Take a joggling tour of Chicago

Yesterday was a beautiful day for joggling in Chicago. Sunny, with just the right temperature. I had a 20+ miler planned and wasn’t feeling great about doing it. Not because I was tired or sore or anything, just because exercising for 3+ hours is a daunting task. I wasn’t looking forward to another joggling run over the same Lakefront path.

Then I realized you can choose any running path you want. If you are bored with your usual running route, just create a whole new one. Don’t worry about the miles. The long run for marathon and ultra marathon training is less about miles and more about time on your feet.

If you know how far & fast you want to go, do a little multiplication to determine how long you need to run. For example, 20 miles at 8 min/mile is 2:40 minutes. I wanted to go a bit further than 20 miles so I decided to run for 3 hours or so.

To make the run more interesting I thought a “joggling tour of Chicago” might be cool. Instead of the usual lake path running, I headed for some of the great sites in my own city.

Joggling tour of Chicago

Sears Tower. First up was one of the tallest buildings in the world. It seemed just yesterday that I was joggling up the stairs to the top. This day, I merely bounced one of my Gballz off the side and kept running.

Art Institute of Chicago. Continuing east on Adams takes you to this local treasure. Two stony lions great you at the stairs. Amusingly, they treat these mighty creatures like those dress-up geese people have on their front porches. Last fall they were wearing Bears jerseys and helmets. Not this day however. I bounced a beanbag off the statue and kept running.

Buckingham Fountain. If you’ve seen the tv show “Married with Children” then you’ve seen our city’s most impressive fountain. I joggled up to the fence, felt the mist of water on my face, and moved along to the next landmark.

Field Museum. At museum park you can knock-off a number of famous Chicago sites. This museum is home to mummies and dinosaur bones. I pondered the Darwinian controversy as I joggled by. This summer there are also a number of decorated globes throughout museum park. They were great to look at.

Soldier Field. Da Bears! Really, it doesn’t look like a flying saucer.

Adler Planetarium. Here you can see a great sky show. On my tour, I joggled up the stairs, bounced a beanbag off the door, and ran to the next location.

Shed Aquarium. The biggest fish tank in the city. As I joggled around the building a stiff headwind wrecked havoc with my joggling bags.

Navy Pier. Just north of Museum Park is the famous Navy Pier. I usually pass it on the lake front path but this time I joggled to the end of the pier (about half a mile). The lake looked beautiful.

Olive Park. This park is right next to Navy Pier. Forget the fact that it’s right next to a water filtration plant, it is a great place to take a stroll, and a joggle for that matter.

Lincoln Park Zoo.  One of the best free zoos in the country.  As I joggled through I saw lions, tigers, bears, camels and even a few sea lions. 

Wrigley Field.  Home of the lovable losing Chicago Cubs.  But recently they haven’t been losing much.  I joggled by the park and saw all the people filing in for a noon game.  “Peanuts”, “Tickets”, “Who needs 2?”  I love baseball.  I bounced a beanbag off the brick wall of the bleachers and moved on.

DePaul University.  The final site on my joggling tour, my old alma mater.  Things have changed since I graduated in 1992, but it still looks great.  I went into one of the building where I had many of my classes for a drink of water.  It still smells the same.

By the time I got home, I was tired.  The whole tour took 3 hours and covered just short of 22 miles.  It was fun.

So next time you have a workout that you’re not looking forward to, take a tour of your own town. There’s got to be something interesting that you haven’t seen in a while.

For the entire route, check out the joggling tour map on mapmyrun.com.