DJWriter, Inc. Sponsors MC200 Runners
DJWriter, Inc. is proud to announce its sponsorship of the ChiADeads running team in the 2008 Madison-Chicago 200 Relay on June 6-7. Ever since I became a business owner 12 years ago, I have wanted to sponsor an athletic team or event. This is a prime opportunity since I've been involved with the ChiADeads group since its inception. I can't wait to see the team t-shirts with DJWriter, Inc. plastered across the back!

The 203-mile race is divided into 36 relay legs. Starting at 8 AM on June 6 in Madison, Wisconsin, each of the team's ten racers will run three or four legs ranging from 3.0 to 8.6 miles. They expect to finish around 4 PM on June 7 at Montrose Harbor on Chicago's lakefront.

The Chicago Area Dead Runners Society started in 1999 as a sublist of the Dead Runners Society, an international online running club founded in 1991. Although I stopped running years ago due to recurring knee problems, I still participate in the group (in 2000 I started a bicycling sublist called ChiACycle). I miss running very much and wish I could be racing in this event. Sponsoring the team is the next best thing.

Other sponsors of the ChiADeads team include Runners Grove, New Leaf Technologies, and R.J. Foster & Associates.

Labels: DJWriter Inc, running

- posted by David Johnsen @ 11:45 PM 2 comments

 
Blagojevich May Not Want Second Term
I was walking home from the grocery store today and saw a familiar figure run across my path at the corner of Western and Wilson: Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. I've seen him run in the neighborhood before (our dog once lunged at him), but what surprised me today was his recklessness. Traffic on Western Avenue, one of the busiest surface streets in Chicago, had the green light, and yet Blagojevich ran across, dodging five lanes of traffic and at one point running along the double yellow centerline. His security detail, a state trooper on a bicycle, watched the governor's Frogger impression and waited for the light to change. He was shaking his head and smiling as if to say, "Man, that guy is crazy!"

On the other side of Western, the governor ran on Wilson Avenue instead of the sidewalk. Considering that Wilson is 3.5 lanes wide with parking on each side and two-way traffic (i.e., four lanes of cars on 3.5 lanes of pavement), that isn't a bright idea either. This behavior tells me that Blagojevich doesn't really want to be reelected. That is why he is endangering himself in this way. Someone looking forward to the future doesn't do things like that.

Political gadflies should note that this was a Saturday evening, so Blagojevich was not playing hooky from his gubernatorial responsibilities. On the other hand, he was crossing against the light and disobeying the "Do not walk" sign. Of course, that's not much of an offense compared to the crimes of his predecessors. It would be like busting the newest home run king for drinking Red Bull.

In Blagojevich's defense, I have to confess as a former runner that I've done some pretty stupid things under the influence of adrenaline. One night I came to a railroad crossing that was blocked by a stopped freight train. Without a second thought, I scooted underneath a coupling between two cars. Ten seconds later, the successive clang of couplings down the line told me the train was moving again. My already elevated heartrate doubled when I realized how easily I could have become human sausage. As if that wouldn't have been bad enough, no one knew I was there and I carried no ID. My scrambled remains could have spent eternity in a potter's field.

Labels: Illinois politics, running

- posted by David Johnsen @ 6:26 PM 0 comments