Day 14: My Accidental Barefoot Run

For those of you who don't know, Chicago had a massive storm Monday, which I prefer to call "the monsoon". I was set on having a good start to the week, so I listened to my body and skipped my planned morning run because my foot was still really sore from the train incident, and I wanted to get to work a little early. I put on a cute new outfit, had a good breakfast, and was ready to leave a few minutes earlier than usual. It was getting really dark outside and checked the radar online but ultimately decided I could beat the huge line of storms to work. Wrong.

I hesitantly locked the door to the apartment as I watched the scary clouds overhead and felt how ridiculously humid it was, but I was feeling brave and still wanted to try and make it to work. When I got down to the alley, the wind was creepily rushing around the corner blowing up dust and whatever else was on the ground. It was like a scene from a movie, and I seriously contemplated walking straight back up the stairs and being late to work. Like a fool, however, I decided I could beat it to the L stop. Again, wrong.

One block in to the walk it started to sprinkle, so I busted out my semi-broken umbrella which usually works pretty well. My little umbrella was no match for the torrential downpours and monsoon-like winds that were to follow. I've walked through some crazy weather to get to class before, but I've never seen a storm like this. My umbrella was demolished in about 2 seconds which led to me being completely drenched from head to toe. I finally stopped, looked down at myself and realized there was no way I could go to work in the state I was in. There was an overhang from an apartment building 2 other people were standing under to my right, and I finally gave in and sought shelter from the monsoon.

After a few minutes, it became pretty clear that the storm had no intention of letting up, and I didn't really feel like standing around soaking wet, so like any partially injured, soaking wet person with a huge work bag would do, I slipped my shoes off, waved goodbye to my fellow stranded commuters, and ran home. It turned out to be a strangely gratifying run, and was a legitimate excuse to run barefoot in the city. There was already a huge down limb from a tree that I passed and a guy standing outside a school down the block told me he liked my makeup which obviously had run all over my face. After a quick chuckle from his comment, I got home pretty fast, and my foot didn't hurt as much as I thought it would...probably due to all the adrenaline from my fear of the storm.

Oh hey makeup running everywhere

I stripped down and hung up all of my clothes as soon as I got home, sat down and read to calm down for a bit, got ready all over again, and finally made it safely to work around 10 am. Even though it was not the way I planned to spend my Monday morning, I am thankful for a random opportunity for my first (but short) barefoot run.

Clothes hanging up to dry.