8 Miles

October 19, 2024

Liz and I were up early today, to do a run on the north side. There was a certain hill she wanted to incorporate in her run, so we got up, ate breakfast… and were out the door all before 8AM (which is very early for us on a weekend).

The funny thing: Liz is decreasing her distances, as part of her training regimen. So today for her was “just” eight miles. And for me, it’s a longer distance than I’ve ever run (10K has been my max, and that’s around 6.2 miles).

On arriving, we saw a lot of roped off areas. And realized that we were driving into some kind of organized run. We saw tons of runners with bibs, and realized we’d be running alongside people who were actually in some kind of race.

The pathways were public spaces, but pretty full of race participants.

One nice bonus of being in the midst of all this: we got to take a break in the “finish” area. And were also able to use some of the portable bathrooms that were set up.

Looking back, it seems that this was the Chicago Country Sole race? A combination 5k / 10K / Half marathon.

We took a lot of breaks, every two miles. And for me, it was a bit of a struggle. I know it usually takes a few miles before things get comfortable, but I never quite did.

Towards the end, the last two miles were pretty rough for me. But I was able to make it through. To me still, running continuously seems to be the goal/challenge, and stopping too much makes it feel like not the same accomplishment.

But regardless, we did put eight miles under our feet. And a milestone nonetheless for me, even if there were a lot of stops along the way.