My friend Vanessa wanted to run at Jefferson Barracks Park today.  She used to live in that area and thought it would be a fun run.  It was a tough run, all uphill or downhill it seemed.  We ran the loop twice for 5 miles and it was a fantastic workout.  There was a part where we overlooked the Mississippi River.  (The MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI!)

Here’s what made this truly blog-worthy.

Yes.  We ran on the Taco Bell Fitness Course.  Originally I read that second part as "Commemorating the Great Flood of Taco Bell." (Please ignore my giant concave belly button.  What’s up with that, seriously?  I mean, you can see the outline of my rib cage, but also my belly button and fat.  I’m confused.)

I will be back!  How can I resist the Taco Bell Fitness Course???

30 days of Thanksgiving:  I’m thankful for running friends who push me to do more than I could by myself. 

Last night my friend Vanessa texted me to ask if I would run with her since she had been having a hard time getting herself out the door for running, and she is in the relay next weekend.  I realized the only time I’d have until Sunday was today, but after I worked out with Mike.  That’s nothing for somebody hardcore like me though.  Those 12 minutes miles we threw down in the park (ha, 12 minute miles) went by so fast!  And by that I mean my legs were totally dead but it was nice to get a run in, the sun was shining, and I wore my running tights for the first time this fall.  After Vanessa left I spent about 15 minutes foam rolling my poor legs.  Tomorrow is a day off due to scheduling (lunch w/a friend took priority over working out and the rest of the day is super busy) so I am glad I did it.

I’ve got a new student today.  I always get a little nervous for new students, not as much as I used to, but still.  Until I get to know the student the lessons are more stressful, especially for the little ones.  I’m excited though, it’s always nice to get more students, plus I didn’t get as many at the beginning of the school year as I’d hoped for so I still have openings (both at home and at the school, so if you are reading this and you need a violin teacher for yourself or your child…!).

Last night my friend Laura was texting, asking me what I was making for Thanksgiving dessert.  I was thinking to myself, Laura’s so excited (we are going to her house for dinner), but today I realized, wow, it’s only two weeks away.  Oops!  I need to get to making my test cheesecake if I’m actually doing that.  Option two:  do only one cheesecake but have ingredients on hand to make pumpkin pie in case of cheesecake fail.  I think that’s a better option—I can do the cheesecake the day before and always throw a pie in if needed.  She suggested something apple, so I will probably make either my favorite apple pie recipe or baked apples.  Or…suggestions?

I didn’t blog yesterday, so I better give two "30 days of Thanksgiving today":

I’m thankful for good friends to run with who make the miles fly by.

I’m thankful for good friends who act as family when your family is too far away to visit for holidays.

I promise.

St Louis Track Club Half Marathon.

2:35:56.  My second fastest half!!

It was a tough course, always either uphill or downhill.  We started in Clayton and ran into Forest Park and then back. My hip was bugging me so I ended up having to walk more than I had hoped, and then I decided to run faster when I ran since that didn’t hurt any more.  I’m not sure if that was the best plan as far as pacing, but I figured since I was walking due to pain rather than being out of breath it made sense.  I had run into Stephanie from Off the Eaten Path at the start of the race and ended up being right behind her the entire race (I used her as my pacer.) 

And that’s it for the year.  I’m not running any more half marathons until next year.  This has been a crazy month of races, but I’m glad I did them all! 

Two weeks:  St Louis Track Club Marathon Relay.  Team of 4, each of us runs two legs of approximately 3 miles.  Should be a cake walk, ha!

Post race meal:  went with Jen to the Three Monkeys and had an awesome brunch buffet.  It wasn’t that the food was so great, but it was unlimited and included biscuits and gravy.  I would recommend it as a great post-race restaurant! 

I must have been tired when I wrote my recap the other day.  I was going through my pictures and realized I forgot a few things:

My average pace rocked out!  Go me, with keeping a pretty darn steady pace.

My awesome Brooks Pure Cadence shoes with the little tag thing on.  Before the neon green laces.

And the medal!  It’s super heavy.  Those Rock n’ Roll medals sure are sturdy.

Jen running by Powell Hall.

What a race! 

This is the race I’d been training for all summer.  Running in the heat, running in the morning, running in the rain.  I really wanted to beat 2:30.

As the race got closer, I felt like my goal was further away.  That I hadn’t trained enough.  That the almost month off I took in August due to injury and sickness had completely derailed me.

Jen and I got downtown around 6:30 am.  This meant I picked her up at 6:15.  I was worried (really stressed!) about the streets being closed, and they were supposed to close at 6:30 so I wanted to get there early.  It turned out fine, in fact, we ended up with barely enough time to park, find the "rock star" potties, check our gear bags, and then attempt to get to corral 14.

We didn’t quite make it 14, but decided 13 was good enough.  We were within sight of the 2:20 pace group.

The race got started, and I focused hard on keeping SLOW.  I didn’t want to go under 11:00 minute miles, though I didn’t really want to go over 11:30.  It was a morning of math!  (I have a Garmin 205 watch).  Jen set off slightly ahead of me, and I had the car talk guys in my earphones keeping me company, along with thousands of runners and hundreds of spectators.

Overall the course was fantastic!  I was glad it was a different course than the other downtown races I’d done.  We went by Powell Hall and the Fox Theater, then headed to the Grove neighborhood and passed Sanctuaria.  I knew where we were the entire time, which was good and bad.  There were tons of uphills and downhills—every time there was a downhill I tried to relax and let my pace go a little faster.  As the miles went by I decided that I would continue to shoot for 11 minute miles.  I don’t know if I should have stayed slower at the beginning, but I felt great so I went with it.

I knew that Chris was going to be out at approximately 9 1/2 miles with some other friends.  Once we entered my "hood" and were running (uphill) by the Botanical Gardens, I was both comfortable yet bored and exhausted.  I had trained in the area so much, I knew how boring the next two miles were!!  But the crowd support through there and by Tower Grove Park was fantastic.  I saw Dana and Chip and then finally I was near where I knew Chris would be!

He was on the opposite side of the road than he had said, but I ran towards him.  My friends Kyle, Melissa, and Vanessa were there too.  I kept running!

At one point the marathon course joined back up with us.  No one was running on the marathon side at first, but when the leaders came running through, that was amazing!  Those people lapped us all.

Next was Lafayette Park.  The hills were getting worse, but I knew at this point I would make my goal of 2:30, even if I had to walk almost all of the rest.  I saw a few more friends, and finally we were headed back towards downtown.

I’m not going to lie.  The last mile was awful.  It seemed to be primarily uphill, and I was exhausted. 

I finished in 2:25:49. 

I went through the "secure area", got water, my medal, energy bars, bananas, etc.  I kept looking for Jen as I went to gear check, but finally found her in the family meeting area near the letter "G". 

I am so happy I met my goal!  I kept telling myself while running that I COULD do this.  That I should be able to, and that if I didn’t keep pushing myself I was going to be so upset by the end.  So I did it.

 

Proud lady!

Yes, we’re both sitting down.  Of course!

We watched the finish line for awhile to see if we saw anyone we knew finish—mainly we were looking for Mike, but finally we got tired of that and were just too hungry to wait (also we assumed after a point that we had missed him.  Not sure if we did or not.)  I saw Real Fit Mama across the course at one point! We went to Herbie’s, and I ordered a ton of food and ate it all.

Chris made this sign for me.  I love it!  I love that he came out to support me.  It was inspiring!

My race photos were terrible.  Oh well!  At least I do look like I was working hard!

I would run this again next year, but I believe it conflicts with Leslie’s wedding ;)  The year after that, I guess!

Edited to add a few pictures:

Yup, as you can see above, ran the whole race in these suckers.  Will I do it again next Sunday?  I’m undecided.

The medal. 

 

Pretty steady pace.  Pretty darned good.