It's hard to run 14 miles in town! And the pavement is hard too!

RUN 14.3 miles in 2:20, easy aerobic run from home

I had trouble starting this run, and it was all mental and motivation. I wanted to run, no doubt I was going to run. The trouble was in deciding where to go! I could go anywhere I wanted to go with no time constraint. So my mind tumbles over this all morning. I don't really wanna run FoPa again, two loops there, or even doing the Wyd out-n-back I thought about...eh...not interested. Running from home was another option, but where to go? I even mapped out a run to Home Depot to get the faucet part...eh...looks boring. And besides, it wasn't 14 miles there and back again!

The plan only called for a 10-miler, but I got it in my head that if tomorrow's weather got bad as predicted I might not get tomorrow's goal of 20 miles. Also, we were running Chubb which is only 15 out n back, so those were my 2 excuses for running extra today.

So I walk the dog, drag my feet, think about it...finally decide to run random from the house. Didn't leave until almost 9am.

I head north then east to LPark area, wander around there and around the park. All the while trying to map 14 miles in my head. 2x7 mile loops? 4x3+ loops? Sometimes I think running the 1 mile around the CHP even seems inviting. It just sounds so ... short. But FOURTEEN (14) times?!? WTF am I thinking? I'm not, and that's the problem.

Anyway, I'm 3-4 miles in when I decide to exit LP and head to Soulard/Benton. On the way I take Laf across the super busy 44/55/Truman on/off ramp area. I knew better, even thought to myself 'I should run the less confusing north side'. But no. I stick to the south side. I just looked at Google maps and saw FIVE (5) crossings: a driveway/44 on combo, 44 off, 55 on, another 55 on, 55 off. It's like being Frogger crossing median to median, looking left-right repeatedly to track all the incoming oncoming stopped moving traffic as well as the curbs. Sounds complicated, right?

Well it is, but apparently smooth, new pavement is even more so. As I was watching a semi coming onto 44 to my left and a pickup coming off 44 to my right, I stepped off the first curb and WHAM down on the ground. I landed and rolled through the right side, hitting hard my elbow, hip, and knee. Less hard my right wrist and left and holding the handheld bottle. Right in the middle of the intersection, so that left the cars waiting for me! I stand up, look for what I could blame this on -- nothing!!-- turn to the waiting semi and give the "I'm OK" hand signal, and run off as if nothing had happened. I at least tried to make it look that way.

But in reality, OUCH! Finally my mind wakes up and gets involved in the actual business of running, and not just calculating the run. I continue to Soulard, meander past the brewery, get to Cherokee, hit 7 miles, then take Cherokee west thinking I'd hit Grand eventually. I'm feeling good, I hurt, but energy and all doing good. As I'm approaching Grand, I realize I don't know where Grand meets Cherokee. Until I hit that super annoying intersection near the Schnucks, and I realize Oh yeah, Grand and Cherokee DON'T intersect! Schnucks becomes my refill/empty/fuel stop, where I hear a woman in the next toilet stall apparently pulling off the entire roll of toilet paper (?), and see another women pawing though garbage cans (?), and more weird people than I can count. Maybe I'm the one who looks weird? I'm the one wearing fluorescent clothing and tights! I checked my injuries, some skin loss on the elbow, a little bit on the knee, hip looks OK. I can thank the two shirts I wore for the protection!

I head out, doing the math...just over 7 miles in....just hit 8...OK head to TGP and out n back. I had a gel in Schnucks and now I'm feeling a little more perky. Around the park, up the MoBot trail, avoided my commute route and went to McRee....and finally used a short loop to Nebraska to round it out. I stopped at an even time, 2:20.

I felt great, I kept it easy, didn't push or hold back. Walked a few times but not much.

And speaking of walking, Shoogs and I did 5.7 miles total today! 2.5 before the run (expected to be tired or have bad weather in the afternoon) and 3.2 miles with RM and D in TGP later in the day. Whew!