Wow! What a difficult workout! The hills hurt my legs and I know I won’t be able to walk tomorrow, but that’s alright. I’d rather get in a hardy run and be more than ready for the marathon.

After today’s run, Patrick and I ate at Booby’s on the Carbondale Strip! It’s always been our favorite sandwich place since I was in college.

Later that night, we went to the Cascade of Colors at Carbondale’s Southern Illinois Airport.
Here are our pics:

What I want for my birthday is to run eight miles successfully, and that’s exactly what I got! Although I would have liked my pacing to be better, I have to admit I did pretty well. Patrick and I were only supposed to run seven miles. We felt so motivated, we went ahead and ran an extra mile.

We ran around Murphysboro Lake this morning around 7:45. The lake was beautiful. There was mist coming off the water and all I could hear were sounds of nature and my feet hitting the pavement. Unlike running close to my house, there were no foul odors from dead animals. I think it’s because I was in a state park. And there was hardly any trash. Just about a case of Keystone Light was sporadically tossed out someone’s window. Other than that and a couple of small items, there was no litter. It was refreshing to be a part of nature without seeing it destroyed.

There were many steep hills on the course. Take a look:

Another hard part of the course was getting away from all the bugs. I had several following me and some of them bit me. Many were bees. I must have squished about five of them. But whenever I could smell something sweet, like flowers, they weren’t there. I guess I don’t smell as sweet as a flower. While running, that’s a good thing!

Because it was my birthday, I was in a very happy mood. I finished running about four minutes before Patrick and felt great running ahead. When I was done, I felt like I could run another four miles around the park. Of course, now that a few hours have passed, I’m glad we stopped when we did.

After our run, we drove around the park to look at the lily-pads one more time. They were so beautiful.

I’m a bit bummed about next week. We are only supposed to run five miles and work our way back up to nine in a few weeks. I want to run 10. I’m ready to go, I feel strong, and I’m excited to get going!

Tonight is special because it’s our cheat meal/my birthday meal! We are going to Fujiyama Steakhouse in Carbondale.

The chefs do these really neat tricks at the hibachi tables:

Patrick and I both got the Surf & Turf special which included lobster tail and filet mignon. Patrick just got hooked on lobster last weekend, and now it’s one of his favorites. I really enjoyed the unique taste. Usually lobster tastes like butter, but this time, it was much different:

And at the very end of the night, I was surprised with a grand ice cream desert and everyone sang a Japanese birthday song for me and hit the gong. It was such a wonderful night!

Lindsey and I are getting better at waking up early on Saturdays for our long runs. I’m sure knowing the heat is coming really helps, because by about 10:30, it really gets hot! The high temps this past week have been in the 100s! After getting up, having some breakfast and driving about 30 minutes to the course, we arrived around 7:30.

Lindsey picked out the place to run, since I drove to Southern Illinois this weekend. We were going to run around Murphysboro Lake, which is about 4 miles around, and since this is a 7-miler, we will run around the park almost twice, saving the last mile for a good walk/warm down. Little did I know that the location was FULL of hills!

The trail was beautiful and peaceful. The road was wide and covered with tall trees most of the way. There were a few people fishing with their boats, and a couple walkers. We weren’t sure how the trail would go, other than it was the road around the park, so we just kept on the main road, and did fine. My GPS unit worked until about a mile, then all the trees around caused me to lose connection with the satellite.

When Lindsey and I ran together, we had a few “interruptions” with bugs, specifically small horseflies. They really buzzed around us when there was shade, and I killed one on Lindsey’s butt while running. The hills came upon us so quickly, and they were pretty steep in a couple places. We tackled them pretty hard and were successful. It felt like the hills never ended. Right before the end of the first 4 miles, we ran across a small dam/bridge, and looking over at the lake was gorgeous. In my mind, I felt like I was in one of those professional posters where the guy is running across the lake and there’s some big saying about motivation or serenity…but really I knew all it looked like was a big fat guy sweating his ass off trying to just be done with it.

Lindsey arrived at the end of the first lap, and as I was coming down the hill, she handed me my water bottle that was placed under the” Smokey The Bear” sign. Here we go again, but this time, we ran the course in reverse. I carried my water bottle with me the whole second lap. The horseflies were really expecting us now, and miles 5 & 6 were bad…I was bit by one enough to really feel the pain, and it stung for a good mile before I was able to ignore it.

On the second lap, I just couldn’t handle the hills. I would start, but then end up taking my walk about halfway. These were the steepest hills I’ve ever trained on. And on the flipside, on the downhill slopes, I had to gradually pick up speed to take them on, otherwise I would have fell forward. I could feel my hamstrings kicking in on the downhills. I think my legs really got a workout today.

I had made a mental mark on where Mile 7 was, but it wasn’t a clear mark, and so when I passed it, I wasn’t sure it was really the right place. And Lindsey was about 4 minutes ahead of me, so I lost track of her mostly through the second lap. I just kept running as best as I could, and then suddenly the “Smokey The Bear” sign showed up, and BAM! I ran 8 miles, not 7!

I was so proud of Lindsey, she did very well, beating my time by 4 minutes. She was so energized from the run, she was saying she could run another lap. I was whipped, but felt great. And knowing the next couple big weekend runs will be smaller feels good. I can’t wait to run 7 again, and next time I’m hoping it will be easy.  I did bruise underneath my big toe on my left foot. Going down the hills made my toenail squish against the front of the shoe, and it bruised it pretty bad. I think I’ll lose that nail in a couple months.  It’s a throbbing pain right now, and it’s starting to turn blue (fun, huh?)

Happy Birthday, baby! Can’t wait to eat Fujiyama Steakhouse tonight!

Conditions: 78 degrees, cooler, shady, clear skies.
Results: today: 8 miles; total: 32 miles; time: 1:38:14; pace: 12:16
Thoughts: I need to stick to a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday schedule during the week. It really helps. I can’t wait for the weather to be cooler, so I can do all my runs outside.
What I’ll remember the most: Those damn hills.