Filed under: Cheat Meal, Lindsey, Long Runs, Road-Running, Travel, pain, video, water bottle
Patrick and I spent the week in Southern Illinois. On Saturday, we carb loaded and headed out to run. This time, we ran a portion of the Tunnel Hill trail. The trail is actually an old railroad bed, so it’s flat and very long. We began in Vienna (pronounced Vie-Anna), and ran to Belknap and back.
Neither of us ran this week. I tried a bit on Friday, but didn’t get too far. Luckily, we were able to finish the 16-miler. We loved running this trail. It felt good to run a softer surface. There are extremely small rock fragments over dirt. And, there were mile markers on the trail! The scenery was also nice. We started off seeing corn fields, ran over several bridges, through a tunnel, saw some horses, ran next to the Cache River Wetlands, which looks like a bright green swamp, and close to a huge tomato garden. There was a detour and we had to run on the road. It was dangerous. A rickety car was inches away from me as it passed going about 65 miles an hour. It didn’t get over. If anything, the driver tried to get close to me to perhaps scare me. It did. I’ve had to cover too many incidents as a reporter where someone gets hurt or even killed because a driver it trying to make a point or be funny. On the way back, I ignored the detour signs and continued on the portion of the trail that was closed. I had to jump over two ravines and cross the railroad tracks. I felt much safer than if I would have had to go on the road again.
I was extremely thirsty during the run. I continuously gulped down water while I was running, and chugged it when I walked. I did a good job at keeping myself hydrated throughout the run, but I really wanted more water. At times, it felt like my heart skipped a beat and I couldn’t catch my breath. I decided to take longer walking breaks, and at one point, I probably walked for 10 minutes straight. I just couldn’t breathe well. Finally, when I was ready to run, my legs began to cramp up. Finishing was difficult. Although I could see the end of the trail, I couldn’t keep my body going. I had to walk.
During the run, I thought some of the twigs on the ground were jumping. I also thought I saw a horizontal street sign in middle of the woods. It was actually a branch of extremely bright leaves where the sun was beaming down. Other than that, my mind didn’t play many tricks on me. But I did find some of the comments from passing bicyclists annoying. Because I run faster than Patrick, I’m usually about a half to an entire mile ahead. I’m also in the zone with my music turned up loud. I kept having to pause my music and ask the bicyclist to repeat what they were yelling at me, which was always something in the neighborhood of: “Slow down, so that guy can catch up! You’re going to fast,” and so on. I kept thinking something bad happened to Patrick, and I would slow down and look back and try to see if he was alright. I love humor, but it’s distracting when you’re in middle of a 16-mile run. Why can’t they just say “Hi! Good morning!” and move on?
I finished running in 2 hours and 45 minutes. I immediately went to the car and drank a bunch of ice cold water. I ate a banana, stretched, and waited for Patrick to get done. I could tell he was in a lot of pain. I had trouble walking for the rest of the day. In fact, it’s been more than 24 hours and I’m still having trouble walking!
After our run, we got all dressed up for the Inspiring Women’s Gala at SIUC.
Sometimes, I want to give up. I think running a marathon would be nice, but could I ever complete a full marathon? And what about completing the marathon between four and five hours? Will I just give up and walk, or give up and duck into a casino? After listening to so many women talk about what’s inspired them to keep going, I felt much stronger. One woman joined the Peace Corps when she retired! I found myself thinking: “I want to be like her!”
Plus, the entire evening was extremely special. Patrick and I were invited to sit with our friends at WSIL-TV, and we had a great time together. (All of us happened to wear black dresses!) Everyone was dressed up. When I say it was fancy– I mean it. Take a look at the butter: (It’s in a shape of a flower)
And this is just a sample of what we could have for dessert:
The next day, we went on an adventure in Cairo, Illinois! I’ve been wanting to take Patrick to Cairo for some BBQ, for about two years now. Today was the perfect time to take him there. I took him “downtown” and showed him where all the hustle and bustle used to be:
We could park anywhere, get out, and do just about anything. There was no one around! Makes us wonder why there are so many stop signs?
I even showed Patrick where an entrance way used to be to a major store. Now, you can just see a little bit of the intricate tile-work where the doorway used to be. Patrick acted like the building was still there:
Then, I took him to Fort Defiance State Park, which is between two bridges; one to Kentucky and one to Missouri. It’s as low as you can go in Illinois.
After that, we had BBQ!
After all that, we were tired! And… my legs still hurt!
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.
