive, by the way) we checked a bag and then headed over ...

In February I went to an unveiling event for the new Nike Plus Fuelband : And it's a pretty sweet looking little device right? Here's a brief description of what it does, from the website: "Nike+ FuelBand tracks your activity through a sport-tested accelerometer. Then translates every move into NikeFuel. Nike+ FuelBand tracks running, walking, dancing, basketball - and dozens of everyday actions. " And if you're not really an athlete, as the presenter said at the unveiling, "...it's also a cool watch." Though he also made sure to add that "If you have a body, you are an athlete." And even though I'd argue that this thing is actually designed to measure every other type of exercise besides running (it can obviously measure the energy you burn while running, but it's not a GPS tracker that can give you your pace or distance), after testing it out that night (in a series of larger-than-life exercises on Soldier Field involving catc...

My weather app tells me it's 80 degrees outside, but as soon as I hit the street it feels like someone has turned on the a/c. Ten minutes ago I thought it was summertime and now I'm noticing other runners wearing long-sleeve shirts and walkers wearing light jackets... At this point any Chicagoan who's been through at least one winter here is telling me to shut my mouth (or still my fingers, I guess) right now because I'm complaining about a cool breeze on an 80 degree day in mid-March; I'm actually complaining about running weather that's just about as perfect as can be. Okay, point taken. But still, it was surprising how quickly the weather changed based on winds off the lake. Still, I alter my plan to run to the lakeshore trail, feeling the wind coming off the lake (even on Dearborn), and decide to just head to Lincoln Park. I wave to the stony Lincoln statue, as he sits on his throne eying a yoga practitioner attempting to impress him with her flexibility bef...