Meet me in St. Louis

Earlier in November I traveled to St. Louis for 3 days.  I went down to be a trainer candidate for Foundations of Strength & Conditioning.  After completing this I was granted my trainer status which then allows me to train & certify others in this 2 day, 16 hour Y course.  This was a little hard for me to go to because it fell on the same weekend as my son's 9th birthday.  This is my baby boy here.  I've never spent his birthday away from him.  I know at some point it's going to happen, but he's only 9.  Being my favorite son and such a good  boy he's an Iowa fan all the way.  So I bought him tickets to go see the Iowa vs. Illinois game.  I would've loved to have been there too, but just because I have work that doesn't mean he has to sit home with nothing to do!

I'm a little conflicted when it comes to traveling & being alone.  I'm such a people person that I don't like to do it, but yet it has it's good points to it too. So I make the most of it.  Of course, I can't go somewhere big and not run.  What would be the point of going all that distance & not living up to my #sherunseverywhere standard?

After my training on Friday I set out on a short run to see some main sights near by.  Being a wise conscious runner I made sure to notify the hotel desk that I was going out.  After all I am a young(ish) female traveling alone.   While I always have my phone on me, if anything were to happen would anyone even know I was missing or gone longer than usual?  So I think it makes sense to check in with others around me as I ventured into this big city full of strangers.

(My hotel which was a former YMCA)

My first ever half marathon was run here in St. Louis & I have traveled these for personal reasons before so I wasn't a complete stranger to the downtown area.  I set off wanting to see the "big" sights like the Arch.  It was close to getting dark when I set out & I didn't want to devote a lot of time to running at this point so I only aimed for a few miles.

On the way back I realized I was only a few blocks from Busch stadium so I swung over there to have a look.  I'm NOT a cardinal fan, but was fascinated & taken in by the stadium.  All of my running route was fun & thrilling to me.  I was like a kid all carefree and lackadaisical without any barriers like time or other people to be considerate of.  Just me & my run.  It doesn't happen very often.

(The start of my Sunday run.  Hotel was right outside of the Union Station)

On Saturday I had a full day of training so I purposely grabbed a quick mile on the treadmill so I could have it done & not worry about running later.  Sunday I put more effort into getting a good run in, which meant I couldn't sleep in and had to get out extra early.  I had this magical idea that if I timed it just right I could see the sun rise as I stood at the Arch, which overlooks the Mississippi River.  The weather didn't cooperate and there was no magical sunrise, but I was down in that area anyway and took my time exploring the area.  Without even planning it I found the bridge that lead over the river.  I knew I'd be crunched for time, but could not pass up this opportunity to run across the river.  Even though I grew up in a river town that is something I have never done.

(On the bridge with the Arch in the background)

When I came back off the bridge I realized I was just a block away from the St. Louis Ram's stadium.  I had friends in town for the game.  Their son is head equipment manager & they go to all the games.  So I thought for fun it would be great to circle the stadium.

Then I reasoned that if I circled one stadium I should probably go do the same for the other, Busch Stadium.  I so set off in that direction, only to find out that you can't circle that stadium.  I did the best that I could and got around most if it.

I had completely lost track of time and next thing I realized I had racked up 7 miles.  I really think I could've run all day & all over town.  I had so much fun!  It was a rush, but I made it back to my hotel & to my training on time.  I'm glad I took the time to get these runs done in & around downtown St. Louis.