Jan 18 2009
17 mile report
It was a beautiful day here in Chicago — clear skies, not too much wind, and a balmy 18 degrees. After what seemed like a grueling 8 mile pace run yesterday, I overslept and didn’t get to start my long run today as early as I’d planned. But when I finally hit the road about 2:00, the air was crisp, and all engines were go.
Surprisingly, most of the lakefront path has been cleared of snow, so the bulk of my run was really quite easy. There was, of course, this one mile, from around Oak Street south to Navy Pier (see map), where Lake Michigan likes to vomit itself up onto the path — it was about 8 inches deep in snow and ice, and very difficult going. When I passed Navy Pier (Mile 6), the big sign there told me it was 16 degrees. Around the Museum Campus there was a poorly marked detour, because a bunch of the path is being rebuilt, and I got lost for a little bit. Of course, I got lost again on my way back, and the map I attach I think only approximates what actually happened down around there. When I hit Navy Pier again on the way back (Mile 12), the temperature was down to 11 degrees.
The last four miles or so, I was running into the wind, and it was starting to get dark. I thought my face was going to freeze. In my final mile, when I re-enter the city streets, I had a couple unfortunate run-ins with pedestrians, a few of whom were walking dogs. After two and a half hours of running, one doesn’t want to break pace because others are mindlessly taking up the whole of a sidewalk, unaware of what is going on around them. In any case, I dug in, gritted my teeth, and shuffled on home. My total time: 2:43:02. Split times after the jump.
