Stupid Football

What kind of sport is that, anyway? You know what a real sport is? Running forward for a long time until you stop.

Football. Pfft.

Why am I raging against football? Well, today Leah and I were scheduled to run 400's today for our weekly speedwork and we had begun doing at the Wheaton College track. It was really great last time and was absolutely perfect for the 400s (being both round and 400 meters long). However, this track encircles a football field. See where I'm going with this?

Yep, there was a football practice going on during our speedwork time. I had half a mind to go up there and tell them how inconsiderate it was of them to be using the track on our time. I was this close to doing it, but at the last minute I managed to restrain myself and instead sat in the car impotently before driving off. I think they got the point, though.

So now we were faced with the question of what to do now? None of the options that came to mind were particularily appealing. We could drive back to Chicago and run the sprints there, but as soon as we started to do that we heard something on the radio about I-290 (our highway of choice) being a big sticky mess of evil, so that made us quickly re-think this decision. Heading back to the lab was an option, but we had just succeeded in escaping work, so returning seemed like admitting defeat. I say Boooo! to that.

Suddenly, Leah had an idea! (wee!) There was about 55 minutes until the train would arrive to take us back to Chicago, so we could park at the train station and then run from there. 20 minutes out and 20 minutes back would be a nice little run and would suffice as a workout. And, with the Shamrock Shuffle being just 4 days away, doing a milder workout was fairly appealing.

As luck would have it, the suburbs of Chicago all have a series of trails going through all the surrounding woodsey areas and one of these trails started at the Wheaton train station. It was really quite nice. We ran out and back at a nice little clip and finished in plenty of time for the train. It was a running miracle!

Once we got back into the city, we were reminded of why we haul ass all the way out into the suburbs each and every day. While waiting for the subway to take us back to our neighborhood, we were treated to a couple of guys playing a clarinet and drums while a bunch of people in sombreros danced around them. I could have watched them all night (but I didn't).

While heading home, we passed by Wrigley as we always do and Leah snapped a couple of pictures. Opening day is less than a week away! Go Cubs!

And just because...