Runabout

Hello hello!

I’m alive! I didn’t drown, or get mugged or die of too much salt on my face, although that last option was close.

So, I totally did it. I thought maybe the night before I just might chicken out and stay home and watch TV and go to the movies, but I didn’t!

I got up when John did, got myself all ready, took the train down with him and kept going a smooch further to take myself to the Museum of Science & Industry! It was so crazy!

But what a beautiful day, I honestly could not have picked a better day for my runabout. The museum was closed Monday and it was just silent all around, I was going to run in Hyde Park for a bit but I chickened out and basically headed straight for the lakefront path. Glad I did, it was silent along there, with enough bikers and runners to at least make me feel safe. It took me awhile to get started, to really run and stop and run and stop like I wanted, I kept stopping too early and hardly running at all, but after about an hour I totally got into it.

I loved knowing I was running on ground I had never stepped foot on in my life.

Sweeney Todd definitely helped me through, one of the greatest moments being the water shooting up on the rocks in time with the music.

I felt so alone, so like this was between me and me, no one was watching, no one was monitoring me, this was between me and the lakefront and I conquered! I went out on piers and meditated by the lake, I got smiles from other runners and walkers, I found perfectly placed bathrooms and ran about 9 miles from the museum to the Merchandise Mart to have lunch with John. I felt pretty good about then, a little tired but nothing horrible (running through the loop with everyone in their suits was definitely fun too), we ate lunch and I started out again.

The run home from the Mart was a bit rougher! I definitely ran more in this half, mostly because I just wanted to get home; it was way more of a fight in this second half. By Fullerton I thought “maybe I should just get on the bus” but Fullerton, compared to what I had done, was SO CLOSE! I forced myself to keep going…and by Belmont, I realized it was easier to keep running, no matter how slow, rather than stop and walk and then run. So I made the final push from Irving Park and made it home, broken, ecstatic, proud, tired, hungry, happy…

Overall it was totally awesome, it was all about me, it was all about my health, not once did my breath give out; it was always my legs that were tired, not my lungs. The day was beautiful, Chicago was beautiful and I was strong and proud.

And last night was just awesome, with an Epsom salt bath and John made a delicious HUGE healthy dinner and I treated myself to a delicious HUGE cookie.

All in all I ran 15 miles, and only Nike’d what I actually ran, if you add in what I walked, it would be another 2-3 miles I’m sure, I burned 1600 calories and made it so the rest of my life I will never believe how people run a marathon, but at the same time I took away some of the fear of running I still held, that I was never really sure how far I could push myself. Now my three mile sprints and runs will be CAKE.

Mmmmmm…..cake.