Someone I know...

...is training for the 2018 Chicago Marathon so I thought it would be fitting to kick off this year's Urban Hike with Mike by walking all 26.2 miles of the course in roughly three-mile segments. That should take us through the first nine weeks of the year.

The course, which winds through 29 of the city's neighborhoods, begins at Monroe and Columbus, right behind the Art Institute.

After fortifying ourselves with hamburgers from Good Stuff Eatery on Wabash, the eight or ten of us (I'm beginning to lose track) set out Wednesday on a wet, but mild, January evening.

Crossing Michigan Avenue, we couldn't help noticing the bright blue monolith at the top of this post, one of two transparent glass brick towers flanking a black granite reflecting pool known as Crown Fountain in Millennium Park. No sooner did I take this picture on my trusty iPhone than it magically changed to reddish-orange. So I snapped another one with that guy's face in the background.

The course took us north on Columbus to Grand Avenue, with Millennium Park to the left and Maggie Daley Park to the right.

We crossed the Chicago River just north of Lower Wacker and were surprised to see so much ice. That's the Wrigley Building, of course, all lit up to the west.

When you reach Grand, which is about 500 north, you turn left (west) and walk under Michigan Avenue toward State Street (that Great Street). Mile One of the course is at about Grand and Rush and a few of the guys peeled off at State and caught the Red Line back for home.

There were now only five of us (the hardiest!) and we turned left (south) on State for Jackson. On our right was Marina City, of which I first took a picture of the east tower and then one of both (I couldn't resist). They just looked so cool with their Christmas lights still up!

The guys have a lot of patience for my tendency to stop and take shots like this, but I know I can't push them forever.

State Street extends from North Avenue at the southern tip of Lincoln Park all the way down (intermittently) to south suburban Crete. Its intersection with Madison (zero north/south and zero east/west) has marked the base point for Chicago's address system since 1909. (I've tried -- in vain -- to teach that to my sons and to the guys on the Hike. Why are so many young people resistant to something that would make their lives easier? Oh, well.)

The street changes a lot along its course, and I pointed out that at one time State Street was the flagship shopping district of the city ("Michigan Avenue before Michigan Avenue"). We walked past Macy's (the old Marshall Field) and Target (the old Carson Pirie Scott), and it was hard to believe that the street was dubbed "the brightest thoroughfare in the world" in 1958 -- the year I was born -- by the Chicago Tribune. (Yes, that means I'll be 60 years old this year. I should run a marathon or something!)

At State and Jackson (Mile Two) we turned right (west) and turned right again (north) on LaSalle Street. I just had to take another picture of one of my favorite structures in town, the Chicago Board of Trade Building at the south end of "Money Canyon."

We continued north, with the Federal Reserve to our left and the historic Rookery Building, City Hall and -- I'm sorry -- the hideous Thompson Center to our right, to the Clark/Lake CTA stop, just shy of Mile Three across the river. After exchanging obligatory fist bumps, one of us boarded the Green Line, one the Red Line at Jackson, and the rest of us the Blue Line for home.

Next week, weather permitting, we'll resume our Hike at Clark/Lake and head north toward Mile Six, which is on Cannon Drive in Lincoln Park between Fullerton and Diversey. Won't you join us?