Off to Miami!

I've been a sports fanatic since I was about five years old.  When I was a little boy, as soon as I learned how to read I would read stories about the history of sports figures.  The Bears and the Cubs were the two teams I was always most interested in.  Of course, any Chicago team including the Bulls, Hawks, and Sox (and any number of others) have gotten me excited at various times.  The Jordan years were obviously special and like most Chicagoans, I feel blessed to have had a chance to witness that team play.

I played most every sport in school and enjoyed them all.  The sport I was involved in that proved to be what I was best at was running, and that's the sport I find myself involved in to this day.  Because it's an individual sport, it doesn't necessarily draw the same fervor from fans that the team sports do.  But I've always followed track as well as road racing pretty closely.

But I digress.  The point I want to make is that, as a lifelong Chicago sports fan, and Bears season ticket holder, I am really excited about the Super Bowl.  I covered the Cowboys Super Bowl teams in the 90's when I worked in Dallas, but that experience meant so much less to me than the chance I have had in the last few weeks to cover the Bears great run.  And I'm really excited about the chance to go to Miami all next week to do stories on the goings on leading up to the game.  It's difficult to separate my professional responsibilities from my personal loyalties as a fan, but it's a happy problem to have.

As anyone who has trained for a marathon knows, however, the training is always in the back of your mind in everything you do.  So with the Boston marathon looming, when I am in Miami, I will be looking for ways to make sure I get my running in.  It may be a challenge, because we will be busy working morning through night most of the time.  But at least when I do get a chance to run, most of it will be in shorts and a t-shirt rather than the jackets, gloves, and a hat I would be wearing in Chicago.  Oh yeah, and some of the best places to run there are along the beach with the Ocean as your view.

So that said, I did my last long run in Chicago for a week or so today.  My friends Rick and Tom and I went to Barrington and got some hill work in.  As always, it was a great day.  It seems like no matter the conditions, it's always a great day when you run in Barrington.  The picture is of Tom and Rick after the run in the parking lot of Barrington High School, the start and finish point of our runs. 

The next pictures I put in this space should be from Miami.  I plan to try to update this space a couple times out there, along with offering some thoughts about the Super Bowl and the experience of covering it there.  It should be a memorable experience! 

I'll see you along the roads soon.  Bear Down!

Comments

[kevin hacker]

That's a tough break John, having to cover the Super Bowl and complete your Boston training runs in warm sunny weather. You'll miss the sub-zero temperatures scheduled for next weekend.