From Mike: I am not sure what it was, but yesterday was perfect. When I stepped out of the car and walked towards the trail, a cool breeze zoomed through the trees and cooled my body. It was quite perfect.
It became more perfect when I put my headphones in my ears and tuned into 94.7. The first song playing as I began my jog up a hill so steep, it’s difficult to walk up, was Lake Shore Drive. The way the piano leads in the song is enough to send chills through my body on its own.
It was only 6 a.m., but the way the tress cover the path, made it seem like dusk. The moisture from an earlier rain still lingering, made me feel like I was in a rain forest, or another world. The birds chirping, squirrels running, all the animals in my sight yield to this … animal.
Each step and drive up this hill is done with authority. I can’t hear my feet hitting the pavement, but I know it must be making sound because of the drive I have. So I run, run like the wind. I proceed digging deeper and deeper pushing myself not to stop until the top. Each movement I feel all the muscles in my legs flex and contract. From my calves through the thighs and into my core, I find the extra packets of energy and perseverance mentality in my head to keep going.
As I get over the highest incline and the path begins to level out, I can see my finish line. I can see the end, or is it my new beginning? As I cross my imaginary line, I dipped my nose like an Olympic sprinter.
I tried it, I struggled with it, and I completed it, now to do it 4 more times.
–Raceway Woods: Meadowdale International Raceway was a race track located in Carpentersville, Illinois. It was used for motor racing from 1958 to 1968.
In 1994, a group of local park districts purchased the north 90 acres (360,000 m2) of the track’s land for use as part of a new forest preserve, and purchased the remainder of the site in 2002. The track site is now, formally, a forest and nature preserve and recreational area known as “Raceway Woods”. However, the volunteers who maintain the site have recognized its importance as a race track, and have done much to keep the original track and related structures in place in the form of a hiking trail.