Feet Problems & Half Marathon

Today's post is about my feet and this weekend's half marathon.

I have funky feet. Here's a picture of them both. They're pretty much the same, luckily. My toes are the problem though. I have hammer toes like crazy. I crack them, started doing that once in a while with my ex-boyfriend but now I'm doing them myself just by bending them! My middle one is a little longer than them all. During my half marathon last year, I ended up having a bruised big toe nail on my right foot. It hurt a lot. I thought I was going to lose it! I think that was because my shoes were a size too small. You can still see something discoloured on my right big toe.

Recently since training for my marathon, my feet have taken much more of a toll. I have two problems that I'm now encountering that I haven't had before. My middle toes are now sore on the very top of the toe. They also have some dry skin along with the soreness.

If you look at the first photo again you can see that my pinky toe kinda turns and sits under the toe next to it. Well, curved in such a way that it didn't bother me before. But now I have a blister under that toe caused by the rubbing of the pinky toe.

This blister has only appeared in the past couple weeks. It's not really puffy or anything, more like just there. Today on my run I wore a bandaid around my toe but it just got turned around by the time I was done. But I guess that at least it was protected a bit. *shrug* Really don't know what else to do.

Then there's the balls of my feet again. I tied my shoes nice and tight and they still burned a bit by the time I was done with my 5 miles. I'm hoping it's because of the sensitivity from yesterday and the fact that maybe cause I wore the same socks. I marked them, just in case.

Half Marathon talk
This weekend is a half marathon. It's funny. I worked so hard and so long last year for my half marathon and here I am doing it so blasé as if it's just a training run. And in all actuality it is, plus I'm doing another 5 miles after it! --Or at least I plan on it!-- Best part is that I get another medal! I like medals!

Packet pickup is on Saturday, so that's good. I can lay everything out in preparation for Sunday morning. Tricky part will be waking Brent up. And wondering what he plans on doing by himself for 2 hours. I'm sure he'll be fine, if not a bit bored. :-)

That's another thing, I don't know what pace to run the race in. Should I go for a slower pace knowing that I've got another 5 after OR should I try to beat my 2:03? It'll be fun to beat 2:03 but actually, I think that 2:03 is a complete farce and I don't know if I'll ever be able to get to that time again. I think what I'll do is just go out and run the race. Not really putting a limit on anything. It's gonna be good weather in St. Louis for the race though, if a bit warm.

Below is my route. Pretty straightforward. I think the fun part will be Forest Park. The hand drawn map on their site didn't seem like I went that big in Forest Park. But once I laid it all out in Google Maps, I was like whoa, I'm traversing all through Forest Park! I think it'll be fun. I'm bringing my own hydration belt just in case they don't have that many water tables. I haven't seen anything on their website about it actually. Seems like a smaller race (it's put on by the Running Club which only has 1000 members) so that's why I'm really not expecting much.


View Larger Map

And yes, I finally did a negative split today on my run. Look at the last mile. I think that was because right before the 4 mile mark, I saw 2 deer (does actually) on my bike path. Made me very happy. Then at the 4 mile mark, I turned around and headed back in the same direction and saw the other one cross. I missed my running buddies! I haven't seen them this year yet! And yes, that's another 9:03 avg pace for 5 miles. I wish I could hold that for 13 miles! HA!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 859 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +17 ft Date: 10/30/08 Up/Downhill: [+200/-183] Time: 05:08 PM Difficulty: 2.5 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 57 F temp; 45% humidity 57 F heat index; winds S 10 Performance Distance: 5.00 miles Time: 0:45:13 Speed: 6.6 mph Pace: 9' 03 /mi Calories: 495 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 53 -0' 10 6.8 +0.1 +23 ft 2 9' 02 -0' 01 6.6 +0.0 -16 ft 3 9' 12 +0' 09 6.5 -0.1 +6 ft 4 9' 21 +0' 18 6.4 -0.2 +23 ft 5 8' 34 -0' 29 7.0 +0.4 -20 ft Versus average of 9' 03 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 5 miles, feet, Google Maps, pictures, St. Louis Half Marathon

Cold weather running

Who on Earth was that woman out running this evening? Cause it sure as hell wasn't me. I don't know what got into me. Maybe it was the garlic & cheese pizza bread Red Baron single that I had at 2:30p that helped me out!

I ran 9 miles tonight and it was no problem. Well, the last 2 was tough (I'll explain later). But my average pace tonight was 9:03 min/mi. Let me repeat, for 9 MILES! Sure I of course had my positive splits but for the first 5 miles I was under 9 minutes (fastest of mile 3 at 8:41)! With my slowest mile being of course my last and that was at 9:35! One of these days I'll go out there and do a 9:30 min/mi for my first mile. Geez, I wish I knew how to slow myself down!

The last 2 was tough because of three reasons. The bottoms of my feet were hurting, specifically the balls of my feet. After the run, I looked down and saw that my shoes weren't tied tightly so they could have been flopping about and my socks rubbing so that's what caused the rawness that my feet are now feeling. The second reason was my left hip flexor was giving me problems. I never had that happen to be before. About a year and a half ago it was my right hip flexor that I had physical therapy on. So that was a bit odd. Almost 2 hours after the run, I'm still having problems with left my leg at my hip, especially when walking up stairs. Third reason: it was cold!! Starting out it was 51 degrees according the bank but once that sun disappeared lower than the trees I could feel the effects of the cold on my face, specifically my face and upper thighs. I even put my gloves BACK on after taking them off around the 2.25 mile mark! I did see a guy near the end of my run in just short sleeves and shorts. CRAZY! The bank when I finished said it was 46 degrees. So it dropped 5 in the 1:21 I was out running. Hmm, may have to bring a neck gaiter next week.

I had on my leggings, a thicker short sleeve dri fit St. Jude Heroes shirt, my visor along with an ear band to go over it. I didn't bring my sunglasses even though the sun was shining, because I knew I wouldn't need it at the end of my run and they would just be bothering me. Though it hard to go south and west at the beginning of my run. The sun was low enough in the sky that the visor didn't help. I did bring 2 bottles with me (water & gatorade) however, I didn't really use it until mile 6 or so. And then it was only Gatorade. But I'm still glad I brought it, just in case. I just didn't want to disrupt my pace, I think is what I was going for. I also brought my snot rag but again, I didn't use it even though I needed to. It's hard to get it tucked back in my belt sometimes while running.

I mapped out my route today at work. I didn't have any problems crossing the main roads of Hillcrest, 1st or Lucinda towards NIU, surprisingly. I wanted to cross Lincoln Highway but I knew better than to do that. So I only managed 4 miles down there and then had to double back and make up the final mile on another part of the bike path. I wish there was a way to get over those roads though without having to stop or watch for cars, like an underpass. That would be awesome. Oh well.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 853 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +23 ft Date: 10/29/08 Up/Downhill: [+213/-190] Time: 04:46 PM Difficulty: 2.8 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 46 F temp; 32% humidity 46 F heat index; winds NE 5 Performance Distance: 9.00 miles Time: 1:21:34 Speed: 6.6 mph Pace: 9' 04 /mi Calories: 907 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 46 -0' 18 6.8 +0.2 +33 ft 2 8' 44 -0' 20 6.9 +0.3 -33 ft 3 8' 40 -0' 24 6.9 +0.3 0 ft 4 8' 54 -0' 10 6.7 +0.1 0 ft 5 8' 56 -0' 08 6.7 +0.1 0 ft 6 9' 05 +0' 01 6.6 -0.0 -3 ft 7 9' 23 +0' 19 6.4 -0.2 +39 ft 8 9' 18 +0' 14 6.5 -0.2 -26 ft 9 9' 35 +0' 31 6.3 -0.4 +13 ft Versus average of 9' 04 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 9 miles, cold weather, DeKalb Nature Trail, feet

I'm back on it

I did 4 miles tonight. At the YMCA, on a treadmill. So not exactly the most exciting workout.

I wore a short sleeve shirt instead of a tank. Should have known better. I was hot by the end. They do have the heat on now. Of course, it didn't help that I had a 90% cotton bra on underneath that. It was my only clean bra. It was one that I bought BEFORE I knew about wicking products! Needless to say, I threw it out after I was done. :-)

Tomorrow is 9 miles. I'm nervous. I'm hoping I can get in a groove, "runner's high" and let my body take me. Six miles was tough on Sunday but it was a race so I was huffing it. I won't be tomorrow. Hoping around 9:40 min/mi or so.

It's going to be around 50 degrees when I start. So definitely leggings. I don't think I'll be wearing a long sleeved shirt but instead my arm warmers again. Haven't decided if I'm going to bring any hydration on the run. If so, only 2 bottles of water should do it as long as I eat enough before hand (bagel).

Categories: treadmill runs

Medals & Marathons

Is it wrong to base your marathon choice based on finishers medals?

The Walt Disney World Marathon or Half or Goofy Challenge or whatever is now going on my list. Simply because I saw this:

Categories: marathon, medals

Pumkinfest 10k

They say that you should never try things new on race day. Well, I tried 2 things new this year for Pumpkinfest 10k. I had my new arm warmers and my SPIbelt. The arm warmers worked great, the SPIbelt, not so much. I'll tell ya why later. I woke up this morning at my normal work time. I love going to this race because I can actually sleep in and leave only 30 minutes before start time. I do pay for parking as I have no idea where to park in Sycamore. Last night I laid out what I was going to wear. Last year, I wore a Cool Wear UA shirt and my UA leggings. I was happy with the leggings, not so happy with the shirt. So I decided to go with the leggings but try out my arm warmers and a sleeveless shirt (as that's all I had, no short sleeve shirt clean. I should have done laundry sooner in the week). I get to the parking lot and get out only to see that EVERYONE it seems is in shorts. WTF?! I'm in my sleeveless and arm warmers and DID NOT want to take off my jacket! But I did and immediately put on a cotton t-shirt. I'll later regret this move. But I headed over to the starting line area. Talked to a former NIU colleague for quite a while about running and then it was 5 minutes to post! I saw my boss and ran up to say hello. She was decked out in pink. I told her that I had a runny nose and a cough but my energy is feeling much better. But I'm not expecting great things. I stayed around that area until the starting point. It took about 15 seconds or so to cross the starting line. This is a BIG race. A lot of CARA people come out for it. Kayte, my boss, took off to the right side of the road but I stayed on the left-ish side and soon lost her. She was way in front. "Phil" my Garmin was saying over 10 minutes and slowly coming down. The first mile is always congested with this race and it's uphill a little bit and no one realises that. I settle into a rhythm. Heading south on Somonauk and I don't really feel the wind since we were still in the city of Sycamore so I had no idea what was coming for me. Turn left onto Bethany and BOOM! The wind was at my back and helping me along. I LOVED IT! Every year, the route takes us by a horse farm. Last year the horses were out to pasture and they just stood there staring at us. As I said to myself, wondering what the heck all these humans are doing. This year was a completely different story. They were running with us! The four of them were galloping up along the fence and then turned and ran with us in the same direction along the fence. When they reached the end, they turned and headed back against us but it was so fun to see them do that! That they run just to have fun too! I took off my cotton shirt after that and just let it drape around my neck like I did last weekend. However, since it was a short sleeve shirt, it didn't want to stay behind my shoulders. But after I got used to it, I just let it stay where it wanted to. My arm warmers were working great! I used the shirt a few times to blow my nose into it. Takes much more energy and disrupts your breathing rhythm to keep your mucus in your nose than to just let it go. Turning north on Airport Rd. was another different story. I know that Airport has hills and farm land and with the corn gone, nothing to block the west wind. Sure enough, BLAST from the left. It knocked me off my stride. The entire way north on Airport I was fighting the wind, not myself or the hills. I don't even remember the hills. Just the damn wind. It was fierce. I also passed by boss at a hill on this road. I didn't say anything to her as I went by. I don't think she knew it was me though. Before mile 4.5 I got beside this woman. She was breathing so hard I could hear her. Another blast of wind. I said Damn. She asked "The wind?" I said yes. I was on her left and I said "Well, at least I'm blocking it for you!" She said "I think I'll need someone bigger than you." I replied, "Every little bit helps!" She said that she wasn't looking forward to the park, I agreed not with this wind. I told her that everytime I see the park, I think the finish is almost here but alas we haven't even reached 5 miles yet! She knew how I felt. I said that we can pace each other. She asked 9:15? I said yes. So we stayed with each other. And together we stayed. We reached 5 miles and it was great. Through the wind, the bridges, the turns, the hills. We kept urging each other on. Finally reaching 6 miles. What no one told me the first time is that 6 miles, there's still .2 left (which I knew) but at the .1 mark is when the hill starts arriving. Before the hill, we still managed to stay with the pace but at the bottom she said "Let's go!" and she started to kick it! So I was with her and I said "We can do it!" and escalated up the hill. But we both slowed down considerably again but then she said "Go Go Go!" and I think we both grrred and we crossed the finish line! I always miss the clock because it's is so far off the shoots. I turned around to give her a high five and she hugged me as well as we kept on walking down the shoot. I forgot to stop my Garmin at that time but after the end of the shoot it auto paused anyway since I stopped. We introduced each other, she asked where I was from. We're both from DeKalb. She said that if I hadn't of picked her up she would have been way back there. She asked what my normal pace was I said about this to 9:30 depends on the length. Told her I was training for my first marathon. She said that she always wanted to do one. Then she said that she should give me her name and number and if I ever wanted a running partner, to look her up. We both didn't have a writing utensil but I have her bib number (#691) and she works at Castle Bank. [Side story: Owner of Castle Bank makes all his employees run in the Pumpkinfest 10k and wear company shirts specially made for this race. My goal was to pass every runner with that shirt on. I didn't but it was nice lofty goal.] Afterwards, I stood in line for my sticker with my pace, finish time, overall, sex and age group finish. It's nice that it comes on a sticker for I just put it on the back of my bib number. I have kept every single bib number I've been in. I've got to do something with them soon! Maybe distrubute them by year and collage them or something. After I got that, then I went over for my free glass of beer and sat on the hill. I put my cotton shirt back on but still chilly. I didn't even finish my beer since I had no one at the race and just headed back to the car. My goal was to do another 6 after that but my legs were a little sore and with this wind, I didn't want to do with it. So I'll just do the normal milage this week and hopefully be able to do a Half Marathon this weekend. I sure hope I can. Now on to the SPIbelt. I put chapstick, my iPod, a couple cough drops (which I didn't use) and my car key. But it bounced the entire way. Around my belly button too. Come to find out, it's really elasticky and I could have moved it lower, below my belly button and just above my hip bones. Then it wouldn't have bounced. Found this out once I got home! So I'll take it out on me with a few of my runs this week and see if I can improve on the belt but the arm warmers are definitely a MUST! Overall finish: 2006: 553; 2007: 693; 2008 - 670 Sex Group finish: 2006: 128; 2007: 202; 2008: 197 Age Group finish: 2006: 14; 2007: 32; 2008: 35 Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 851 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 10/26/08 Up/Downhill: [+154/-154] Time: 09:35 AM Difficulty: 2.2 / 5.0 Weather: Fair and Breezy 52 F temp; 46% humidity 52 F heat index; winds W 23 G 29 Performance Distance: 6.26 miles Time: 0:57:41 Speed: 6.5 mph Pace: 9' 13 /mi Calories: 657 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 14 +0' 01 6.5 -0.0 +27 ft 2 8' 58 -0' 15 6.7 +0.2 -3 ft 3 8' 57 -0' 16 6.7 +0.2 -33 ft 4 9' 11 -0' 02 6.5 +0.0 0 ft 5 9' 14 +0' 01 6.5 -0.0 -3 ft 6 9' 25 +0' 12 6.4 -0.1 -3 ft end 10' 08 +0' 55 5.9 -0.6 +16 ft Versus average of 9' 13 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: Pumpkinfest 10k

Sickness

On Friday, I was diagnosed with a sinus infection, otherwise known as sinusitis. Lovely. I am now taking antibiotics 3 times a day for 10 days and hopefully this will clear up rather quickly. It seems every October I get sick with this!

Since I haven't ran at all this week, I was thinking of trying to squeeze in a few miles this morning. But when I woke up, I just started to have a sneezing fit like you wouldn't believe and even started coughing up mucus. Which is a good thing that my cough is now producing some evidence that something's in there and the reason I have it!

I'm trying to gather up energy for a NIU football game this afternoon. But when I all can think about is tissues and cough medicine, it's hard to gear up for anything else. But I will bring a travel pack of tissues with me and hope that my pockets are big and plentiful enough to stuff them in there.

I am going to run the Pumpkinfest 10k tomorrow though. I have never missed a run that I paid for. I'm hoping that I'll have the energy. If not, it will be an PW (personal worst) time for me I'm sure. I'm debating the whole 6 miles after that though (to get in my 12 for my marathon training). I'm just glad that this week is a "down" week. I don't know what I would have done had it been my 18 mile weekend (that's this coming weekend!)

Hopefully I'll get back on track on Tuesday for a 4 mile run!

Categories: sick

16 miles

It's been nearly a week now since I had my long run of 16 miles and I should talk about it before I forget it entirely.

I got up early and ate my oatmeal and bagel. That seemed to be enough food for me. However, getting Brent up and going was another task all in itself. Once he was up, he tried putting his new bike rack on his car but it didn't work too well. So he couldn't take his bike. Come to find out, that worked out quite fine.

Off to the park. After doing a lot of research, I found Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park and it sounded like their trails were long enough to make it work without having too much boredom or repetition. We found a parking spot and luckily, we passed a Casino on the way to the park so Brent said that's where he was going to go to hang out in the 2 hours and 40 minutes I thought it was going to take me.

It was kinda chilly out but Brent was nice enough to lend me his long sleeved shirt and said that I could dump it if I get too hot. I also had my gloves and a snot rag with me as well. I had my hydration belt, 2 bottles with water and 2 bottles with red Gatorade. I also had 2 different types of gels with me after the last week debacle with the Shot Bloks.

Off I went, things went well at first. I realised that I didn't have my battery pack for my camera so I ended up holding it for a long time. There was a Diabetes walk gathering up. The first time around I didn't see too many people. It was pretty easy out. There were a few bikers that didn't bother saying anything like "On Your Left" or "Coming Behind You!" Stupid ass bikers.

However the second time around, I started to run into groups of walkers taking up the ENTIRE path, on both sides of the yellow middle line. I was so pissed. There were many times in which I had to cut in the middle of the pack because no one bothered moving to one side after I said something.

Between mile 5-6 I ate my first gel. It wasn't too bad. It was a Raspberry HammerGel. I kept on moving. Things going fine. I had taken off my gloves at this point and tucked them in my belt however, I kept losing one of them and having to backtrack to get it. I had also taken off his shirt but just left it around my neck floating behind me and it wasn't that bad for me to do.

I was watching my Garmin, making sure my pace was steady and watching the Avg Pace to see that it stays around 9:35 or so. Sure enough, for a couple miles there, I was around 9:35! Pretty cool!

Between mile 10-11 I took my other gel. That one didn't taste as good and it was a Strawberry-Banana PowerGel. That's what a lot races use though and I have used in the past. Just gonna keep trying out the different ones.

Here comes the odd part: around 14.67 miles I got a really weird foot thing going on. My left arch was seriously hurting and my right foot started hurting bad too but I couldn't figure out where. But my left one I was most worried about. It seriously felt like my arch had fallen. It was sooo hurting. But after another mile or so it was gone. I'm not sure what happened there unless it was a cramp. I never had a cramp while running before. So that was a first.

At the end, I was back and forth a while trying to get my 16 miles. I saw my Avg Pace keep getting higher and higher but hey, 16 miles! Gotta give me a break somewhere! At one point, I was passing another runner and still in my lane and this kid comes running from behind his group of family and directly into me, making me scream and knocking me off my game. As I scream and he stumbles over me and into the girl that I was passing. It was just bad all over. The mothers just stare at me as I throw my hands up in the air in frustration.

I see Brent driving by, I wave, he waves and then he parks and comes running up to the path and runs the last .6 miles with me. That was nice. I ask what time it was. He said almost 12:15. So not what I was expecting him to say! All in all, I stopped my watch and it said 2:35. Which is 5 minutes faster than I predicted! and 5 minutes is HUGE in running! Come to find out that was an average of 9:44 min/mi which is good for 16 miles! If I kept that up (which I doubt I will) I'll have run a 4:15 marathon!

I didn't get much stretching done afterward since he had to go to his second whiffle ball game at 1p. I had to go to the bathroom too but that had to wait as well. We made it to the diamond at the very end of the first game and I took the liberty to stretch nicely after that on the grass in the sun. Brent also rubbed my poor feet a little bit between innings.

Once we got home, I took a shower. I had plenty of salt on me! Then Brent was nice enough to rub me down with his foam roller. And he quit enjoyed making me scream out in pain. But it was the good type of pain and something I really needed! Holy cow, it hurt but felt so good. And really good when he rolled it over my arches. My poor feet. We later went to Six Flags where there was a lot of walking but I managed to do it.

On Sunday, Brent again rubbed me down and found a huge knot in my left thigh that he just kept rubbing over and over and over. I think he was a sadist at that time because he had such the evil, devilish grin on his face. But I'll tell you what, it worked! My train ride didn't hurt at all.

So now to this week. I have been sick since Monday night. So no running at all since that Saturday morning. I have a 10k race on Sunday and was supposed to do another 6 afterward to make it a total of 12. I have no idea what I'm going to do. Should I run Friday evening to get out the cobwebs? Or run on Saturday morning to give my body a few more hours of rest? I have a great pain in my facial cavities now from sinus pressure. I'm taking decongestants but I don't think it's working too well. I have no idea what to do. I don't know if I'll be able to run at all until this thing clears up. I can barely walk normally. On top of all that I'm coughing like a fiend as well!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 450 ft Location: Earth City, MO Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 10/18/08 Up/Downhill: [+114/-114] Time: 09:49 AM Difficulty: 2.4 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 56 F temp; 57% humidity 56 F heat index; winds NE 9 Performance Distance: 16.00 miles Time: 2:35:42 Speed: 6.2 mph Pace: 9' 44 /mi Calories: 1617 Map Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 18 -0' 26 6.5 +0.3 0 ft 2 9' 42 -0' 02 6.2 +0.0 0 ft 3 9' 36 -0' 08 6.2 +0.1 0 ft 4 9' 35 -0' 09 6.3 +0.1 0 ft 5 9' 22 -0' 22 6.4 +0.2 0 ft 6 9' 28 -0' 16 6.3 +0.2 0 ft 7 9' 40 -0' 04 6.2 +0.0 0 ft 8 9' 35 -0' 09 6.3 +0.1 0 ft 9 9' 56 +0' 12 6.0 -0.1 +19 ft 10 10' 00 +0' 16 6.0 -0.2 -20 ft 11 9' 35 -0' 09 6.3 +0.1 0 ft 12 10' 05 +0' 21 6.0 -0.2 0 ft 13 9' 34 -0' 10 6.3 +0.1 0 ft 14 9' 48 +0' 04 6.1 -0.0 0 ft 15 9' 59 +0' 15 6.0 -0.2 0 ft 16 9' 51 +0' 07 6.1 -0.1 0 ft Versus average of 9' 44 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 16 miles, Ballwin, Brent, Creve Coeur, sick

More running

On a side note of running:
Yesterday, I signed up for the St. Louis Half Marathon on Sunday, November 2.

I have 18 miles scheduled for that weekend. I'm going to postpone my run on Saturday and run the race and then finish up with 5 more (easy?) miles once I get my medal! I know I can't stop because I will NEED my 18 miles in for the week after is 20!!

Another side note:
Apparently, I love doing positive splits.

In running, the goal is to have negative splits, in that the mile after the previous one is supposed to be faster. Well, I have yet to have that constantly happen to me. Yesterday's run was another clear indication of that by looking at the Splits box. HOWEVER, that was when I turned around and started heading back north and that's the way the wind was heading so I'm going to use that as an excuse for the +30 second pace difference.

One of these days, I'll be a good runner.

Categories: splits, St. Louis Half Marathon

Running in Kirkwood

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 Performance Distance: 8.02 miles Time: 1:17:05 Speed: 6.2 mph Pace: 9' 37 /mi Calories: 836 Map 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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Categories: 8 miles, Ballwin, Grant's Trail, mid-week run, pictures