Fit-Pic: Maiden Voyage

Do you ever have those days where whatever you're trying to say just doesn't want to come out of your mouth the way you want to say it? Imagine that and you'll reach my current situation, but it's with words and not speech. So while I'm hoping to find my words on my run, I leave you with this picture.

These shoes are about to make their maiden voyage on the Lakefront Path. They're clean, they're shiny, they're springy, they're not tread upon. Their only downfall: They were already laced and too tight for my left foot's pleasure. But my lower half is liking them and I've only padded down the hallway. And the pain I've been feeling in my right leg--a result of the beating I've been giving my body as it gets used to running more than once a week? Gone.

Here's the hoping I can knock out the six miles I was dreading earlier and regain the words I've been desperately searching for all day. But in the meantime, can you name the shoes I'm running in, pictured above?

Shoes provided by Fleet Feet Chicago.

Fit-Pic: Finish on the 50

Now that's a way to finish a race: at the 50-yard line on the grass at Soldier Field. More than 12,000 runners made that a reality this morning at the Soldier Field 10 Mile, Chicago's way of welcoming Memorial Day Weekend. To borrow a phrase used by Fleet Feet when it promotes the race, did you finish on the 50? 

Time to go enjoy the rest of the three-day weekend.

The Random Stuff You See While Running

Never expected I'd see musicians while running today.

Lately my Wednesday runs have been more entertaining than I'd expect them to be. It's not like I'm running at a set time and see the same people, but it's more that my helter-skelter schedule is about as varied as the people and things I see on the lakefront. Take last week...or the week before...or the week before that. Every Wednesday I've had to run. Yet every Wednesday I've been on the path at a different time, running different mileage, and noticing different things that make me feel like I've escaped into a virtual Highlights for Children puzzle where you have to select the items that are out of place. What I spied may not have been out of place--after seeing Speedo guy time and again I'm convinced that anything goes on the Lakefront--but it was enough for me to remember it an hour later and forget about the distance I had to run. Here's what I saw:

• A fire truck and a Univision news truck at North Ave. Beach. I've heard that fire trucks and police vehicles patrol this beach area, especially on summer's hottest holidays, but I never expected it tonight.
• Don't people work? It was 4:30 p.m.--in my defense, my self-employed schedule let me skip out early today only to be back online later--and there were tons of people on the beach. And they weren't there to play volleyball in one of the summer leagues.
• A very convincing ultramarathon trainee. If he wasn't training for an ultra, he sure looked the part with his hydration pack, compression socks and very focused expression.
• A singing duo. Oh yes, north of the boathouse, south of the bridge, two musicians were singing and strumming their guitars.
  
• Someone who looked exactly like an editor that I know...who knows, maybe it was her?
• The freshly paved portion of the path just north of Fullerton. I should have photographed the fresh blacktop that covered what was a twisted ankle waiting to happen, but I was too excited to be running on it.
• What's with all of the backpacked runners? I spied a girl running with a backpack, the drawstring type you get at races, and then right after that I spotted a guy who looked like he was sprinting to meet someone and just happened to be toting a backpack, too.
• A guy who was wearing one of the most unconventional-looking running outfits I've seen in a while. His outfit: what looked like swim trunks and a striped, loose-fitting tank (but not at all like a singlet). I can only assume that he planned this run because he had Newtons on his feet. 

I know I'm not alone in watching people on the trail during the run--I remember Runner's World tweeting about stuff seen on the run. What have you seen while running?

Silver Screening of "Miles and Trials"

Celebrate women's running at the Miles and Trials premiere.

Wendy Shulik, a Chicago-based documentary filmmaker with a passion for running, has filmed the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and countless races around Chicago. She's lugged camera supplies across the country. She's trailed female runners to Grandma's Marathon and the California International Marathon. She's gathered hours of interviews and film footage. It's all been part of her dream to share the story of female runners as they shoot for their goals of competing at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials for the 2012 London Games, held in Houston in January. And the finished product will be Miles and Trials, a documentary film that takes nearly 50 hours of film about women's running and showcases female runners as they train for and try to qualify for the marathon trials.

Tonight, runners, film fans and anyone who's curious can catch a glimpse of Miles and Trials, the project Shulik has been pouring herself into for more than two years. A trailer of the documentary will premiere at the Indie Incubator Film Festival. Held at Mother's Bar at 26 W. Division, the doors open at 8 p.m. for this free event. Not only do you get to watch highlights of Miles and Trials, which is expected to be released in full during summer 2012, but you can also check out the rest of the film festival. All of the films showcased at the festival are up for the "Best of the Fest" award, which is decided by a judge's panel and awards $250 to its winner.

Sweat Session with SELF Magazine

From the 2011 Workout in the Park, courtesy of SkirtPR

Grant Park is no stranger to hosting fitness events. If you live in the Windy City, how many times have you passed the park on a weekend only to see it scattered with event tents, and not the kind that signal a music festival or Taste of Chicago? Probably a lot, especially this time of year. And typically right around this weekend, Grant Park would be ready to play host to an old favorite, SELF Magazine's Workout in the Park, which was held at Butler Field last year on May 21.

One problem: NATO is coming to town and the Workout in the Park won't be in May but in June. I can't blame NATO entirely, even though it is the obvious choice given that businesses in and around the Loop are shutting down Friday through Monday and many workers have been granted a three- or four-day weekend. If the NATO conference wasn't about to take over Chicago, literally, I'd assume that SELF's mobile exercise-y event would most likely stick with the weekend that has worked and not be pushed to later date (especially considering that San Francisco kicked off this year's festivities on May 5 followed by New York City on May 12). But it happened and there's nothing we can do about it except hope that a June 2 date means a greater assurance of warmer, workout-friendly weather.