Grab Danville by the Balls!

We drove down on Friday, it took us over 4 hours because we stopped many many times. When we finally arrived at the Holiday Inn Express, we found a nice new hotel with a pool that looked like it had barely ever been used.

One of the stops we made was at Dick's sporting goods. I bought the kids a soccer ball and a indoor hockey set to play with in the hotel.

Friday night we took a swim and went to the Deluxe restaurant in Danville.

Jackie, Oliver and I at Danville's oldest and crappiest diner, the Deluxe.



Saturday we got up in morning and had a nice leisurely breakfast and then drove to the race at Kickapoo State Park. The park was about 17 minutes from our hotel, so we had plenty of time to get there.

On the recommendation of one of the other runners, post race we went to Jockos Pizza Inn. We also went to the pool Saturday afternoon for a nice post race soak in the hot tub.





Saturday night we went to a La Potocino for dinner. The food was pretty good, but we had to leave before we were ready because Oliver was not enjoying himself.


Sunday morning I got up early and drove back to Kickapoo to run the race course again. When I started, it was 4 degrees, coldy-wan-kenobi. It was nice to run on some legit trails for once. I am glad I made the effort to get up early because it was a beautiful morning and it is hard to find nice trails like this in the 'burbs.



When I got back to the hotel we hit the pool for the last time the ate some leftovers for lunch before heading back up north to the big city.

Siberian Express Trail run

Oliver was dressed just right for the 14*F run.



The race was a 7.45 mile trail in Kickapoo State Park in Illinois. This race takes place each January as part of a race series organized by the Kennekuk Road Runner's Club. They also do a race on this course every fall.


The trail is beautiful, this was the most fun race I have even been a part of.

The trail is rated "difficult" on some websites and I would have to concur. According to my pre-race intelligence, the second half of the race is more difficult than the first half. This being the case, I had planned to run the first half slightly more conservatively than the second half. I accomplished this inadvertently by starting in the back of the pack and slowly working my way forward to where I should be over the first 2 miles.



We arrived at the state park an hour before the race start. I picked up my number, no race packet, t-shirt, coupons. I liked this change of pace. I am not a fan of race expos and finisher medals, I like to keep things simple.

The start was at the top of a hill and proceeded to single track forest trails. This made it difficult to pass at all for the first mile, so I ran this first mile at 8:40, but I didn't care. The trail was so beautiful that it didn't matter if I came in last. I was just glad to be there.

The miles went by so fast:
Mile 1-8:41-----Stuck behind slow people, this cost me a shirt :(
Mile 2-7:43
Mile 3-7:38
Mile 4-7:22
Mile 5-9:06----Huge hill that everyone walked, so I had to walk
Mile 6-8:00----Stairway to seven
Mile 7-8:03----as you can see the 2nd half is a bit more difficult
last .45-4:08 (7:53 pace)

The stairway to seven is a hill that is so steep someone cut notches in it and installed wood planks to make it passable. Nice. Most of this race took place on some of the most beautifl single track I have seen since I lived in AZ



I took these 2 when I re-ran the course on Sunday.



I missed finishing in the top 50 men by about 45 seconds so I missed getting a free long sleeve shirt. But I got this nice schnazzzy fanny pack....



This is me at the finish