Running is dumb

It’s kinda funny when logic fails. Like yesterday. I ran in the corporate challenge. It’s a 3.5 mile race and I trained a little. My goal was to run it in 35 mins. Def to break 40. Before the race our team from the office was all hanging out. Someone said, “I ran it last year, and you should just start out up front. Don’t worry about starting with the right group.” Well I dunno, I usually follow the rules. The rules of this race include setting up the start so that the people up front are the ones that plan to run the fastest, and the people in back are the ones planning to walk or whatever. They had sections set up for different paces. Well I did not heed the warning of the person and figured I would start with the 10 minute mile people, which is roughly the pace I was looking for. I’m guessing about 30,000 people were running in this thing. I could be wrong. So there were prolly 10,000 people in front of me. I just assumed that over the course things would spread out and I would be able to run my pace. Not so much. By starting so far back, I was running into group after group of walker, slow people, random idiots, etc. Running the race at my pace was basically impossible. At one point I was seriously gonna yell out, “Run, you Motherfuckers!!!!!! Or get out of the way!!!!!!!!” Then I thought, I’m wearing a shirt with my company’s name on it. One of these motherfuckers would probably call, or worse, I’d get into a fight and be on the front page. But for me, to be so aggravated as to even consider shouting something out in a crowd, should be enough to indicate what an absolute annoyance running in this race proved to be. I thought I was running a good race anyway. I was keeping a faster pace than training and although I was cramping up quite a bit, I managed to run through it. I really thought I ran the race in about 35 minutes. And if there were about 1/10th the people, I prolly would’ve. I ran it in 41. I have to live with that. I’m def gonna run in another 5k, just to put up a respectable time. So yeah, about the logic failing, I thought that 3.5 miles would be plenty for the whole group to stretch out and I’d be able to run my race. Not so much, I should’ve listened to someone with experience and started up front.



I’m starting to think the PDA people are having an affair. There really is no other explanation. I saw them today; they were in a different car. I was reading my book, so I got off the train after everyone had left. Then I saw them smooching in the other section of the train car. If they aren’t having an affair, if they are married and live together, then there is something psychologically wrong with them. If they are married, and they just can’t keep their hands off of each other at any waking moment, that’s unhealthy. The question that stands out above all others is…Is it love? Or is it Lust? I’m thinking lust at this point. To me, Love is more subtle, less demonstrative. When I think of love I think of an understanding that does not need to be spoken. When I think of lust I think of physical desire that cannot be controlled. I think of doing things and saying things that are out of character. I think of a loss of control, precisely what these people display daily on the train.



Back to the race. After the race, a bunch of people were going out for food and drink. It was getting late and I knew that if I drank, I would be just a mess the next day. Just ran 3.5 miles, no food in my stomach, it wouldn’t have been good. So I had to cut loose and head towards the train. I had time to kill, and I needed to eat, so I was looking around for someplace to hit. I was walking by my old workplace, the CBOE. Not much was jumping out at me. I couldn’t think of where to go, most of the places were closed anyway. I looked down one street cuz I was thinking Potbelly. It was closed. Qdoba was just closing down. I crossed the street. Billy Goat. The Billy Goat tavern is a Chicago institution. If you’ve seen the old Saturday Night Live sketch with John Belushi saying, “Cheeborger, cheeborger, no coke, pepsi, no fries, chips.” Well that’s the Billy Goat. They have a good burger kinda greasy. They have fries now, and the fries were the best thing on the menu. I stress were. I stopped into the goat and made my order. There’s a special language spoken at the Goat, and it came right back to me even though I haven’t been there in years. The guy said, “Whaddayawant.” I replied, “Doublecheezburgerfries.” It’s basically one word and when you say it, they know what you’re talking about. I was pretty amped cuz I was hungry and I hadn’t been to the goat in a long time. The burger was as expected. I prolly should’ve gotten a triple cuz the bread kinda overpowers everything. The fries were the real attraction, and to my surprise, they kinda sucked. They were undercooked. Usually they are crispy and very salty. This time they tasted like raw potatoes. Total bummer. I ran into a guy I knew from the CBOE and we chatted it up. That was nice. I’ll prolly go back to the goat. Maybe in a couple years.



Happy memorial day weekend. Enjoy the unofficial beginning of Summer. I’m hoping to go see Hum on Monday, but the fact that it coincides with the Hawks game kinda screws things up. We’ll see.