Born to Run

This past Sunday (yesterday morning @ 7 am) marked the beginning of my formal training for the Chicago Marathon.

I ran with a group of about 15 men and women. We started at Colonial Lake and ran up Lockwood Drive past Joe Riley Stadium to the Citadel gate and back. The run was 5 miles long, and it went very smooth. I've been running about 4 times a week for about a month, so I have a decent base.


Running is a challenge for me. I've always excelled at sports. Growing up, I was very successful in football, basketball, and baseball, but running is different from these sports. With running, you really have to build up and strengthen your oxygen capacity and that has really been tough for me. My body is fit and my muscles are strong, but I've always struggled with lung capacity. I don't know if that is genetic, but it makes running a challenge, and I'm not used to picking up a sport and not excelling at it quickly. But I like challenges, and therefore have decided to run a marathon.

Everything about the Sunday run was inspiring. It is inspiring to wake up with the sun, and run through the city you love. We ran a beautiful path right along the harbor. The sun rose over the harbor filled with sailboats and docks.


I spoke with a girl who is training with me and she informed me that this would be her tenth marathon. The thought of that is wild to me. I don't really know what my future holds for me, in terms of running. At first I wanted to run a marathon to check it off my list, but maybe I will love distance running and run many marathons like her. Running is amazing because you can do it nearly anytime and anywhere. All you need is a pair of running shoes.

When I'm on a run, I tend to always get a thought or song in my mind that won't let go. During this run, the song was "So Alive" by Ryan Adams. I think this song flooded my thoughts because of its opening lines of ships moving through the harbor. I like this song, which is nice, because sometimes I will get a song stuck in my head that I absolutely despise.


Another thing that I've really enjoyed doing is listening to an audio book as I run. Sometimes music gets me too excited and I begin running too fast and/or breathing to hard, but audio books keep me calm as well as keeping my mind off of running.

This weekend, I will travel north to visit Meg. We will go into the city on Saturday, which I am super excited about. It's been far to long and I have a list of new places to visit, as well as older places (The Spotted Pig).
Friday night we will have dinner at Capricio and do a movie afterwards. We love sitting outside at Capricio when the weather is warm enough.

I also purchased my flight tickets to NYC for the weekend of July 4th!
Tribeca Grand!