Running Around Illinois: La Grange

June 10, 2022

La Grange Rocks 5K

La Grange (Cook County)

Chip Time: 27:57

It was not quite my intention when starting this series to be running only races so very close to home, but for now, that’s how it’s working out. (Also not my intention for this to be so slow to post, but, you know, publishing schedule conflicts and all…)

La Grange is the next town to the west. There are, sort of, three La Granges: La Grange, La Grange Park, and the very curious La Grange Highlands. La Grange proper, though, is at the center of the La Granges, and is also kind of the “downtown” for all of Lyons Township. In most parts of Illinois, the township has very little meaning, except for some isolated governmental services. But here, Lyons Township is not just a random governmental unit… it’s also the name of the huge high school most of us send our kids to: Lyons Township High School, LT for short. The main LT campus is in La Grange, and I think it’s very safe to declare LT to be the heart of the overall regional community. The main (south) campus is indeed an imposing presence, and was also at the corner of the race path:

The 5K is a fundraiser for an organization called The Leader Shop, a local group which helps kids, especially at the junior high and high school levels, build leadership skills. Now, I know about them, because they serve students in our district. But why would anyone from anywhere else know about them? And so why would random runners show up? But… we do. Sometimes.

I started running after websites like Running in the USA already existed. I can look up races all over the place and if I’m basing decisions solely on location and convenience, well, the closer a place, the more likely I know the organization, but aside from that… doesn’t this all just encourage random participation? And isn’t that good for the charities? But I wonder how they all think about that.

The race itself began and ended outside the LTHS practice field, and followed a fairly flat path through a thin slice of the village. This particular part of La Grange is full of large beautiful houses - one of which our Congresswoman calls home! - but, unlike some other neighborhoods in relatively close proximity, there aren’t McMansions, there’s not a feeling of weird ostentatiousness.

Instead of ostentatiousness, the race path was littered with: bands. This was new on me, and I suspect the evening hours made it more feasible. I saw at least 5 bands or solo musicians out on driveways, and most of them were young, including the band playing at the LTHS practice field, a group of high school students who go by Casual Trespasser. (I’d provide a link but I couldn’t find one.) Casual Trespasser was playing covers, and they were strange covers… why would a person born in the 21st Century be at all interested in the Strokes? But they were cool. It was neat seeing local high schoolers playing rock and roll.

The run itself, I thought, went pretty well. I actually did the first mile in just under 8 minutes. Then I naturally slowed down, more than I would have liked. Did I run the first mile too fast? I often wonder about this.

That hot first mile… should I be imposing hardcore rhythmic breathing on myself? I tend to wait until I “have to”. And I wonder if my rhythm is best. What I try to fall into is this: Three snorts in. Three puffs out. Three snorts in. Three puffs out. If at some point that falls apart, I’ll try to go two and two instead of three and three. Observationally I don’t see other people going puff puff puff, which I’m sure I’m visibly doing. Am I breathing too hard? Too hard too soon? I really don’t know how to evaluate.

I know there are running clubs and these are places to hang with people and, uhh, talk technique, or something. The thing is that running, to me, while running at least, is really a solo endeavor. A running club is kind of a curious thing to me, like a… loners club. Maybe I just need to crack through that. Find a club of runners who write Substacks…? Probably exists, right?

One interesting wrinkle about this particular race is that there were clocks at each of the mile markers. I almost never see this, especially not at smaller races like this. I very much like it and wonder how difficult it is to pull this off.

I was pretty well gassed at the end of this race. But 10 minutes after that, I felt really good! My legs felt strong! I felt like I could have paced myself differently and run for longer. I wonder if I should go for a longer slower run on my own some time soon. I even have a site in mind for it - Miller Meadow, which boasts a smooth 1.7 mile long loop and, for some reason, a model airplane field!

The thing I’m just not doing though is running on off days, even a little bit. That’s proving hard to pull off. I’m definitely missing that from a training perspective. It’ll have to be mostly on the treadmill, though. I wanted to get another race in over the last week, but, look, I’m not racing when it’s 84 and sunny. That’s just masochism. If you thrive in that setting, more power to you. I’m going to look for a nice cloudy Saturday morning in July when it’s only in the low 70s, I suppose.

So, there’ll be more in this series, but probably not for a few more weeks. I’ll have to come up with some other kind of extra thing to write about… stay tuned.