The criminal mind of a runner

Confessions time.  I have three runner's confessions to make today.

Thou Shalt Not Lie
Back in January, I swore off any more new running shoes until at least after the marathon this October.  Yeah, that didn't work so well.  I went a grand total of 5 weeks before I broke my word on that.

In my adventures to try new brands of running shoes, I've so far tried Nikes, Asics, and Mizunos.  Next on my list were Brooks, which I didn't intend to try until sometime this fall.  However, last night, I found a steal on Brooks Glycerin 8 shoes at zbsports.com.  They were about 60% off the original price.  For that much of a deal I couldn't resist.  Bad, I know.

I need to stop looking at these online running store websites.  If I don't see these kinds of deals, I won't be tempted.  But it's like witnessing someone take one bite from an enormous cone of ice cream, only for the ice cream to topple over and go splat on the sidewalk.  You know you shouldn't be looking, but you just can't help yourself.

Allright, maybe not the best hyperbole.  But you get the idea.

Thou Shalt Not Trespass
I've been looking for a public outdoor track near where I live in the West Loop.  This is for various reasons, but mainly to run measured speed intervals and to be able to time my fastest possible mile.  The West Loop is great for running, but sometimes the stop signs and traffic lights do get a little frustrating.

I've learned that there is an outdoor track at St. Ignatius High School nearby.  I've run reconnaissance past it a few times, and unfortunately it's fenced off on three sides.  Based on that, I'm not sure if it would be acceptable for someone to just show up and use it.  I certainly understand that when the track team is practicing, you wouldn't want to intrude.  However, I wonder if it would be allright to use it at times when nobody else was around?  I've actually even looked online at their track schedule to try to get a sense of when they might be using it.

I've also joked with some friends before about how if you just act like you know what you're doing, you won't be questioned.  But, obviously nobody wants to get detained for trespassing or anything like that.

In lieu of all these stealthy plots, I guess the appropriate thing to do would be just to call them and ask them.  But even if they were okay with it, they would probably frown on me wearing my balaclava within a 500-foot radius of their students.

Thou Shalt Not Bandit
Amy had posted yesterday about the Cowtown Marathoner that got disqualified for wearing a friend's bib to run the race. 

It got me thinking about all of the postings on Craigslist for people selling their race bibs.  I've never purchased a race bib from someone else.  But, admittedly for some of the very popular, sold-out races, it's been tempting.  Especially when people are just trying to unload their bibs for half the price they paid.  It would be nice to be able to go run a sold-out race for fun at the last minute, without having to plan for it for months in advance.  Admittedly I've also thought about the possibility of trying to sell my bib if I couldn't run some of my own races (knock on wood that I will never incur a "DNS").

The tipping point for me is that I have seen a lot of those episodes of Dateline where they go undercover to nab predators or criminals at the point of "transaction."  I fear that if I were to ever purchase or sell a race bib, that I would be filmed by a hidden camera, met by some kind of law-enforcement official, arrested, and put on America's Most Wanted - the Runners Edition.

That would be a tough one to overcome.