The Emerald Necklace loop is a cool route. Long day in the saddle! I ran counter-clockwise starting at the intersection of West Diversey Parkway and North Clark Street. My legs took a pounding by running & walking for 40 miles on concrete.
The route passes through many city parks and diverse neighborhoods lined with grand boulevards. I definitely enjoyed it, albeit I had some physical issues.
The weather started great being relatively cool with cloud cover. It poured rain early on for about 30 minutes and I was completely soaked. Then it became very hot and sunny for a long stretch, and ended with another huge deluge in the final half mile.
There are many places to resupply along the way except for the southeastern side. I only carried 2 x 250ml bottles for a total of 500ml capacity. It was enough except for that southeastern side where I did run out of fluid and food. I was expecting more services along the Lakefront Trail but the beach kiosks were closed on a Monday, even with large summer crowds. Perhaps, those kiosks are open on the weekend. I finally did find an open store at Burnham Harbor that sold traditional convenience store snacks. By that point, I was dehydrated and bonking. I ate like a pig but was so whipped I ended up walking a ton at the end.
I jogged for the first 15 miles or so, and then mixed running with lots of walking for the remaining 25 miles.
That said, it was a great day in Chicago! I would recommend this route. Probably best run on Sunday morning in the summer with less traffic and those southeastern kiosks likely open.