Running with a friend

Our Garmin 405's with the finish time.

Saturday morning had me getting up and running as usual But this time it was different. I was running with a friend! Erin lives in a suburb of Chicago and since we were both tapering, we figured this would be a great time for a run today. She is tapering for her first half marathon at the Illinois Marathon/Half Marathon event in Champaign-Urbana.

She does her long runs on a great urban trail that starts right across from Brookfield Zoo. I was so excited to go even close to there since I've never been to Brookfield Zoo before. We started running and it was great. We talked constantly for up to about 4 miles and then we got a little quiet but we would talk every now and then. Then we hit the turn around, ate some Sports Beans (I bought some for her).

The way back we had a wind coming towards us but it felt nice since the sun was shiny and getting us a bit warm. I had problems with my Gatorade bottle lid, in that I picked the wrong lid for the wrong bottle. So when I went to pull up the opening, the whole lid came off!! Spilled half of my Gatorade all over the path. But had enough to pull me through. I have to remember that when I eat some energy gels/beans/shot bloks on the run, I must bring water with me, not Gatorade.

What was so great about her trail is that it was busy. Well, not like busy busy but there were people on it!!! Dog walkers, walkers (and in particular a walker that did not know which side of the lined path to be on!), runners, bikers and really fast bikers. I waved at all who passed by us and I got a majority of waves or nods back at me. So happy!!! I also let the walkers know that were passing AND we were notified by the bikers that they were going to pass us. That was just great. That never happens to me, either here in DeKalb or in St. Louis. I even let one runner know who had earbuds in his ears that there was a biker behind him. He just thought I was waving at him though. I think I like running with more people on it. Doesn't seem so lonely that way!

After the run, we came back, got cleaned up and went shopping! We hit up Sports Authority and looked for Sports Beans for Erin and Shot Bloks for me. We also looked for a visor for Erin, just in case it rains for her race. I also picked up a rain jacket for biking. Totally didn't have one last year.

Came back to Erin's house and she made ravioli casserole with spinach. YUM! After that we broke open the wine and watched Spirit of the Marathon. So great! I haven't seen it since I saw it in the movie theatre Nov 2007. I still got moved at places. We also got to see the deleted scenes.

After that we hung out for a while, helped Erin write a list of items to bring & remember (like turning off the auto-pause on her Garmin). She's heading on down on Thursday night, the Expo is on Friday (we have off since it's Good Friday -- yay university educational system!) and the race is on Saturday at 8am!

Just a few pictures below. This is the link for the whole album.

A prairie portion of the path right at the beginning of the path.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 623 ft Location: Brookfield, IL Elev. Gain: -3 ft Date: 04/04/09 Up/Downhill: [+203/-206] Time: 10:06 AM Difficulty: 2.8 / 5.0 Weather: Mostly Cloudy 46 F temp; 39% humidity 46 F heat index; winds Vrbl 6 Performance Distance: 10.03 miles Time: 1:36:50 Speed: 6.2 mph Pace: 9' 39 /mi Heart Rate: 178 bpm (Avg) Calories: 1072 190 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 45 +0' 06 6.2 -0.1 159 -6 ft 2 9' 50 +0' 11 6.1 -0.1 172 +9 ft 3 9' 37 -0' 02 6.2 +0.0 180 +10 ft 4 10' 08 +0' 29 5.9 -0.3 180 -7 ft 5 9' 34 -0' 05 6.3 +0.1 181 +3 ft 6 9' 29 -0' 10 6.3 +0.1 178 -3 ft 7 9' 31 -0' 08 6.3 +0.1 183 +3 ft 8 9' 44 +0' 05 6.2 -0.1 182 -7 ft 9 9' 56 +0' 17 6.0 -0.2 182 -9 ft end 9' 24 -0' 15 6.4 +0.2 184 +3 ft Versus average of 9' 39 min/mile

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Categories: 10 miles, friends, pictures, taper