running in heels.

i just went out to buy some soda at the grocery store around the corner. it's stormy here in chicago today, and when i walked into the store it was just drizzling, but when i came out it was full on raining. i kinda like the city that way, actually - the slick streets, the umbrellas bobbing along the sidewalks, the blur of all the neon signs against all the wet pavement.

so i'm just enjoying my little walk back from the store, dry under my umbrella, and as i turn the corner onto my street i see this girl. she's probably a few hundred yards down the street. she has no umbrella, and i'm imagining she's just coming home from work because she's wearing a skirt and carrying a few bags. when i see her, she's running towards me - not sprinting, but not lazily trotting either. she's running at exactly the speed one runs when one is caught in the rain without an umbrella, but the destination is near.

this is unremarkable to me at first. but then after a few seconds she comes within audible range, and i hear the tell-tale clicking sound. oh my god, is she running like that and wearing heels?

she is.

as she turned to dash into an apartment building twenty feet from me, i saw that she was wearing black, pointy-toed, three-inch stilettos. she was carrying three bags, too - what looked like a work bag and two shopping bags. and she ran like she was wearing nikes and just out training for a race. not a stumble, or a wince, or a whiff of hesitation or frustation about it.

honestly, i'm not sure i'll ever see a feat of such magnitude again.

running in heels girl, i salute you.