"Off-Season"

I went to the gym last night to run a short 3 miles on the treadmill. Wow, the gym was packed!! It had been rainy all day and it was dark outside. I sucked it up and drove to the park to run outside. Running on the treadmill is boring anyways.

I haven't officially started to train for the Marathon, but I've been running a little here and there. Really, I'm just trying to improve my pace. I'll officially start training in December. I'm a bit scared about the race, but I'll continue to train on hills (and in the cold, brr). The Marathon route is pretty hilly. Here she is in all of her glory:

This is the 2011 route, but I'm told it will be pretty similar.

I think I'll do a lot of my training runs at Carondelet. It's the perfect amount of hills and it's actually lit at night!

Celebrating St. Louis

On Sunday I set out for a run. I've been pretty bored with my running routes, so I decided to run where the rainbow takes me. I had no idea how long I wanted to run, I just knew I needed to mix it up a bit. I first headed over to Lafayette Square and originally thought I could turn back home after running around the park, which would be about 4 miles. Instead of turning back home, I decided to run farther and picked my next destination...Busch Stadium. The St. Louis Cardinals had just won the World Series Championship so I figured I'd go pay homage to my home team...well, err, their stadium at least.

Source: St. Louis Cardinals
Way to go Cards!!

My next destination was crossing over the Ead's Bridge into Illinois and back. I used to run this bridge all the time when I lived in downtown St. Louis. There is a glorious view of downtown on your way back into Missouri. I love this view!! It's also pretty spectacular at night...obviously.

I then ran the Arch grounds and figured I could call Josh to come pick me up...or I can just run all the way home. That I did. I finished by running up Sidney Street (aka the Bitch Hill) and 8 miles later, I was home!

Distance: 8.38 miles
Time: 1:20:03
Pace: 9:33