I can't believe I just wrote that subject line.
The weather so perfect for today's run. The sky was a little threatening and I did have a drop of rain fall on me even before I began. Then around the 3 mile mark had a few more but that was it. The sun was behind heavy clouds so I didn't have to bring my sunglasses with me, my visor was all I needed. The weather was 46F and humidity was 57%. So great.
My Mom watched me get ready. This is the first time she has seen me run. She was very impressed with my level of organization. And then when I handed her my 4 bottle hydration belt full of liquid she was surprised at how heavy it was! It was really funny seeing question my sanity once I told her I was going to take a cold water bath afterwards! :-)
I took off about 40 minutes after I wanted to; I was hoping to leave at 7a but the added 40 minutes was fine since I was able to eat and let it digest a bit. Yay oatmeal with oat milk on it!
I took pictures & video for RuncastTV again. This time talking about my 2nd home town. I went to school from 7th grade to graduation from high school and then left for northern Illinois after a summer stint at the local community college. So I had loads to point out on my run.
I also saw my first road kill on these roads. Which is funny because that morning, or maybe the night before, my mother actually asked me what I do when I come across a dead animal. I told her I haven't seen one yet. I've smelled them but not seen one. Then of course as I was recording a video, I see these what I thought were feathers sticking up. Thinking that an owl got hit but no, as I got closer I noticed they were ribs. Then I saw the skull. Y-U-C-K!!! Not cool at all.
I was also a little scared of the dogs that run loose here. There are so many cats & dogs that run around and chase after cars (the dogs, not cats) that I knew that eventually one would come after me. I brought a Pepper Spray can with me down here but unfortunately left it at home (so many things to remember!) Luckily, all those in town were on leases (of course with absolutely no grass under them, just mud or dirt, poor things) and were barking at me. Then once I got out in the country, I saw 2 little dachshunds or some small breed out in a farm field, playing with one another. They saw me and started running with their short little legs toward me but stopped at the edge of the field.
I will also never trust Google Maps when it comes to small towns again. A road listed on the map as being well, I thought able to be travelled by car, ended up being only able to be travelled by foot (barely) and a 4 wheeler (as one passed me while running on it). Absolutely no road sign there. That's why I went off course, luckily, my Garmin told me so! It was an interesting little bit. I have video of those roads too.
Speaking of Garmin, I wanted "Phil" to tell me when to turn left & right. And I figured out how! Use mapmyrun.com to map out the route, then download the map as a .tcx file. Import that file into Garmin Training Center into the Courses. Then using the Course Point Tool, add turns, left & right or even just random points to the course. Make sure they are ahead of the turn as I didn't do that on a majority of the turns and I was turning as it was telling me. Also, when my course overlapped itself, as I ran past a turn it would tell me to turn right and then a wrong way way of left because on the way back, left is how I would be turning onto the road I just left.
The road in Bluford is something I'm not used to. A few days or a week before school starts here in August, they gravel the road. They lay down a layer of hot oil and then follow up with a layer of small gravel. With the weight of the traffic, it pounds it down and make it hard and driveable. The edges of the road that don't get traffic, still have loose gravel. So I think my hips & knees were sore after running mainly from that. Also out in the country, I ran on some really big rocky roads. My ankles kept turning from stepping on the rocks wrong. There were really no good way of running on those though.
Picture time!!
Ice Plant that was used to keep the trains refrigerated in the 30's & 40's.
Road to Bluford Lake which is really a reservoir that was used to be piped into the ice plant to make ice out of. I used to swim & fish in that lake!
Wild Easter Lillies
Bluford Grade School - back when I was going to school, the lot wasn't paved!! BIG Addition!
Webber Township High School - nothing as far as I know have changed with that building
As I brought out the camera, these baby cows took off running
One of the many trains that passes through town - also the reason why Bluford even exists and why it decreased in size (they stopped stopping in the town)
Back in the day, a doctor used to have his office out of this house.
A sign of drugs available at this house :-(
Here's the Garmin data information. The reason I'm including that is because I noticed that in last week's 16 mile run the Bones in Motion data showed that my mile splits from when I stopped included with the stopping time. So like mile 14 was 14:29 while in Garmin splits it was actually 10:11 min/mi.
And here's the Bones data.
Activity| Route: | -- | Elev. Avg: | 506 ft | | Location: | Bluford, IL | Elev. Gain: | -10 ft | | Date: | 03/21/09 | Up/Downhill: | [+738/-748] | | Time: | 07:41 AM | Difficulty: | 3.7 / 5.0 |
| | Weather: | Overcast |
| 46 F temp; 49% humidity |
| 46 F heat index; winds SE 7 |
| Distance: | 18.00 miles |
|
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| Time: | 3:00:18 | | Speed: | 6.0 mph |
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| | Pace: | 10' 01 /mi | Heart Rate: | 171 bpm (Avg) | | Calories: | 1935 |
| 185 bpm (Peak) |
 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' 17 | -0' 44 | 6.5 | +0.5 | 159 | -14 ft | | 2 | 9' 40 | -0' 21 | 6.2 | +0.2 | 170 | -3 ft | | 3 | 9' 45 | -0' 16 | 6.2 | +0.2 | 171 | -17 ft | | 4 | 10' 26 | +0' 25 | 5.8 | -0.2 | 177 | +36 ft | | 5 | 10' 22 | +0' 21 | 5.8 | -0.2 | 176 | +23 ft | | 6 | 10' 12 | +0' 11 | 5.9 | -0.1 | 172 | -6 ft | | 7 | 10' 09 | +0' 08 | 5.9 | -0.1 | 171 | -23 ft | | 8 | 10' 28 | +0' 27 | 5.7 | -0.3 | 172 | -10 ft | | 9 | 10' 17 | +0' 16 | 5.8 | -0.2 | 171 | +26 ft | | 10 | 10' 05 | +0' 04 | 6.0 | -0.0 | 169 | -46 ft | | 11 | 10' 10 | +0' 09 | 5.9 | -0.1 | 165 | -23 ft | | 12 | 9' 43 | -0' 18 | 6.2 | +0.2 | 169 | -26 ft | | 13 | 11' 51 | +1' 50 | 5.1 | -0.9 | 168 | +32 ft | | 14 | 10' 01 | +0' 00 | 6.0 | -0.0 | 169 | -19 ft | | 15 | 10' 00 | -0' 01 | 6.0 | +0.0 | 173 | +6 ft | | 16 | 10' 01 | +0' 00 | 6.0 | -0.0 | 172 | +30 ft | | 17 | 9' 38 | -0' 23 | 6.2 | +0.2 | 177 | +26 ft | | end | 9' 17 | -0' 44 | 6.5 | +0.5 | 179 | -3 ft | | Versus average of 10' 01 min/mile |
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