Zach Runs Chicago

Last month I tested out a new running app called Motigo . It’s an app that, as the website says, is “the best way for runners and their biggest fans to make race day special.” That might be a bit of a stretch but it is certainly an interesting concept. What Motigo does is let runners receive cheers from their friends and family during a race - it runs in the background of whatever app you're already using (whether it's just to play music or to do some kind of fitness tracking). I know this sounds a bit unnecessary – I thought of Voxer and Snapchat, or just plain old calling someone, but those all require interaction with the phone when you want to be focusing on running – but passively receiving cheers from familiar voices through your headphones while running is an experience I hadn’t considered. So I gave it a try at the Oktoberfest 5K. Approaching the starting line with my plan to beta test this app, I realized something about myself with minutes to go before the race...

"Welcome to the dark side of the running world!" my uncle Jay says to me Monday morning. He's only partly joking... if that much. Because this weekend I did indulge in what to many (including those involved) would be considered the "dark side of the running world." Running a race with my uncle in the Ouachita National Forest sounds innocuous enough. But when you add in the additional fact that the race covered 100.3 miles and lasted almost 30 hours, it certainly starts to sound a lot crazier. And though I only personally covered 48 of those 100.3 miles as my uncle's pacer, I can say with relative certainty, that it is as crazy as it sounds. This guy doesn't even know what he's getting into - but check out those gaiters Founded in 1991, the Arkansas Traveller 100 was one of the earlier 100-mile races to come into existence. Winding through the mountain trails of the Ouachita National Forest, it's both a beautiful tour of the countryside an...

Sometimes as a mature adult with responsibilities and goals you have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, put on your running shoes and go out and run 8 miles... in the shape of a dick. So that's what RunKeeper and I did this morning on the streets of Chicago. I feel so accomplished: Thank you to the original dick-runner for the inspiration. My crude run-drawing skills are nothing to yours Claire.

Sometimes those of us who live in the city can forget what a big deal the Bank of America Chicago Marathon is. Well, not really, that would be pretty hard to do considering just what a big deal it actually is. But, when you’re used to living in the city (and maybe you have a few Chicago Marathons under your belt) you can forget that this is a World Marathon Major (an elite group of marathons that only includes Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York City and Tokyo). And while we may just be taking the train downtown to run on October 12th, people will be coming from all over the world to run this marathon. Joe O’Reilly is one of those people. Coming in from Dublin next month, Chicago will mark O’Reilly’s 7th marathon (he’s previously completed four in Ireland as well as Paris and Berlin). Four years ago he wouldn’t have guessed he’d be making this trip. “I got into running as part of a weight-loss journey I took four or so years ago where I lost about 90-95 pounds,” says O’R...

Back in April, after the Ravenswood Run , I got a post-race massage that was especially memorable to me (if you've gotten enough post-race massages, you probably know that they're helpful, but they also kind of start to blend together). This one was different and I wrote about it at the time (from April ): Before I left though I got a free 10-minute sports massage from Molly Coeling . She and another massage therapist were there for the Fleet Feet No Boundaries group but they were nice enough to let me slip in and get a massage as long as I promised to hop up if anyone from the No Boundaries group came over while I was there. I told her about my IT-band injury from last year and she worked over my left side pretty well. Definitely something I needed done before I headed to the second race (and just in general). Luckily no one from No Boundaries came over while I was there so I got the full massage.  This week, with my IT-band acting up and the Chicago Ma...

A foggy morning for a swim/bike/run On Saturday morning at Montrose Beach I completed my second triathlon: the Chicago Triathlon SuperSprint. There were a few differences between this one and the North Shore Triathlon that I did last year . The first difference was that this was a SuperSprint rather than a Sprint distance (375m swim | 10K bike | 2.5K run vs 750m swim | 20K bike | 5K run) or about half the distance. The second was that I was a part of the inaugural Divvy Wave of the SuperSprint, meaning that rather than needing to bring my own bike (or in the case of last year, Fuzzy's bike), I just showed up at the race site in the morning, grabbed a Divvy and set up my tri station stuff around it. For your typical triathlete I would say that this is a less than ideal set-up. You're not going to have the bike you want and definitely not the speed you want and if you're going for time, you're going to be disappointed. However, for someone dabbling in the tria...

The Freedom Trail - it even sounds American How American was your run today? Not as American as mine. For serious. Today I ran the most American run possible: The Freedom Trail . There was a little bit of Commonwealth Avenue thrown in there for good measure but, for the most part, this run was all Freedom Trail - from the Visitor Information Center in Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument and the USS Constitution, I ran all the history today. And if you're ever visiting Boston, I definitely recommend it - if you can stand that much history in one run. So here are some pictures from the run to highlight some of the most impressive/memorable spots along the trail. These placards are sprinkled throughout the trail and typically signify a site to check out