Training Log Archive: chitownclark

Event: Chicago Half Marathon
 

Chicago Half Marathon. With Sari..and 15 000 others. Started in Hyde Park, on the southside of Chicago. They shut down five miles of Lake Shore Drive for the event, and we ran up and down that section. In addition it was a beautiful sunny morning, with a nice gentle breeze off the blue Lake. Ken deBeer, from SLOC, recognized me at the 5-mile point and said hello. He was up here to shadow his son, who was doing his first half marathon. Of the three half-marathons I've run this season, this was the slowest. I can only guess it was the heat and the shortage of adequate training.

C • Why not orienteering Sunday?? 3

Down/back to Hyde Park at 6am for the early start (27 mi); then to Lincoln Square for the German-American Fest with plenty of Hofbrauhaus beer, roasted brats, and German plum cake.

CARA Half Marathons - Splits

Around Chicago on a fresh and sunny late summer day: to Humboldt Park for a TreeKeepers class on saving and maintaining urban trees; to Farmers' Market for fresh corn and tomatoes; up to Skokie for a lecture on assisted suicide from Dr Larry Egbert, one of the Final Exit "guides" arrested in Georgia for assisting the suicide of a FBI decoy. That guy may be 81, but he sure doesn't look it.

It is incredible how a group such as Final Exit can be hounded out of existance by authorities. Since his arrest, Dr Egbert has lost most of his teaching and consulting positions...just because of his association with this group. And 80% of the group's "guides" have resigned, fearing similar prosecution.

We all agreed that the primary message Final Exit had to deliver was that of Freedom of Choice...ensuring that terminally ill people know that they have the freedom to shorten their painful years with doctor-assisted suicide. Yet even the ACLU won't take up this cause.

I've already given this group a couple thou, to make sure there's a "guide" available when/if needed. But confronting the age of 70 with a terminal illness, without such options, strikes me as purely medieval.

With clubs: to/from course and train station, in Loop over to Union Station, and way out to end of Navy Pier for packet pick-up for Sunday.

Renwood GC, Round Lake Beach. By self. Way out to NW suburbs for this interesting course. First time this year, and pulled a couple strokes off my PR here. Very nice day, super sunny.

Walk through countryside, from train to golf course and back, along tracks.

The Sanctuary GC, New Lenox. By self. Long train ride, almost to Joliet. Then walked along tracks to golf course cart paths, and to clubhouse. This was a tough course...very narrow fairways, with lots of sand bunkers, water and high roughs. Lost a lot of balls. Got psyched by the challenge and hit very few fairways.

Started play with two out-of-work carpenters. They insisted on teeing off from the Blue back tees...so I joined them so we wouldn't have to wait. Then on the 11th hole they quit, scooted away, and I was on my own for two holes. Then some other guy drove up in his cart and joined me on the 13th tee, and two others joined us on the 15th tee. But my game was shot by that time, and the extra spectators just caused a complete breakdown. I've got to look for higher-priced courses that aren't so crowded...I can't take the audience!

Run along Lakefront with Jari from Finland. I met Jari Välikorpi at the Fin5 last year and invited him to stay here with Sari and me when he visited Chicago. Running with him is good training, since he runs just fast enough to stay a few paces ahead of me. But is very patient, and refrains from running away from me...as I wish he would so I could slow down!

Park Forest 5 miler. With Sari. Took a Sharecar 40 miles south to this distant south suburb. Cool, foggy morning. A much smaller race (400) than it used to be twenty years ago in its heyday (2000+), when it was ten miles long and ran five miles through Sauk Trail Woods (Home of the Saukies indians).

Felt rested and fit; started off at a good pace, trying to keep my Finn wife in sight. Passed a couple guys that looked about my age, and came in at 52 even, 4:16 faster than a five-mile race I did last year, and my fastest in four years. Shows the value of my returning hormonal balance. But no where close to Sari, who ran a 47:42.

Park Forest is a 1940's-style planned community similar to Sweden and the UK. But unlike the European planned communities, Park Forest has been sliding downhill for 30 or more years, since its major central shopping center folded...Americans just don't like being "forced" to do anything.

Such as walk to your distant car. Housing units were clustered in parkland, with limited parking nearby. Parkland and play areas have now been paved over for extensive parking lots adjacent to all housing.

Or live modestly. Housing was originally small, with restrictive zoning preventing enlargement. Zoning code has been vastly revised to encourage adding-on.

Or live in multiethnic neighborhoods. Unlike most of the rest of Chicago's suburbs in the 1950's Park Forest had no restrictive lease covenants regarding race or ethnicity. Park Forest is now almost half black. But I have to say, everyone still seems to get along fine.

Or walk to shop, work and recreation. The community was originally honeycombed with pedestrian walkways through forested parkland...most walkways have been enlarged into wide streets.