Bonus Run

Today my run had not one but TWO bonuses.  The first bonus I pretty much created myself, but the second one was a complete surprise (and delight) to me!

We’ll start with the plan.  The plan was to do 5.5 miles at the Metropark at 6am.  I had a hard time plotting out my route using the Metropark trails, but after a lot of trial and error, I figured out I could basically do a figure eight around the trails and it would allow me to avoid turning around at any point (I hate doing that) while still making sure I ended at my car (for water!).  I downloaded the course to my Garmin the night before, and then went to bed at about 10pm (that’s early for me these days).

Upon waking up, I did my usual check of the weather.

Ugh.  Not ideal, but couldn’t be helped.  (That’s why I run at 6am!)  No sunrise pics this morning, because it was cloudy and I even saw rain on the radar.

Once I got to my designated parking sport, I looked at my map one more time to make sure I had a general idea of where I was going.  Then I took a few moments to center and focus myself, using a tried and true Book.

I read a few psalms, just picked at random, including psalm 19, which included these verses…

“The heavens declare the glory of God…it is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.”

I couldn’t make that up, ha ha!  When I read it, it made me smile. 🙂

I knew I had to walk a short way to my actual starting point, so I pulled up the course on my Garmin as I walked. The course doesn’t do me all that much good on my Garmin, actually, but I like that it gives me a general idea of my starting point, and the compass rose will show me the direction I need to go if I’m in doubt.

Only problem was, my course wasn’t on there!!

Damn.  I have no idea how it didn’t get downloaded—my computer said it did!  But, I am learning to adjust to the obstacles thrown in my path, and I had looked at the map enough to know the route, so I just went with it—literally, lol!

I ran at a slow pace…between an 11 and 12-minute mile.  I always start out faster than I intend, so I made sure to slow down if I saw I was going under an 11-minute mile.  The views on the trail were pretty…different than last week’s views, to be sure, but I enjoyed it very much.  I made sure to leave one earbud out so that I could hear what was going on around me, and it was actually amazingly quiet (at 6:30am, that wasn’t surprising!).  I ran next to the river for a while, which was nice.

At one point, I came around a bend in the trail and saw a pond before me.

(Try to imagine it two hours earlier, without the sun, and the water as flat as glass.)

I had run at this park on Memorial Day, but this was my first time on this part of the trail.  At one point, I came to a spot where the trail ended in a “t” intersection, and I had to determine if I was supposed to go left or right.  Right felt…well, right ;), so that’s what I did.  It only took me about 200 yards to figure out that right, was in fact, wrong.  Ugh!!  See, this is why I needed my Garmin. The compass rose would’ve told me which direction to go!

Once again, I had to overcome another obstacle when I realized I was now completely off my course.  I knew the route would eventually get me back to the car, so I just decided I would go to the car and then go past it for a while, and turn around (yuck!) when I needed to.

I had my pepper spray with me, and I saw a few runners that early, but for the most part it was pretty solitary, which was nice.  There was only one part where I actually felt a bit concerned, an area where the woods were very thick on both sides and rather secluded.

(Again, try to imagine it two hours earlier, with no sun.)  I had my pepper spray trigger-ready at that point, but it was uneventful.  At some point along the way, after I realized my course was shot to hell anyway, I decided to do 6 miles instead of 5.5.  I wanted to see if I could do it, number one, and number two—5.5 miles is just such an unpleasantly odd number. 😉

At mile 4, which was when I first passed the car, I was getting tired, so I slowed way down. I kept plugging along until I got to mile 5, when I would then turn around and go one mile back to the car.  It was a hard go in that last mile, but I did pick up the pace, as I usually do when I’m at the end.  I had to do a lot of “mental convincing” when I hit 5.5 miles to not stop running. 😉  But I kept going, and then I had to go past the car and turn around to get to the full six.  I really booked it for that last 1/20^th of a mile, lol!  But yay, I was done!!  I went to my car, got my water, then grabbed my camera and tripod (which I already pretty much had set up), positioned it for a shot, then I set the auto-timer to take this picture:

No, that’s not posed…that’s really me, dying after my six-mile run! 😉

It felt good to be done.  My splits and timing weren’t spectacular, but I didn’t want them to be.  I’m just happy to see six whole laps on there!

So the first bonus was doing 6 miles instead of 5.5.  What was the other one?  Well, when I first started plotting this route, I kept seeing a notation on the map for a cemetery pretty much in the middle of my course.  I dismissed it though…I grew up in this area, and I knew where the cemetery was.  It was on the other side of the river, a little ways up the road.  I know because I used to bike there and explore it when I was a kid.  (Told you I love cemeteries!) When I got to the park, though, you can imagine my surprise and delight when I saw this:

I was pretty excited—I love discovering new things, and especially a new cemetery!  I looked for it during my run, in the spot where the map said it would be, but I couldn’t find it.  After my post-run cool-down, I grabbed my camera and started exploring.  It didn’t take me long to find this…

Ooooh…old dirt road that leads deep into the woods.  That had promise!  I walked about another 200 yards and then saw this:

Jackpot!!  I was so excited to find this little hole-in-the-woods cemetery.  I probably spent 45 minutes in it, taking pictures.  Below are some of my favorites:

I was rather surprised and saddened to see that there were so many gravestones for young children, but of course, as a history major, I know that times were tough in the 19^th century, and children often died young from the many untreated illnesses that were prevalent at the time.  I sometimes think that our society is way too dependent on the pharmaceutical industry these days, but this cemetery walk reminded me that 20^th and 21^st century medicine truly is a blessing.

I was really sore after this run, and my stomach was actually surprisingly upset, too.  I wanted to eat more to use up those 600+ calories and 9 Weight Watchers activity points I earned (LOL), but I took it easy because I didn’t want to upset my stomach further.  I did, however, indulge in a bit of a treat, which I blame on my friend Andrea—Ghirardelli brownies!

Turns out, one brownie is worth nine points—what luck! 😉

One other note: I discovered on Thursday night (thanks to my husband’s proper diagnosis) that what I thought were mosquito bites are actually sores from poison ivy or oak from my run on the Des Planes River Trail last Saturday. 🙁  Ugh.  The bulk of it is behind my right knee, and my 68-minute run really exacerbated it.  It’s driving me crazy!! I bought some stuff at Rite Aid and I am praying that it will work soon!

For now, I am so stinkin’ happy and proud of myself.  I still can’t believe I ran six miles today! Considering that my first time ever running (well, beyond running to catch the ice cream truck 😉 ) was less than 11 weeks ago, I think that’s pretty damned impressive! 😀  One week til my 10k–bring it on, baby!! 😉

Thanks for reading!