Hey Now, You’re a Rock Star

That was the song that played in the soundtrack of my life pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday. You know, the imaginary soundtrack in my head. 😉 Because I am a rock star!    🙂 What follows is a very long post about my first five-mile run…it’s almost like a race report! But since five miles is a long way (there are races out there that are much shorter than that!), I felt that this particular run deserved a little extra “air time!” 😉

I started off run with exceptionally well-thought-out planning.  Or so I thought. I was staying at my dad and stepmother’s house north of Chicago, in an area I was only marginally familiar with, so I used the very helpful course planning feature at Garmin’s website to find a nearby park.  It took me a while, but I found a run I could do across two parks that would allow me to do five miles without having to do an “out and back” run (I don’t like having to physically turn around if I don’t have to).   Only about a mile and a half of it was going to be repeated, so that made me pretty happy. (I am a map fanatic, and I love to discover new places.   I like maximizing my runs to make sure everything is new to me whenever I can because that’s more areas on the map I can explore!)

I don’t like to do runs in areas I’ve never even seen, though, and this run had three particular issues:

1) I wasn’t sure if the trail actually crossed the road I was going to park on, or if it went under it, thus making it impossible for me to enter at the spot I wanted.

2) I wasn’t sure if I could find an area nearby to park.

3)  I was very, very nervous about running alone at sunrise in an area I didn’t know.  (I should probably worry more about it at home than I do, but for some reason, I always think, “But this is my town; bad things don’t happen here.” That’s not a very smart attitude I know. )

So, I did a few things to help me prepare:

1) On the way into town Friday night, I stopped at a sporting goods store and bought some pepper spray.  It was only about $15, and I decided that was money well spent.  I was still kind of nervous about how to actually use it, but I figured I would make it work.

2)  When our family all went out to dinner Friday night, I took a detour on the way to the restaurant to check out the location.  I was delighted to find that not only did the path cross the road easily, there was also a little parking area very close by.  I was less delighted when the detour made me 15 minutes late for dinner and everyone gave me grief.

3)  When I went to bed Friday night, I was nervous, but I took some extra time with my nightly prayers to ask God to get me through the run safely. Sometimes I get so involved in doing things on my own, I forget that He will help me if I just ask.  Friday night, I was nervous enough that I knew I needed to ask!

I really wanted to be up in time to get some sunrise shots at the trail, but I discovered that the sun rises at 5:15am in Chicago! That was just too early for me to actually get to the trail, but I did manage to get up at 5am and take a few shots of the sky over my parents’ lake at sunrise.

I did a few stretches, but I was kind of nervous and not very focused, so I cut them short and just ended up putting my contacts in and leaving about 5:30.

When I got to the parking lot I had seen the night before, I was in for my first unpleasant surprise—the damn gate was closed! This freaked me out, because I’m a new enough runner that throwing obstacles in my path has the potential to completely derail me.  I drove around for nearly 20 minutes, getting more nervous by the minute, trying to find a place to park that wouldn’t require a hike.  I was unsuccessful, and I eventually ended up parking about half a mile away. 🙁  I did get some lovely sunrise shots over a small lake while I was looking for a parking place. (Believe it or not, photography calms me.)

When I got to the trail, I took a look.

I did a little more praying, and then I pulled out my pepper spray.  Once I read the directions and adjusted the strap, I actually found it fairly easy to hold during my run.

I must admit that I felt much better about being out at 6:30am with my pepper spray, and I am definitely going to use it from now on for all my morning runs. I also made sure to only put in one earbud, which I thought might bother me, but it didn’t at all.

I started my run at 6:30, and I have to admit, the views were very nice.

The trail ran along the Des Plaines River, and I do love water views.  It makes for interesting scenery.  In fact, the only downside to the trail was the fact that it was dirt!

Holy cow, what a change from all my paved trails and roads up to this point!  The footing was much less sure, and it was crazy dusty. My shoes were a mess!

My original course was to run about 3.5 miles in a kind of semi-loop that would put me back at the path with 1.5 miles left to double back.  Again, I liked the idea of not being on the same part of the path more than I had to.  However, after I got to that first 1.5 mile mark, which was where the trail crossed a main road, I realized that the trail went under the road, and I wasn’t sure that I could get from the road back to the trail, which was required with the course I’d mapped.

After I went under this main road, I spent the next mile trying to decide what to do. By this time, I was in an area that was kind of boring—just a big field.  I really struggled internally with what to do.  My organized brain didn’t want to veer off the course, because that was just wrong.  But my nervous-runner brain was worried what would happen if I got on the main road and then couldn’t get back to the trail.  Eventually, nervous-runner brain won out.  When I got to the fork in the road, instead of taking the right turn at Albuquerque (note the obscure Bugs Bunny reference), I chose to do a few loops around to get me to exactly 2.5 miles, and then I turned around and went back.  It bothered me a bit, but I fought the OCD tendency to follow the course and reminded myself that God was in control here and I just felt in my heart that it was the right decision to make, so I knew He was leading me the way I needed to go.

I didn’t check my Garmin too much during my run until I got to mile 4.  At that point, I was getting sore.  The lack of stretching was really catching up to me, and my thighs were hurting.  Once I hit mile 4, I started running faster, just because—you know what comes next, right?—I just wanted to get it done! (LOL, I say that for the end of every single one of my long runs!)

That fifth mile was hard, I won’t deny it.  I kept looking at my Garmin and being disappointed in the fact that I wasn’t as far along as I wanted to be.  But, eventually, I saw my starting point—almost there! I ended up having to go a tiny bit past my starting point, but I did it—five miles, no stops, no walking, just me running for 56 minutes!!  I was so happy.  Here are my splits and timing

Not bad for five miles, I think!  I took a few trail shots and then headed out for my reward:

I do love my coffee, and it becomes heavenly when paired with an almond biscotti. 😉

Turns out that one biscotti was FOUR points. Which was not ideal, but then the next day, I got the same “meal” before we left for home, and had to get one of their “new” almond biscotti–would you believe the damn thing was smaller and yet it was FIVE points?!

Okay, biscotti rant over–I will still love them, regardless. 😉 Meanwhile, one neat thing about the Starbucks was that I had looked it up on Google maps and found the closest one, and it turned out to be on a hill overlooking that field I had run through earlier!

It was kind of neat to see the runners out on the trail (and I must admit I rather smugly thought, “Ha! You should have been out there with me at 6:30, you lazy bastards ;)).

I also discovered that I was right about my decision not to try my original course—on most days, I probably could have done it, though it would have been tricky, but due to construction going on that day, the trail connector was blocked off and I wouldn’t have been able to make it.  I thank God for leading me in the right direction!

I eventually walked back down the path to get a few more shots.

I even found a guy who was walking who was willing to get a shot of me on the trail.

I walked about 2 miles total to get the shots I wanted…I really need a 12-step program for this photography obsession I have. 😉  After I got done, I went back to my parents and helped get ready for my niece’s first birthday party.  I wanted a nap so bad, because I was just exhausted, but I was only able to sleep for 20 minutes.  Then it was up and at ‘em again, since I was pretty much the “official” photographer (I complain, but you know I love it).

One last thing I will add to this very long post: it was my experience today that runners in Illinois are the friendliest runners on the planet. No kidding!  They were a little freaky, actually. 😛 I ran into a fair number of runners on my actual run, as well as bikers, and then a whole lot more of them when I was on my photo walk an hour later.  Everyone I saw—to a person—said hello or even good morning to me, and a few of them were quite cheerful and friendly, telling me to “have a great run” or “have a great day.”  I suppose with the bikers, it’s more understandable, but even the runners were like that.  Seriously—who has that kind of energy when they run?!  When I greet another runner, they get a simple wave or, if I’m feeling really energetic, a breathy “hi” exhaled while I’m pretending not to gasp for every last ounce of air left on the planet.  To offer more than one syllable? Not gonna happen!

All in all, it was a great run, and I feel so very happy to have finished it! Only two more weeks before my first 10k!!  I feel like I might be able to do this thing! 🙂

Thank you for reading this very long post!