Chicago had a more robust running culture than London, which I was really excited about. While it was not quite Central Park, there were a lot of solo runners and running clubs on the lakefront path, especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Since the Chicago Marathon takes place a few months after my visit, I was in Chicago during marathon training season, which seemed to play a role in how many runners I encountered along the lakefront. Chicago residents have a unique advantage for qualifying for the Chicago Marathon: individuals who complete the Chicago Distance Series in one year, a collection of distance races in Chicago, are guaranteed entry into next year’s marathon. Considering the Chicago Marathon is known for being flat and fast, making it relatively beginner friendly, it makes sense why so many people I met were training for the marathon.
Evanston Running Club
This run was probably my favorite run of the whole trip. We ran a track workout, and while there were many people there to run the workout, there were also four or five older runners present who volunteered to time each interval for the different pace groups. I ended up talking with two of them – both of them retired marathoners, but excited to be a part of the local running culture. Halfway through the speed workout, one of the women who was timing recommended that I move to a faster pace group, and after I finished the workout, we struck up a conversation, and she passed along some running advice while sharing her history with running. She picked up running at the recommendation of her boyfriend at the time, and while she did not initially think that she would enjoy running, she immediately decided to stick with it. She loved running so much that she almost immediately decided to sign up for a marathon, and even though it was quite difficult, more than anything, she said it was fun. After that first race she said she caught the marathon bug, and ran a total of 102 marathons in about 45 years. Aside from the obvious physical benefits of running, she said she relished the challenge running offered her, and liked to consistently push herself. Similar to almost everyone I talked with on the trip, she said she enjoys being outside every day and that running is a lifelong sport that has kept her healthy into her old age.
Fleet Feet
Fleet Feet is a chain running store that hosts group runs out of all of their locations. There were only about ten people at the run I went to, and, even though this was my first time at a Fleet Feet store, the small running group out of a small store had a familiar and tight-knit feeling. All of the runners were on the younger side, everyone seemed to know each other quite well, and some regulars who were closer with one another even mentioned that they had met the spouses of some of the club members when they would socialize outside of club-organized events. The person I spent the most time talking with said he frequented this running club and another one on the weekends which had hundreds of people show up. He noted that he liked the social aspect of running, but was also training for the Chicago Marathon, and doing long runs and speed workouts with people made them far more doable. He was not the only person at this run that was running the upcoming marathon; another woman said it would be her first marathon, and that she was excited to have a big goal and was looking forward to pushing herself to complete it.
Lakefront
Similar to my strategy in New York, I went to a popular place to run, and talked with runners I met there if they were comfortable speaking with me. The first woman I talked to said she did not really consider herself a runner, mostly because she was new to running and only recently began to find it enjoyable. After a series of leg injuries, she impulsively decided to run a marathon to prove to herself that she could do it, but her doctor said that it would be the only marathon she could ever run. She, like many others, plans to run the Chicago Marathon, and had just started training for it. Though she said she used to hate running, it was growing on her and she could see herself continuing to run after her marathon. Now, she likes to start her days off with a run because the endorphins set her up to have a productive day, but also because running calms her down and clears her head. Unlike working out at the gym, running meant she could exercise outside every day, but did not feel like she was sacrificing the camaraderie she felt at the gym because she would see so many other runners and knew they were all going through the same challenges.
Another woman I talked to said she only had time for a couple of questions, but was happy to answer them. Like some of the other people I encountered who run alone, she was not a fan of running in group settings because she valued the peaceful, meditative part of running that helped clear her head. More importantly, it was her main way of staying in shape, and she found that consistent exercise helped combat cognitive decline, which was becoming increasingly important to her as she got older.
Overall
I was not in Chicago for as long as I was in the other two cities, but I am content with how everything ended up working out here. It was nice to be in a city close to home, especially because I have been to Chicago many times and have friends and family there. While people in London talked a lot more about the social aspect of running, here I found that people focused more on the self-improvement aspect and how running helped them clear their heads.