Sharing is Caring

When I was looking at apartments in the Chicago, one thing that I had thought about was, "What will it be like to run in the city?"  I figured that I might have to deal with more frequent stop lights.  Luckily, I am close enough to the lake that I can run on the lakefront trail and I don't have to worry about stop lights until I get to Navy Pier.
I also figured that I would have to share the sidewalk with fellow runners and other pedestrians.  This has been a big change for me.  My hometown is a suburb, but my high school was pretty much in the middle of a corn field, so there were few runners.  Even if I encountered one, we were usually running opposite ways.  In Chicago, especially on the lakefront, there are so many runners.  I want to high five all the runners going the opposite way as me, but I figured that might be weird.  Since it is summer, there are so many walkers that take up the entire path.  It is a struggle to try to weave through them.  One woman stepped out right in front of me and then gave me a dirty look as I swerved to avoid running directly in to her.  I also have to share the paths with bicyclists.  This generally isn't a problem because they ride around me, and I try to stay to the side of the path.  However, today there was a woman that was riding her bike slower than I was running.  I wish I could say I was running really fast, but I wasn't.  Why even ride a bike if you're going to go that slow?
One thing I never would have thought about sharing the path with: Segways.  Being on the lakefront, there are Segway tours all over.  Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that Segway tours go at the same speed I run.  This is frustrating as a runner.  When I come up behind you, I either want you to speed up away from me or I want to speed up and pass you (I am partial to passing people, but maybe I'm just too competitive).  To run behind these Segways and maintain my distance behind them for a mile was very difficult, but I got through it.
I am slowly learning how to be a runner in an area where there are a ton of people.  I have really been enjoying running on the lake, though, so I think it's worth it.

I haven't gotten all the songs you suggested onto a playlist yet, but I'm excited to start running to them soon!  (I'll still take running playlist suggestions!)



I also have to share my run with boats, which is really cool.  I'm also looking for boat friends because I want to be able to go out on the lake in a boat.  Maybe I'll introduce myself to someone on the docks and become their friend.