I'm glad you asked. I took advantage of a lovely little trail called "Grant's Trail." According to the Internet, Grant's Trail is 8 miles long. I only ran about 1.5 miles of it [but I looped, so I really ran the same 1.5 miles twice]. Emily has lived right by this trail for, what, a year? And I don't think she's ever used it! Granted she doesn't have a bike, but still. It's awesome! I would never be inside at a gym if I had this trail by me all year! [Ok, except for that snowy season that lasted 3-5 months. And when there's Zumba. And when the cute manager is working.] Anyway, it's awesome. It's paved, so rough on the shins, but where are you really going to find a non-paved running trail right by your apartment?
Since my iPod died about three minutes into my run, I got to just enjoy the sounds and sights of nature. There were a MILLION birds on the trail. Maybe it just seemed like there were so many because it's the most natural area of St. Louis I've seen yet. Besides the Botanical Gardens. Actually, a bird almost hit me while I was running at a snail's pace. [I think I am more affected by "The Birds" then I ever imagined was possible.] I almost had to duck as it flew at my head. Which reminds me of a story:
The summer between my junior and senior years of college I went on the most amazing class trip EVER. It was a National Parks conservation class trip where, for two weeks, we toured four National Parks in the southwest. A couple of my best friends were on the trip, as well as a few people I had never met before but who became lifelong friends after the trip. And then there were the weirdos. Our teacher was super awesome. Anyway, one day we're walking through Canyonlands on some trail and there's a low-hanging branch. As we all walk past it, we warn those behind us. I told my newish friend, Lisa, to duck. She hit the branch with her head anyway. When we asked her why she didn't duck like we told her, she said, "I was thinking about ducks." In the middle of the desert. On that same trail Lisa, Katie [yes, the same Katie I just spent Easter with] and I all had to pee. You know how you pee on miles-long trails in the desert, right? Pick a tree and squat [unless you're a boy, then just stand anywhere and pee]. So we all left the group [not very far off the trail] to find a place to squat. As we're doing this, a whole group of children come down the trail. We could see them from where we were...and hopefully they couldn't see us. Indecent exposure to minors, much?? Just kidding. It wasn't that severe. They probably weren't as young as I remember. But it could have been embarrassing. For everyone involved. But when you haven't showered for a week and you're wearing a baseball cap and carrying a million bottles of water in a backpack as you hike for miles every day, you begin to take on a different life view. Everyone is your friend out there [Seriously. In the NPs, everyone was so friendly. It was like the universe became very tiny and revolved around you and the people camping nearby. It also helps that there were almost no electronics anywhere.]
Wow, long tangent. Back to my trail running. As I ran the trail, I had to cross one busy street in the middle of my run. I waited for my "walking" sign on the way out but on the way back, I grew impatient and crossed when traffic was slow. I swear, while I was crossing there was a crazy beeping noise and I expected some bike cop to ride up to me and give me a ticket for crossing before the sign told me I could. I expected this for almost a mile. No bike cop ever came. Maybe they got a picture of me crossing and will mail me a ticket. Good luck finding me, suckas! There's no way they'll recognize me on my driver's license from a picture of me running....oh, wait. I look EXACTLY the same. When I got my driver's license, I was 16 and had just come from basketball practice. They made me take my glasses off and my hair was pulled back. That's exactly how I looked while running yesterday. Sweaty, ponytail, and contacts. SHOOT. AND I still get mistaken for a 16 year old. Good new is that I get a BRAND NEW ID in November! It will be the first time my license expires EVER and a chance for a NEW PICTURE. After SEVEN years of this horrible picture. I hide my ID behind my old college ID because it's better that way. I don't open up my wallet every day and start crying because of the hideous face staring back at me, unfocused [I'm sure my eyes aren't focused in that pic because they took my GLASSES so I couldn't see what I was looking at]. The day I originally went to get my license, I had just been involved in a million sports pictures (basketball, JV volleyball, Varsity volleyball and softball) so my hair was all did and I looked presentable. But I didn't have all my paperwork. So I had to come back later, on a day when I played basketball, and take that awful picture that has haunted me for seven years. It got worse when I turned 21 because then you get CARDED and pull out your ID more than you ever thought possible. And it looks AWFUL. And it's from Texas so everyone in Nebraska has to STARE at it for five minutes to find the birth date. And in Missouri, they have to stare, too, but they don't card as often.
The moral of this whole post, actually, is that if you workout: DON'T EVER STOP. I did a plyometric workout the other day, the day before my first outdoor run in 8 months, and I have hurt so badly ever since. Yesterday my upper body hurt so badly I couldn't take a full breath so I spent the day with the hyperventilating yawns. Today my legs hurt so bad that I want to cry every time I sit on a toilet...or move a leg. I'm supposed to go a party tonight...I don't know how I will survive. All I want to do is knock myself out with some kind of pain or sleeping drug and dream my painful soreness away. I can't remember hurting this bad ever before. Though, I'm sure it happened sometime in basketball conditioning or college track. Lesson learned: I will never let any significant time come between me and hard workouts. Not any more than a week. I don't even know if I'm sore from my run because it probably just added onto my previous soreness. I thought running would actually make me feel better...but it's worse. But I'm not going to stop. Since I hurt so bad anyway, even when I'm not moving, I might as well keep running and get my lungs in shape while my body screams at me.
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