102 counties in Illinois

Feb. 22, 2008
It is my goal to run a race in all 102 counties in Illinois. I'm 46 and would like to achieve this goal before I am 60. If, as I near the end of my goal, I find some counties without official races, I will run my own 10k in the county seat.

Coming in to 2008, I had 11 counties under my belt, from various years of running. These were mostly done in the late 1980s in northern Illinois (Cook, DuPage, McHenry, Will, DeKalb, Winnebago and LaSalle counties), where I lived back then, and the past few years in central Illinois (Sangamon, Morgan, Menard and Macon), where I live now.

I will try for the longer races in counties that have more than one race or will try for the signature race of a county, like the Steamboat Classic in Peoria or the Shoreline Classic in Macon. This won't always be possible and that is ok.

On February 3, I ran the Kankakee Winterfest 5k in Kanakee County. This was my 12th county. It was a nice little race and the day wasn't too cold. The course was very flat but not very scenic. The race had a great shirt and the race was very professionally organized. Only 90 more counties to go!

My next race should be the Miller Park Zoo Run 5k in McLean County March 1, followed by the Delavan Half Marathon a week later in Tazewell County.