Princess Runner

Today I ran farther than I have ever run before: 14 miles. That is more than half of a marathon. My previous high was 13.1 miles at the Chicago Distance Classic almost two years ago.

I was very concerned about today’s run, not just because it was 14 miles. Due to the closure of the trails at Busse Woods*, today’s run was held at the dreaded, hilly Poplar Creek, where I had my worst run so far in training. Fortunately, the weather was quite cool this morning and partially overcast. The hills were not so bad when not coupled with the super high temperatures that I experienced the last time around.

The highlight of the run was seeing a very large frog in the creek as we crossed one of the bridges in the forest preserve. Typically I hear frogs but they hop in the water before I can see them, so I was happy this one made an appearance.

Next week’s run is in the same location.  Hopefully we will have cool weather again.

* Although they posted signs and made announcements that the trail would be closed for repaving, as I passed the preserve on the way to where today’s run was, I saw people running on it. I do not know if they were being rebellious or if it was, in fact, really open for activity.