From Chicago Guide Chelsey Grassfield
I met Becca Greenberg when she and another Chicago guide, Andrea McPike, and I led a corporate team-building event for chemists in town for a conference. We met on a weekday evening to practice the route Greenberg had created. As we ran, we swapped stories about races we were training for, how we got into running, guiding tours of our city, etc. I've always loved how running with a stranger can make fast friends (sometimes literally) because you already have this one thing in common.
I recently invited Greenberg for a run to talk about her experiences as a guide so that, if your next Chicago run is with her, she'll be a familiar face.
Greenberg at the Lincoln Park Zoo, a great (and free!) place to run and visit in Chicago.
In it for the long-haul
Greenberg's experience is unique. She started guiding for City Running Tours in NYC in 2013, and when she moved to Chicago in 2017, she continued by leading tours out here. She laughed as she realized this is her longest standing job.
Sometimes you just need a running buddy
I asked Greenberg to start with her experiences guiding in NYC. "I had one or two clients who would come to New York who didn’t care about history, they just wanted someone to run with." It can be nice to show up in a city you've never been to and have a ready-made running buddy.
Another benefit of running with a local in a big city? Having someone teach you how to use public transportation. "People used [running tours] in New York to see areas they wouldn’t otherwise see; people staying in mid-town Manhattan would choose a tour that took them somewhere else. Partly because they were afraid to take the subway by themself. If you do a private tour, I’d meet them at their hotel, get them on the subway, show them how to use a Metra card, take them on the run, and get them back to the hotel. So some people would use it inadvertently as a way to learn how to take the subway."
Even your guides enjoy the hidden gems
"The one we do the most is [around] Millennium Park. What I love about that one is, like the Central Park route, there’re all these nooks and crannies in Millennium Park nobody knows, even people who live here. I’ll go there if I go to Lollapalooza or something, but you miss that there’s this amazing history, like Buckingham Fountain being bought by the sister or that the White Sox started [in nearby Grant Park]."
Grassfield (left) and Greenberg (right) on an evening jog in Lincoln Park.
Always a tour guide
Greenberg revealed that she just can't help herself when she's out. She took her boyfriend on a four hour walking tour just by cobbling together the different routes in New York. "I’ve actually done that [in Chicago] loosely." She'll say to the friends she's with: "want to know some awesome, fun facts?" Her boyfriend always says "Tour Guide Becca’s out to play." But Greenberg says, "you don’t often get to learn about your own city, and you get to share it with your friends whether they want to hear it or not."
Where the locals run
"I really like to go up N Clark St. and down N Lincoln Ave.; you see a weird cross-section of the city, a combination of schools and houses, music and theaters and bars, and everything in between. You pass Wrigley Field. How often can you go on a run and pass a major league game? Though sometimes it’s not a great idea to run through the crowd entering or leaving the stadium."
