Very excited about my run today.
I was a little worried about trying to find out where to run here in Ballwin. Especially after last months debacle at Queeny Park, where I was crying going up the last hill in mile 5.5 of a 7 mile jaunt. So I decided to use a little know-how. I posted comments on both the LiveJournal community runners and stlouis asking for help. The St. Louis community was more helpful. Only one response on runners and she's a friend of mine of my own journal! The stlouis people suggested the Katy Trail in St. Charles (which is a bit of a haul from here), Grant's Trail which Brent & I found out last month while visiting Grant's Farm, Creve Couer Park (which I've never been too but know where the area of Creve Couer is) and finally Pere Marquette State Park, back in Illinois.
After seeing the first comment about Grant's Trail and the accompanying link making out mile markers, I decided on that was the best bet since I have seen a little bit of it before, it was relatively close to where Brent lives. I asked the commenter where I should start and the best way to get there. He suggested at the very northern part and I'll work my way south. After comparing his notes to Google Street View (thank you Google gods!) I was ready to go.
I ate a bowl of oatmeal, stopped off at Target to pick up some Gatorade and PowerBar Protein Plus and on my way. I ended up not taking the interstates he suggested but the roads I know and I got there in 20 minutes. I'm sure it would have been faster if I would have taken the interstates. No biggie.
I got everything all situated and off I went on the trail. 56 seconds later, I ran into my first stop light across a major road (the road I came in on, Big Bend Rd).
Welp, I have a feeling this is going to be the entire way. Sure enough, at .5 miles into the run (around 4 minutes) another stop light. Didn't see another one until 1.5 miles. The one at 3 miles. That was at Grant's Farm. Right before this I was passing all the pasture fields for the Clydesdales of Grant's Farm and they were soooo close to the fence! There were signs that said:
Don't feed the horses or
CAUTION: Horses may bite but didn't say anything about not petting the horses so technically I could have but I didn't want to stop. I took pictures instead.
Then I had a nice long mile before I had to stop again for a road. This was halfway and technically I didn't have to cross but I didn't want to run to the car and then get in and drive off so I did cross and came across a park which had a path into it. It was daylight, so I decided what the hey and went in. Sooo glad I did too! Shaded, cool breeze and lots of foilage. Came back out and that was 4.3 so I had plenty of mileage left over to play with. After I exited the park, I decided that I should take some Sports Beans. Yes, they are chewy like the Shot Bloks I had last week but in smaller more manageable pieces and dissolved better. I took them with water. At mile 3, I already guzzled a bit of my Gatorade. (I only took 2 bottles with me in my belt)
On the way back, passing Grant's Farms pastures again, a group of Clydesdales where all standing together, near the back of the pasture, which was closest to the trail, all looking in the same direction. And since they all had their white blazes on their face, it was like they were all looking at the same thing. It was a very neat picture. Ended up stopping at a very old cemetery and there they had a restroom and water fountains (of course turned off). I walked through the old cemetery took some photos and then walked the remaining little bit back to the car for a cool down.
Now about the path itself. Aside from the constant stopping at the beginning, it was OK. I would probably run it again. Very newly paved, not very busy (for a Thursday at noon of course not!). The bikers are NOT friendly at all. Though I have yet to come across any biker that yells out "Passing on your left!" even in my little town they don't do it. The runners or walkers are not very friendly either. I waved at every single person on the trail, and only a handful waved back at me. I wave at everyone who is on my trail in DeKalb and they all wave back. I knew better to even try in Chicago so I didn't there, plus there was too many of them. There was this one point that it was Woolly Bully alley. So many of them scooting across the path trying to get to the other side. I took some pictures of them, all within 30 secs of each other. Of course there were plenty of birds too and some dead Wooly Bullies that bikers never saw. Poor things. There were 2 best parts, the horses at Grant's Farm and Clydesdale Park near I-55. Very pretty in there, I now wished that I would have ran around more in there. It felt very nice.
I'm still not over the biker thing though. How hard is it for them to yell out "Coming up behind you!" and then "Passing on your left!"? Srsly! I totally do that when I come up with walkers. I recently added the "Behind you" part but I've always said "On your left." On top of being nice, it also is a good indication of my breathing. Now bikers at RAGBRAI did that all the time but most of them are professional. One guy today, comes whizzing by me, on a road bike and scared the daylights out of me! He almost made me pee my pants! I jumped a lot. My heart raced which then screwed up my breathing. I don't think these guys realise that at all. Even in Chicago, for 2h20' only 1 biker the entire time said "On your left" as he was passing us. I couldn't believe it. I thought for sure with the traffic that I was going on there would be more.
I did a nice little stretch at the end near the park benches and I'm feeling good now. Off to take a shower and chill with Brent's kitties before I go pick him up from work whenever he calls me.
Activity| Route: | -- | Elev. Avg: | 517 ft | | Location: | Kirkwood, MO | Elev. Gain: | -23 ft | | Date: | 10/16/08 | Up/Downhill: | [+213/-236] | | Time: | 12:02 PM | Difficulty: | 2.7 / 5.0 |
| | Weather: | Partly Cloudy |
| 58 F temp; 53% humidity |
| 58 F heat index; winds NW 8 |
| Distance: | 8.02 miles |
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| Time: | 1:17:05 | | Speed: | 6.2 mph |
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| | Pace: | 9' 37 /mi |
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| | Calories: | 836 |
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 Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits| Mile | Pace (min/mile) | Speed (mph) | Elevation
Gain |
|---|
| actual | +/- avg | actual | +/- avg |
|---|
| 1 | 9' 40 | +0' 03 | 6.2 | -0.0 | -36 ft | | 2 | 9' 33 | -0' 04 | 6.3 | +0.0 | -23 ft | | 3 | 9' 34 | -0' 03 | 6.3 | +0.0 | -43 ft | | 4 | 9' 36 | -0' 01 | 6.2 | +0.0 | -16 ft | | 5 | 10' 08 | +0' 31 | 5.9 | -0.3 | +7 ft | | 6 | 10' 04 | +0' 27 | 6.0 | -0.3 | +17 ft | | 7 | 10' 12 | +0' 35 | 5.9 | -0.4 | +32 ft | | 8 | 10' 09 | +0' 32 | 5.9 | -0.3 | +33 ft | | Versus average of 9' 37 min/mile |
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