My Run: A Pictorial

I have seen a lot of other RBF's (running blogging friends) post pictorial "stories" of their runs so thought I would do one as well. I have two areas where I do my short runs - in the neighborhood and by the lake. All of my long runs are by the lake (really long runs only get to see the lake for a portion of the run, but twice as we do out-and-backs). Today I headed down to the lake for a 4-miler and thought I would post some pics. During the high-training season, these paths are PACKED. Now there are just some random runners here and there. Bikers are back out ... they avoid these paths like the plague in the summer since there is basically no way to maintain any kind of speed on a bike with the sheer number of runners on the path. Today I only saw about 5 other runners in the whole 4 miles ... so you could say it was a quiet run :)

Here is where I started off. This area is by a driving range, just before a river we have a lot of rowers and fisherman hanging out around ... usually year round. Mile 1 finished, beginning mile 2. The river I mentioned is on the left-hand side.





The end of the second mile. Long runs take us to the end of the lake and beaches and down by Soldier Field. This is a view of Lake Michigan on the left, and the Hancock building (the tall building!) is on the right.

Turning around, this is my view heading back. 2 miles down, 2 to go.









View over a bridge I cross, 1/2 mile after the last picture (1.5 miles to go)







Heading back to the start ... I have 1 mile to go and encounter one of the few runners I saw today on the path. I think he was a bit confused by my photo-taking, but I tried to act real nonchalont about it ;)


This is sort of part of my run ... its the drive home. I just could not help but post. How cute is this??? This daycare takes babies out in style :)
Want to see some more runs?
Check out some other blogger's pictorials...
Amy has hers set to video and music (a bit too fancy for me to try and duplicate)
Database Diva's run comes with a real Lama!
Princess Runner frequently takes pics on her runs ... and posts great pics of various races. Dont forget to look for her Paul Conrad (a local Chicago weatherman) sighting!
Pat runs in AZ - where you can see real dessert and occasional tumbleweeds!

Training Log
Time:  38:46 time  Distance:4 miles   Pace:  9:41 min/mi
Theres some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that my shins really hurt during this run. They have been hurting for about 2 weeks and I attributed it to the fact I needed some new shoes. I got the new shoes and did a short treadmill run earlier this week, they still hurt. So I didnt run this week and took it easy - running again only today. Well, they still hurt. The other bad news is that all the bathrooms and water fountains along my path are out-of-comission for the winter. Its confirmed. That could be an issue for the 16 and 20 milers I have coming up. The good news? Well, I made a drs apt for Monday to check out the shins ... and to make things better in the meantime I participated in some retail therapy after my run. New sweater, wicked orange color. That helped a little. Then I went to Starbucks and got a consolatory latte and chocolate-chip cookie (always the cookies!). Feeling better already. Now I must go ice my shins.