For the first time in who knows how long, I got off work on time today, and was able to hit the pavement right away. The 8-miler was a full run and then some around Forest Park. It was windy at times and light drizzle, and it felt great to be out, especially with the fall temperatures.
It took me about 45 minutes to loosen up today! I was really surprised, especially since I ran 4 yesterday. Figured I’d be loosened up. It was almost an instant feeling from stiffness to loose as I climbed a small hill on the trail. Even though it was tough today, I think it’ll be worth it when it comes to the next long runs. I don’t wanna wimp out.
I ran my 8 miles in 1:25:10.
Lindsey suggested a great place to run for our 16 miler this weekend. I traveled down to Southern Illinois this weekend, and we woke up at a normal time and headed down to a great location about 45 minutes away. The trail was an old railroad track that’s now just a gravel road, and the trail goes from small town to small town. Our run would go from one small town to another and back again. We drove about 45 minutes south and parked at the visitor’s center in Vienna. There were lots of bicyclists, but no runners.
I was nervous about this run because I did not train AT ALL this past week, and didn’t know how miles 14, 15, and 16 would be. I was loosened up pretty good from the very beginning, and the first 5 miles were easy. About halfway through the first 8, the trail had detoured, and about 3/4 mile was on the highway. The trail had mile markers, which was nice and I didn’t have to pay attention to the watch as much.
Once I reached the town of Belknap at 8 miles, I took my first Gu and turned around to head home. By the way, this was the first time I had the chocolate Gu, and it was really good! I was taking my water/walk breaks pretty consistently, trying to make sure I had enough water when it came down to the last 4 miles or so. I didn’t have my music turned on, but after I turned around, I began to play my music to keep my momentum up.
On the way back, I had to take that detour again, and I had to stop for a few minutes to let a train pass. I stretched and made good use of the time. It was funny with me standing there while other cars were around. After I passed the “half-marathon” mark at 13 miles, my body started to wear pretty quickly, and I took my second Gu. The weather was nice the whole morning, and the trail was mostly in the shade, but the sun was coming up pretty high and the temps were rising a bit. After Mile 14, I was starting to hallucinate and my mind was drifting pretty bad. I was seeing things, like black bears chasing me and leaves in front of me looked like rodents. Then suddenly I looked up and thought I saw two deer on the trail. Then they ran away…OH there really were deer! They ran off as soon as they heard my feet on the trail.
I still had about 2 miles to go, and I had only sipfuls of water left (as expected), but my legs were started to become stiff. I kept thinking “only 20 more minutes” and started to take sporadic walk breaks. I walked for about 4 or 5 minutes before I realized I wasn’t getting there any faster. When I saw the 126 mile marker (which meant about 1 1/2 miles left) I said, “just run it”, and I did it. I didn’t stop running all the way to the end, no matter how much my legs hurt and no matter how much I was hallucinating. I made that last turn and saw the end of the road, and that last strip of trail felt like FOREVER. It must’ve took 5 or 6 minutes to finally get there. I made it 9 seconds under 3 hours. I was hoping for a better time…maybe 15 minutes faster, but I don’t know. Who’s to say what the real mileage was with that detour and all.
At the end, I just stopped and bent over, trying to catch as much air as I could. I saw Lindsey at the picnic table trying to recover and I walked over to the trunk and got my water and just gulped like it was my last. I went into the Vienna visitor’s center and washed my face and got my cloth wet. Those last 2 miles were tough, and I believe it’s all because I did not train at all this week.
So now I have motivation to get each and every run in from now until the marathon.
Later that evening, Lindsey invited me to an “Inspiring Women’s Gala” event at SIUC in Carbondale, IL (which is where I recorded this video)
The next day Lindsey and I visited Cairo, Illinois, and it was so fascinating seeing such a vibrant town decay over the decades. We ate at Shemwell’s Barbecue, which was the best barbecue pork sandwich I’ve ate in a long long time. We also went to the most southern point of Illinois at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
It’s October now, and the weather should be in the upper 60s, and today’s high was over 90 degrees. So, like it was in the summer, we got up early to beat the heat. We ran our 15 miles on a Sunday instead of Saturday. Let’s just say I had “one little drink” on Friday night (a 46 oz margarita) 
on an empty stomach, and when I got up early Saturday morning to run, it didn’t turn out too well, so we waited until the next day. Lindsey wasn’t feeling well either, but hers was stress-induced. The runners were late starters, too. The Saturday morning runners are on the go before we even get there usually, but on Sundays, they must sleep in a little bit, because there was a surge of runners about 5 miles into our run.
The run at Forest Park today was running almost to the 2-mile marker, then turning around and running the entire park twice. I had added/deleted some of the music in my MP3 player, which helped me tremendously on this run. After all this time, I was finally able to figure out the shuffle mode DUH. One of the tracks I liked today was Alcazar’s “This Is The World We Live In“, which for some reason gave me goosebumps. And running with goosebumps is a strange feeling…it’s like you can feel your skeleton separate from your skin. Anybody’s who’s been through it knows what I’m saying…
The run was really good for me. At first the humidity was tough, sweating a lot during the first 4 miles, but then once I got in the groove, it was steady. My 20/2 pacing has been going great for almost every run. (That’s 20 minutes of running, 2 minutes of walking). That puts me at 2 miles per break. Even when running these long runs, I’m able to keep it up, so I think my training will continue to go well and I’ll most likely run the marathon at that pacing.
I ran out of water about 2 miles towards the end, but that was ok. Even though it was getting warm fast, I was able to finish without stopping for a fountain. I kept thinking of my big Fruit Punch Gatorade chilling in the back of my Explorer the whole time.
At the end of the run, I stopped abruptly and as I started to walk back towards the Visitor’s Center, I almost got nailed by a bicyclist. Everyone escaped uninjured, but it was close. I think it was both our faults. I should have looked back before crossing and I know I was a little out of it having run 15, but they should know that people tend to stop at the 0 mile marker, and they didn’t yell “LEFT” before passing.
Once I walked in the Visitor’s Center, I went straight into the bathrooms and doused my face with water and drank right from the sink. Then I came out and saw Lindsey eating her banana at the table. I drank my Gatorade and changed my soaked shirt, then after looking around at some of the visitors center, we went back home and took a nice shower.
We treated ourselves to Red Robin, and We avoided napping at all costs (since that’s a bad thing after a big run), and we’re now blogging.
Conditions: 78-84 degrees, humid at first.
Results: today: 15 miles; time: 2:36:57; pace: 10:27
Thoughts: The longer I run, the more comfortable I am with the 20/2 pacing.
What I’ll remember the most: Drinking that 64-oz bottle of Gatorade.
Thanks to Hurricane Erin, we’re getting some showers and wind today. It’s not often we’re affected in St. Louis by hurricanes, but this one traveled right up the midwest and is dying out as it’s pushing through our area. It was much cooler and overcast all day. I ran right after work, and it was pretty windy, enough to make me wonder if it was slowing down my run. About a mile into the run, it started raining, and it was off and on the rest of the way. Nothing too hard, nothing too stormy…just a nice wet rain. Felt great, actually. I don’t mind running in the rain. I just don’t want my mp3 player to short out on me.
Conditions: 82 degrees, rain.
Results: today: 3 miles; shoe miles: 50; time: 30:43; pace: 10:14
Thoughts: Glad I wore my running gear that whisks away water! Wearing cotton today would’ve slowed me down from weighing so much!
What I’ll remember the most: Trying to wear my sunglasses to protect my eyes from the rain.
It’s hard to even call this morning’s run a “long run”. We are following Hal Hidgon’s marathon training schedule, which puts a 5-miler on the map for today, and it was an easy run. Easy because all the elements were in place–the weather was MUCH cooler, breezy conditions, enthusiastic morning runners at Forest Park, and we’ve finally adjusted to getting up early on Saturday mornings.
After our typical morning “flush” at the Visitor’s Center, Lindsey and I ran together for the first mile, then Lindsey took off a little faster and ran her interval training. I just ran straight through non-stop. There were times when I would pass her up, then she would pass me up right afterwards. She finished a few minutes before I did, but I was really happy with my run, and the weather conditions were perfect. Temps in the mid-70s, breezy wind, and a familiar course. I remember back to the first time I ran Forest Park, I could barely run it. Now, it was a non-stop jog, and I feel like I’ve built my endurance up quite a bit in the last 3 weeks.
After the run, we took my sister Ellen and my neice Erin to Six Flags St. Louis, where we dumped $250 into a typical day’s worth of expenses. I haven’t been at the park in over 10 years, and it’s quite the rip-off. They nickel and dime ya every chance they can. It’s so worth traveling to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. A 3.5 hour trip there will still be less expensive than Six Flags St. Louis. At Holiday World, the drinks and parking is free. Those 3 things at Six Flags St. Louis added up to $65. I’m just going to stop here before I really rip Six Flags St. Louis a new one.
Conditions: 73 degrees, breezy.
Results: today: 5 miles; shoe miles: 47; time: 51:35; pace: 10:18
Thoughts: The cooler temps was such a relief! I almost felt like I needed a jacket!
What I’ll remember the most: Not dying for water at the end. We drank out of the water fountain at the Visitor’s Center and didn’t even touch our own water bottles.
After 3 weeks of upper 90s to 100s, the temps were downright chilly! Ha Ha. Actually the high was around 90 today, which allowed me to run in the evening, instead of after dark. Lindsey was in town Thursday night, so we ran in Fenton Park around 6:30. The weather was cooler, the park was filled with activity, and I was able to easily run 3 miles non-stop. I wasn’t even out of breath after the run. 10 degrees cooler and less humidity certainly help the run. I was really getting frustrated with running late at night, because I had a hard time settling my body down after going through that type of high-intensity workout.
Conditions: 85 degrees, overcast.
Results: today: 2.8 miles; shoe miles: 42; time: 29:16; pace: 10:27
Thoughts: Overcast and cooler temps. I’m looking forward to the Fall.
What I’ll remember the most: Running with Lindsey on a weekday.
I wanted to run yesterday (because I run Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays), but this heat is keeping me from getting motivated. It was muggy and hot and I figured I’d wait until tomorrow to run. I got in my car to head home after work today, and was shocked to see a temperature of 112 degrees on my thermometer. I snapped a photo from my cell phone. 
It ranged between 110 and 115 on the way home. Just insane. How can I train in that kind of weather? That’s a pretty good indication I’m running after dark, when the temp gets down into the lower 90s. Around 9:15pm, the temps were about 91, so I headed out to run my 4-miler. I went to Fenton Park like I always do during the week, and decided to run 4.2 miles, which is 3 laps around. The humidity was low, and it felt pretty nice out. There were some ball games still going on at the time, but by the time I went around my third lap, they were turning off the lights! One interesting note about running at night is that with each lap, the stars looked like they were in a different position…and I guess that’s right…it was about 15 minutes a lap for me tonight.
While running, the mind wanders, and today I was just imagining what it would be like to run down the streets of Vegas and have all the lights and casinos passing by. Pretty cool scene. I can’t wait to run it. I felt good about today’s run, since I ran it non stop. I had a good stretch afterwards and I didn’t experience any side pains like I had been in the past. I was getting pains within the first half-mile, but now I don’t have any pain at all.
Conditions: 91 degrees, less humid, clear starry skies.
Results: today: 4 miles; total: 39 miles; time: 46:50; pace: 11:09
Thoughts: I enjoy the night running. There are parts of the park where there’s hardly any light, but I like the lack of sun every now and then, especially when the official high was 105 today!
What I’ll remember the most: The stars.
Since it’s so hot this week, I decided to wait until sunset to do my running. I just can’t do the treadmill thing anymore. The temps were around 90 degrees, so it was much cooler than earlier in the day. The evening brought a lot of humidity, but I like that. I’ve always enjoyed working in humid conditions instead of sunny conditions.
My calves hurt earlier this morning, still recovering from the 8-miler on Saturday, but by the time I ran, they felt great. The 3-miler in Fenton Park was cool tonight, because the park’s baseball fields, tennis courts and basketball courts are all lit up. The park doesn’t close until 11:00pm, so I think I’ll enjoy coming here in the evening to do my runs. And there’s plenty of people around, so it’s interesting people watching.
I purchased a new mp3 player and used it for the first time tonight. It’s the Creative MuVo V100. It’s a 2GB player/USB port.
I’ve always liked Creative’s products, and this one is no exception. I bought a Zen Vision a while back, and was strapping it on my arm when I ran, but that mp3 player has a hard drive in it, which constantly spins, whereas this one is flash based, so there’s no moving parts. Plus this one’s the size of a domino, where as the other one is a big larger than a deck of cards. I liked having this in my pocket while I ran. I enjoyed the freedom of not having anything velcroed to my arm!
Anyways, back to the run….I ran the whole 3 miles non-stop and came in under 30 minutes, which is an improvement. I also spent a lot of time stretching, which I don’t normally do. I watched this video on YouTube, and it helped with my stretching after the run.
My left big toe still hurts from last Saturday, and it’s gonna be that way the whole training period, since it’s bruised under the nail. Well, that’s what they say…runners lose nails…here we go. Oh well.
The temps are expected to be at 103 tomorrow, so I may wait until past sunset to do my run. I’m excited again though! Can’t wait to lose some weight!
I need some inspiration this week, because I want to get excited about being in the Las Vegas Marathon! So, here’s a video clip from last year’s Las Vegas Marathon.
