1. THE LAKEFRONT: Mornings at the zoo
I never run fast and I seldom run far, but my early morning runs take me through an astounding variety of landscapes. I run through the city, into the savannah, down garden paths, along the beach and through a dairy farm.
Not bad for a 3-mile loop that starts and ends at my front door.
I am lucky enough to live within spitting distance of the Lincoln Park Zoo, and after jogging through our neighborhood, my running partners and I enter the zoo–often just before dawn.
Hearing two adult lions greet the day with a roar is a great way to kick start a morning run. We leave the zoo and enter a gravel path, running the short distance to Fullerton Avenue, where we jog over to the lake.
Although the wind can be punishing during winter runs, the lake path portion of the run is my favorite. Lake Michigan always serves up a perfect metaphor for my running experiences. When it is soupy and placid, we jog contentedly. Sometimes we dodge waves as they crash over the path. We run toward Chicago’s spectacular skyline.
We reluctantly leave the lake path and cut back into Lincoln Park, running up a paved corridor beneath a columns of trees whose branches meet over our heads.
Then we run along the duck pond at the zoo, just behind the Farm-in-the-Zoo.
The tiny herd of Holsteins raise their heads in a quiet greeting. Then we trot back through the streets of the neighborhood, three miles–and many landscapes–from where we started.
— Amy Dickinson
2. LAKE FOREST: 6.24 miles of scenery
When Barry Seiller, a Lake Forest eye surgeon, founded the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Running Club in 1982, he was careful to lay out a course for members to run that equaled 10 kilometers (6.21 miles). Instead, it measured exactly 6.24 miles, or 6.33 if runners don’t cut corners.
Only a precisionist like charter member Ed Packel, a Lake Forest College math professor, was remotely aware of the discrepancy, but he’s not complaining. The route is scenic enough–runners go through the community’s prettiest sections–to make everyone forget any pain.
The course starts in the parking lot of Lake Forest’s downtown Metra station and wends eastward to Lake Michigan, where it goes south along the beach, and eventually westward to link with the Robert McClory Bike Path at old Barat College. There, it turns northward and returns to the Metra stop.
Run past some of the city’s most magnificent churches, estates and gardens on Westminster Avenue and Mayflower Drive as well as the city’s beach and boat area. Also, cross a wooden, pedestrian bridge high above a wooded ravine on Walden Road.
As a club member, I’ve been running this path–in the rear with the Clydesdales, not up front with thoroughbreds like U.S. Olympic marathoner and club officer Jenny Spangler–off and on for nearly 15 years. Autumn is the best time, but the views are notable any time of the year.
Every Saturday at 8 a.m., rain, shine or blizzard, a minimum of 20-25 runners, mostly professionals and not all club members, show up without fail at the station, 961 N. Western Ave., to do the route. The Saturday runners (the club has other activities) are a convivial, welcoming group. Some members have met future spouses here. Want to join us? Visit lflb.wasetis.net.
More Top Picks Best Steering Wheel Covers
— Mike Conklin
3. OAK PARK: Seeing the neighborhood
Here’s the thing: I like to run because I don’t need to drive somewhere to do it. When I lived in the city, I could run along the lakefront again and again and it would never get boring. Crowded, but never boring.
Now I live in Oak Park and to keep it interesting I need to keep it varied. So here are a few of my favorite routes (all start and end at my front steps on the 1100 block of South Oak Park):
I like Ike: There are seven bridges (one pedestrian) in Oak Park that span the Eisenhower Expressway/Blue Line tracks. I run to Harlem Avenue then crisscross my way east to Austin Avenue, enjoying my view of the Sears Tower, inhaling exhaust fumes all the way.
Circle tour: There’s a lovely park–Euclid–across the street from my house. The path around it is about 300 yards long. That’s a lot of loops for a decent run, but there’s no car traffic to contend with, and on a snowy day when the streets are a mess, it’s ideal.
Across the Eisenhower and into the trees: Heading north two miles from my house, through stretches of broad lawns, I can pass by both Ernest Hemingway’s birthplace (339 N. Oak Park Ave.) and boyhood home (800 Kenilworth Ave.).
Presidential campaign: Fillmore to Taylor to Washington to Clinton to Madison to Franklin to Adams to Garfield to Roosevelt to Humphrey (vice president) to Jackson.
Prairie-style path: In about six miles, I can tour the world’s largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings. Heading north to Lake Street, I can pass the starkly beautiful Unity Temple, then continue along Forest Avenue, the motherlode of FLW’s work. I stop at the Home and Studio (951 Chicago Ave.), whose stone front wall is ideal for a mid-run stretch.
See the Car-Kabob: This is the least appealing, as it takes me south along Oak Park Avenue through Berwyn’s narrow streets with few–if any–trees, and just out of reach of many snarling dogs. But at the far end of this 5K run is the bizarre Harlem-Cermak shopping center, with one of the oddest collections of public art in the world.
A cold one: There’s a wonderful beer garden at Goldyburgers in Forest Park, about two miles away. The perfect scenario is to run there and meet friends who can give me a ride home. Because another reason I run is to drink beer.
— Tim Bannon
4. ON THE TRACK: It’s all about speed
So you’ve run a few marathons, but your times have plateaued. Your next step toward qualifying for the Boston Marathon isn’t to train faster or longer, but to train smarter, and that means only one thing: weekly speedwork.
In speedwork routines, runners alternate between fast and slow at predetermined distances, as short as 200 meters, as long as 1,600 meters. To make these intervals precise, a running track is invaluable. Fortunately, Chicago is rich with public tracks.
The most scenic may be at Lake Shore Park, 808 N. Lake Shore Drive, where a quarter-mile track sits in the shadows of Streeterville’s skyscrapers.
But the four lanes of Lake Shore can get crowded. A great alternative is River Park at North Whipple and West Argyle Streets. There, eight tree-lined lanes of green, spongy track are clearly marked with various distances. River Park is popular with elite runners, so be prepared to be passed and passed often, but also use it as a chance to watch and learn.
To get the most out of the track, runners should do some research first to plan the routines that will work best for them. I recommend local running guru Hal Higdon’s manual “Run Fast” for a complete discussion of speedwork, but plenty of expert advice is available online or at the bookstore. Hit the books, then hit the track–and start making plans for Boston.
— Luke Seemann