Forest Park

Mom's cow had twins!

First, congratulations to all our friends who participated in the Bass Pro Marathon and Half Marathon this weekend; we are proud of all of you.

This weekend Aimee and I stayed in STL across 64/40 from Forest Park. Just like anytime we go anywhere, we got some runs in along the way. I had never ran at Forest Park before, but immediately saw why it is so popular. It never seemed that odd to me running on trails in the middle of Springfield, but running on trails, in the middle of: interstates, a zoo, golf courses, a forest, a college campus, million dollar homes, and...oh yeah in the middle of a city of roughly 2.8 million, that was an experience all its own.

Forest Park was awesome. The exterior loop around the park is almost 6 miles long with both a paved and gravel trail to run/bike on and countless interior loops throughout the park. The scenery is always changing (as you can read above), the elevation varies and you are never alone. In addition to Forest Park, you can venture ever so slightly off the path and run around the amazing campus of Washington University, or through the streets of upper-class Clayton and The Central West End.

Saturday morning, we ran the exterior loop of the park for an easy 7 miles including the distance between our hotel and the park. Sunday morning we ran in the Clayton PD 5k as part of the STL Track Club 1/2 Marathon, then returned to the hotel for a nice 9 mile cool down bike ride around Forest Park and Washington University. Despite the hilly course and constant headwind, I was able to run a decent 19:04 good enough for 3rd overall and first in my age category. I am hoping with flatter ground, I might be able to finally break 18:00 minutes at the Turkey Trot later this month. After both running and riding our bikes in the strong wind, we are trying to decide which is harder to do in the wind. At this point, I think toss up.

Recap of all the activities we were able to accomplish from Friday night to Sunday morning within a 5 mile radius of the hotel: Dinner in Central West End, Forest Park Run, Race Packet Pick Up, Wedding in Clayton, Lunch at Rigazzi's in The Hill, Zoo and Golf both at Forest Park, Schlafly Bottleworks, 5k in Clayton, Bike Forest Park and Washington University, Shopping at The Galleria.

Weekly Run Recap (44 miles): Monday 6 easy; Tuesday 8 easy; Wednesday 8 tempo; Thursday off; Friday 8 easy; Saturday 7 easy; Sunday 2 mile warm-up, 5k, 2 mile cool-down.