To recap what I’ve been thankful for so far:

1) My cat

2) No more election campaigning

3) Being able to afford to buy food

4) Gorgeous fall weather

5) Processed cheese

6) Good friends

That’s an interesting assortment of ideas/stuff I’m thankful for (or grateful, depending).  So what about today?  I wanted to say fall weather again, because the weather is just gorgeous today.  But that’s already been done!

I’m thankful for my LEGS which took me on a long run around Tower Grove Park.  I ran for about 1 hour ten minutes with one small break in the middle.  I ran nice and slow, but I RAN the whole time.  It was over 5 miles.

I was so proud of myself for running so much.  Seriously, it’s been a big struggle to just keep running, and I know last week’s race with Jen was a big turning point for me (we ran the whole 5k).  Today I knew I could do it, plus I planned to take a break about 45 minutes in to try a GU, which is a food thingy.

I bought a sampler pack from that company (today’s was a free sample from the Lewis and Clark half marathon) so I’ll have some sampling to do.  I feel like a real runner!!  Thank you LEGS for carrying me through today!!

I am trying to get more accustomed to running outside.  I live about five minutes walk from Tower Grove Park, which is just perfect for running!  I can warm up on the walk there (involves lots of street crossings) and then once I hit the park I can do a (I think?) 4 mile or so loop.  Hypothetically.  In fact, today was the first time I ran all the way to the end of the park and then back.  I will need to get one of those fancy Garmin watches, I think?  (Christmas present?)  Anyway, I was back home in about 50 minutes.  I felt great!  It was just shy of 40 degrees outside so I wore my Lewis and Clark long sleeve “tech” shirt over a tank with capri leggings.  I thought I might be too cold, but it ended up being perfect.  I also wore my water belt.

Yes, there’s a cat in the far left corner of the picture.  Fancy that!

Anyways, the run was really beautiful.  I listened to Car Talk on my ipod shuffle, but also enjoyed the trees.  I snapped a couple of pictures during a short water break.

So, am I becoming an outdoors type of person if I enjoyed my run outdoors?  Hmm….  I will say this was my easiest run through the park yet.  I think the cool weather made it much easier!

Our concert last night went great!  I was pretty stressed out about it, but we had prepared well and ended up having a really good time while playing…to a standing room only crowd!  I am so happy and honored that I was invited to play with Chamber Project St Louis 🙂

Before the concert I played a quick wedding at the Jewel Box in Forest Park.  I play a lot of weddings there.  I would have taken an outdoor photo, but I forgot beforehand and then afterwards it was a little dark already (time change is coming soon also…so it’ll be even darker sooner).  I’ll take outdoor pictures next time, I promise!  Basically the building is a greenhouse, but more attractive.

What’s next?  Busy weekend of course!  I am drinking coffee in my running clothes, planning to go outside (where it is sunny but COLD) and run a few miles before a wedding, then the SLSO concert tonight.  Emmanuel Ax, Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1…can’t go wrong with that!  Chris may or may not have to play–this week has been his relief week, except that somebody has been sick for several services so he keeps having to play.  He would rather just play for certain than wait around–it’s a little annoying!  Oh well, if he doesn’t play we’ll sit together, and if he does play, then I’ll watch him play (and presumably the orchestra would sound better, right?  😉  )

What are you all doing today?  Do you have outdoor/active plans or indoor/relaxing plans?

Okay, as promised, a short recap of Saturday morning’s race.  I ran this race with a friend of mine, Jen.  It was her first race, though she had been running a little longer than me.

I picked Jen up at 6:40 am and we drove out to the St Louis Mills.  SO early!  I actually had woken up right before my alarm, and was initially really annoyed at myself, but then I got really excited and was ready to go.  We arrived at the race site around 7:15 and picked up our race packets. It was pretty cold–in the high 30’s, so I had decided to wear a fleece jacket over my pumpkin t-shirt (with awesome knee socks from Target!).  We ran back to the car to drop off our bags and get our race numbers attached.  Jen was getting super excited and nervous for the race.

The nice thing about the race was that we got to use actual bathrooms in the mall, rather than porta-potties.  Naturally we hit those up, and then wandered around a little bit checking out the tents that were set up.

The race was to start at 8:00 am, so we didn’t have too long to wander around.  The course was advertised as being very flat, so we were hoping to just run a nice pace the whole time, and ideally not walk at all, but I was naturally a little worried about my hip.  I read online that taking smaller strides could help so I planned to try that for the race.

Finally we got underway!  We had lined up towards the middle of the pack, but were getting passed quite a bit at the beginning.  It didn’t bother me, but I think Jen was a little annoyed.  However, we kept our pace up and kept running.  I had told Jen I wouldn’t be at all offended if she ran ahead, but it seemed we were well matched and she stayed with me.  I probably ran a little faster than I would have alone, in fact.  We passed the first mile, and just kept running.  Around 1.5 miles there was a water station, which we walked through simply because I didn’t want to spill water all over myself, and then we ran again!  We got to a sign that said “1/2 miles to go” and started running faster, and faster, and finally giving it our all towards the finish line.  Believe it or not, we finished with the exact same time:  33:04, pace of 10:40 per mile.  Almost 3 minutes faster than two weeks ago!!  I was so proud, and I seriously couldn’t have run so fast without Jen pushing me along.  Thanks Jen!!

We wandered around a bit longer–picked up our medals (they had them at a table, not at the end), turned in our timing chips, got some free food, gatorade, and samples of “Orange Julius”.  It was a great race, well run, though the course was a little boring.

Thoughts:  The shorter, faster strides definitely helped.  I know now that I can run a 5k without stopping to walk, and anything telling me otherwise is simply psychological. I can’t wait for the next race (and of course, continuing my training 😉 )