By Jen DeSalvo, WLS-AM 890
(CHICAGO) It may have taken the Chicago Cubs 108 years to win the title, but it only took Chicago residents Shan Riggs and Loli Arosemena less than seven hours moving time to honor the team with what could be considered an equally challenging feat.
On Saturday, March 25, Riggs and Arosemena took to the streets of Chicago to run the shape of the Chicago Cubs logo through a variety of north and west side neighborhoods.
Riggs, 38, has been participating in ultramarathon events for about a decade and has completed around 40 ultramarathons ranging in distances from 31 to 200 miles.
“I ran cross country and track in high school,” Riggs said. “Then 10 years ago, I tried an ultramarathon…I’ve been doing ridiculously long runs ever since.”
When Riggs and Arosemena found out in early March that the city they love and reside it would no longer be their home come April due to a business opportunity in Los Angeles, they decided to combine their passions of ultrarunning and the Chicago Cubs for an ultimate “love letter” to the city.
“We wanted to do one last big run as a celebration and ‘thank you’ to our friends and the city of Chicago,” Riggs said. “The Cubs have been a big part of our life here, so we thought it appropriate to use the logo as a template.”
GPS art is popular in the fitness world with the modern innovations of location tracking through electronic devices such as watches and smartphones. According to Wikipedia, GPS art (or GPS drawing) is a “method of drawing that uses Global Positioning System technology (GPS) to create large-scale artwork. It combines art, movement, and technology.”
With the help of a friend, Erol Cims, they put together a map which they used as a template for the six-hour, 12-minute long run which allowed the duo to “basically run through every neighborhood on the north side.”
The total distance of the run was just over 41 miles with a few stops on the route to grab photos of local tributes to the 2016 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs.
In July 2015, Riggs and Arosemena even traveled to Panama to run 166 miles in 50 hours to raise awareness and funds for charity.
“I like to push myself and see how far I can go,” Riggs said. “When things get really hard, you definitely find out what you are made of and it makes the everyday things much easier.”
