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Monday, March 26, 2012

Destination Running

I had a low-key road trip planned this past weekend to Schaumburg, Illinois. Not much planned for the weekend, in an area that has tons to do. No agenda ... other than to have some fun, do some shopping, enjoy some good eats (if you are ever in the area, you NEED to stop by Tokio Pub (HERE)!), and of course, to fit a run in.

I've visited Schaumburg dozens of times and have always noticed runners out on a local trail and a bike or two passing by, as I exit the interstate. When we arrived in town on Saturday afternoon, I decided to make a quick stop to see what was up. To my surprise, we had landed at the Busse Woods Trail System (HERE), a forest preserve, complete with 12 miles of paved trail through woods, lakes and even an elk pasture. Too cool.

The next morning, we returned to venture out for a nice, scenic run. And scenic, it was! We started at Higgins Road. There were several places to start your route at various parking lots, complete with ample restrooms (some weren't yet open for the season). There were gorgeous bridges, ponds, lakes, trees in bloom and ample mile markers on signs as well as painted on the well-kept winding trails. We ended up doing an out-and-back four mile loop. The portion of the path we ran was fairly flat and very scenic. This was so much better than running in the hotel gym.

There were organized groups of runners, fishermen, yoga in the park, and we were constantly passed by cycists and in-line-skaters. I would've felt safe even if I had been running by myself, during a long trainin grunning.

When I returned home, I was curious and looked up the trail system online. I was amazed at all of the trail systems in Cook County (HERE). I can't wait to check out more awesome running areas, the next time I head across the border to Illinois.

Destiniation running is so much fun.


(a special thanks to about-bicycles.com for some of these awesome photos, that I didn't have the opportunity to snap myself)


12 comments:

  1. What lovely scenery! Who wouldn't enjoy running with such a view...

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  2. How cool! What a great find!

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  3. Cook and DuPage Counties both have wonderful forest preserves and trail systems. Glad you got to take advantage of the opportunity. WAY better than a hotel dreadmill any day!

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  4. I love Busse woods! Check out the Lake county trails too, when you come back. We are very lucky around here :)

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  5. I love Busse Woods so much! It's quite a gem and perfect for a long run. There are quite a few more in DuPage and Cook County, so make sure to get back soon!

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  6. Busse woods is great but I don't get out there much! There are so many great places to run in both Dupage and Cook country (like everyone else has said!) I wish I had enough time to explore them all!

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  7. Beautiful pictures!

    Shannon
    http://www.everystepcounts365.wordpress.com

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  8. Looks like a great spot to run!

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  9. Love destination running! We're heading to the beach in a week or so for spring break, & I'm extremely excited about having a new place to run. :-)

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  10. Looks like you stumbled across a great place to run on your weekend getaway!

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  11. Jamie,
    I love this idea of destination running! I also saw on your profile that you're a single mom. I have an online running moms magazine called This Mother Can Run. Check it out: www.thismothercanrun.com I would love to have your article in there, either Destination Running or an article on being a single mom and how you make it all work. Let me know your thoughts.
    Thanks,
    Nanette Simmons
    nanette@thismothercanrun.com

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