Saturday 25th of Aug was the scheduled monthly ChiA group get together run. This month the chosen venue was the Great Western Trail in St. Charles IL http://chiadeads.blogspot.com/ place I had not ran before. A few days before the gathering big storms hit the Chicago area causing major flooding, tree and property damage and power outages across much of the area. Run morning was scheduled for more rain so run leader Paul proposed checking the weather run morning and deciding at 6am via the yahooogroup if the run was on or moved to Sunday. It was in Naperville just before 6am so the run was called off. I watched the radar and saw a gap in the rain so decided I'd still got to GWT especially as the next day I'd have to run by home. The drive to GWT was quick and arriving at the forest preserve trail head to GWT there was plenty of cars in the car park. Apparently GWT is popular with marathon trainers. Originally I was scheduled to do a 10k race on Sunday but plans changed (see Sunday 26th) so GWT was to be 10k or 6 miles. GWT is a former rail line converted to a limestone trail for hiking, biking and running. Much of it is very straight. Right off the trail was wet and had a tacky feel to it but felt soft. Along the way to the 3 mile point I passed wooded areas, some fields and farm buildings, some residential and then the town of Wasco. The trail had small sections of water covering although most people moved to the grass edge to pass - me I ran right through the water which was no more than a few inches deep at the most. There had been some downed trees or branches on the trail but all but one had been cleared. The 3 mile marker was by a foot bridge on the Wasco border but to get the most of the incline I crossed over and then turned around for the run back. Pleased to say the run back was a tad faster than the run out so negative splits, brilliant. All in all GWT was a nice run even though a tad flat and smooth for me.
Sunday 26th of Aug I ran around my subdivision basically for a 4 mile run. Up past the single family homes that border my townhouse subdivision through the nearby office park, along 2 blocks of the Illinois Prairie Path http://www.ipp.org/ along Delhi then down Fairway residential area before getting home. All paved or concrete except for the IPP.
Sunday afternoon I attend the USA Eagles vs Munster (top Irish club team) at Chicago Fire's Toyota Park Stadium in Brigdeview IL. This was the USA last match before the Rugby World Cup which starts in France in September http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/ Not often pro rugger gets seen in the Chicago area which is probably why the crowd was a surprising 8,620. Lost of Irish club jerseys were being worn as well as jerseys for the USA. It wasn't the best game of rugger I have seen but for a friendly exhibition it had its moments. USA lead at half time but a try for the Irish club set up their win 10-6. It was an enjoyable afternoon and hopefully the first of many rugby matches at Toyota Park . USA in white, Munster in red
Next run of the week was Tuesday morning and followed the same 4 mile route of Sunday but this time it would be early morning so dark. As I'd be on roads I carried my Road ID Firefly red light on my water pack http://www.roadid.com/common/firefly.aspx I had got this after winning a girt certificate to Road ID at the Rock Cut Winter Trail series and Lisa Bliss had recommended them on her blog. The thing about this run this morning was being up in time to see the lunar eclipse, simply brilliant. Running along 2 blocks of the IPP in the dark was fun and spooky.
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