Pleasant Surprise

The past few weeks have been full of little pleasant surprises and this week was no exception. Last Sunday, April 15, I ran the STL GO! Marathon for the first time. Aimee and I met, and stayed with, some friends from Springfield who were running in the 1/2. (Below are Justin and I stretching in unison, and Teresa and Alyea proudly displaying their running skirts) 

The GO! course was challenging, but very enjoyable. The race started/finished downtown with a great view of the Arch (right). The first few miles are south of downtown past Union Station, The Scottrade Center (Home of the Blues), through Soulard and the Anheuser Busch Brewery. After passing through the brewery and one of their world famous Clydesdales, you return to downtown and past Busch Stadium.   

After seeing us off at the start, Aimee was able to hop over a few blocks and catch all of us as we returned downtown around mile 7 (left). Leaving downtown was the first of some very long inclines. The next few miles of the race continued West through St. Louis University and towards the Central West End. At mile 10, the half marathon participants return downtown to finish, while the full participants continue West into Forest Park; home of both the 1904 World's Fair and Summer Olympics. 

After running through Forest Park, the Marathon continues past Washington University and the city of Clayton where runners begin to circle back to downtown. Miles 19 and 20 run along Delmar through The Loop and Blueberry Hill where Chuck Berry still plays shows. The final 10k of this marathon is probably one of the toughest sections of any race I have ran. For a normal run, it's probably not that bad, but after 20 miles it is very challenging and seems like one constant, steady, uphill climb.

Justin, Teresa, and Alyea all ran great half's and after pacing Justin through the first 10 miles, I was able to finish the full in 3:18:25; my third best time ever! Six days later, Aimee and I ran locally in the Walker Johns' 5k/10k. Aimee continued to run very well while 31 weeks prego and I took first overall in my first ever race, winning the 10k in 39:23. 

Weekly totals 4-15: Run 39.2 mi, Bike 13.8 mi, Swim 1150 yd
Weekly totals 4-22: Run 29 mi, Bike 20 mi, Swim 1400 yd

Easter Sunday

Today is Easter Sunday and Aimee's side of the family has been in town all weekend. In fact, this makes three weekends in a row of family! The last two weekends have been spent baby-showering and we have got to see my mom and sister both in Springfield then here in Farmington.

My last post was about our St. Patrick's Day Run in St. Louis and Aimee wrote an update on running while pregnant. Needles to say, we have stayed busy, and have not done much blogging during that time. Here are some highlights as we play blog catch-up.

End of March/Beginning of April: I traveled to Indianapolis for the National Science Teachers Conference and in addition to the many good seminars I attended, that I won't bore you with, I found some time to run (of course). Indy is what I call a "small big city" with everything close together and it was very nice and clean. There was plenty of greenway trails including several that connected to downtown. I am looking forward to going back there for the Mini 500 in three weeks.

March 19-25 totals: 37 miles run; .75 miles swim; March 26-April 1 totals: 40 miles run, 29.8 bike, .35 swim.

April Fools Day: I decided to run and bike St. Joe Park. I ran the 11 mile loop once and biked it twice. While on the loop, I saw the same woman three different times. The third time I stopped to talk with her. She told me she had just seen a Mt. Lion. I ask her what it was doing? She told me it was right back on the path between mile 7 and April Fools. Nice One!

This Week: Aimee and I have started swimming more as it is something "easier" for her to do while prego (not that anything is "easy" to do while prego). Yesterday we did a half mile! This is easy for Aimee, but for me it was a huge accomplishment. I cleaned my bike for the first time, it's been incredibly foggy this week, and our running group, Mineral Area Ridge Runners (MARR) is starting to gain more members at the track on Wednesday mornings! Looking forward to St. Louis Go! Marathon this weekend.

April 2-8 totals: 39 miles run, 11 miles bike, 1.2 miles swim.