City Running, for reals

On Friday, Leah and I went for a 12 mile run throughout the city. It was quite the trek, I must say. We started on Iowa and Western (Iowa's 900 North), went East a mile to Ashland, zig-zagged around like crazy (Leah can fill in the details, but we hit Cortland, Southport, Lincoln, and a few others) all the way North to Montrose (4400 North). Given that there are 8 block to a mile, this was still almost not enough and we had to do a bit more zigging on the way home.

It's crazy, I know.

City running is so different than running on the lakefront path. For one thing, the blocks are relatively short, so a milestone is never far off. As a result, it seems like you are travelling a long ways, but the watch tells a different story. I find it takes a lot more mental discipline to run far in the city than along the lakefront. Between the difficulty in estimating distance and the lack of a well-worn route (so far, we just moved out here), the miles don't just slip way like on the lakefront path. That being said, the marathon will be run in the city, so I do believe this to be very good training for the marathon.

Finally, the real difficulty with running on the city sidewalks is the concrete. The entire 12 miles was on concrete and that was some serious pounding. I felt it all the way up into my hips and my feet got really sore. While the run was still good, I definitely felt the impact of each step more than I prefer. But, hey, high impact's good for ya. We don't want no sissy runners around here.

I'm not ragging on running in the city versus the lakefront path, mind you. I'm just noting that it's a bit harder. That being said, I really like winding my way through all the different neighborhoods and exploring new areas of the city. It's the only way to get around. Still, I'm pretty happy that the 17 milers later today will take place primarily on the lakefront path because my calves, shins and knees could really use a break.

They be achy.