Greenbelt - Eagle to Boise (10 mile recap)

Yes, it really is possible to get from Eagle to Boise via the greenbelt!  I searched and searched the internet with no answers before posting on facebook to see if a friend knew.  I got my answer via another mutual friend - yes, the greenbelt between Eagle and Boise connects, and as I found out yesterday, it's a nice little trail!  I was hesitant, as Roger informed me the connection takes some maneuvering through a neighborhood, and I have the world's worst sense of direction.  Before I left home I decided I really didn't want to risk an out-and-back run, just in case the neighborhood situation got tricky and I got lost.  I convinced Josh to come pick me up at my 10-mile mark...except that I had no idea where that would actually be. 

I filled my hydration pack with ice water, knowing the ice wouldn't last long, but hoping the water would still feel good even if it was warm.  I figured since I had the hydration pack, I might as well take my iPhone for picture taking and emergency phone calls in case someone came out of the woods to attack me.  I started off at a good slow pace (11:00/mile) and hoped to stay there for the duration of my 10 mile trek.  I managed to cross the river too early and found myself at a dead-end just before mile 1 and had to turn around to find the actual greenbelt trail again.  Oops.

Dead End...

At mile 3 I was roasting and decided it was time to just run in my sports bra (eek!).  My tank slipped perfectly into the elastic band on my hydration pack and was a great sweat towel for the day.  By this time the greenbelt had long since turned from pavement to a perfect gravel/dirt path, and I was surprised by how little it slowed me down.  I blamed part of my slowness during my last 1/2 marathon on the gravel trail, but that trail was much more sloppy and loose gravel than this path, and for that I was very thankful.  I didn't see anyone on the actual trail for about 4 miles.  I did see a woman and her daughter on bikes at mile 3 when I was rearranging my tank and gear, but they weren't actually on the path when we passed each other and I confirmed for them that the trail does, in fact, end at Eagle Road if they continued the direction they were headed.  Fast forward to miles 4 through 6 (approximately) where the greenbelt follows the backyards of several gigantic houses.  I got to the neighborhood where I had to navigate to get to the path again and passed the backyard of a house with a full-size basketball court in the backyard, complete with lighting for night games.  It was ridiculously large and amazing!

 Still smiling through mile 3...

Sweetly packed dirt and gravel path...

No bikes on this section of the Greenbelt...boooo.

The path was very easy to spot in the neighborhood, and it would have been really easy to turn around, but I was eager to see how the rest of the path turned out, so I trudged along.  I really enjoyed the scenery and lack of people on the trail and was a little disappointed when I approached the Glenwood bridge.  I was also a little gun shy about having to get off the greenbelt briefly to cross the bridge and get back on the trail headed east (the trail dead-ended where I came out), as I was only wearing my sports bra, shorts, and a hydration pack by this time.  I even went so far as to pull out my iPhone to check the map to determine if there was another path I missed to cross the river.  There wasn't.  Oh well, off I went running.

I called Josh at mile 7 and told him I'd still likely be another 45 minutes; I knew the last 3 miles were going to be rough.  And they were just that.  I ran through most of mile 7 but stopped to dip my hat in the river and didn't stop my Garmin time.  I walked a little bit of mile 8, but still finished it in 11:14.  Miles 9 and 10 were especially difficult.  At this point I was running through Veteran's Park where there was no shade.  My hydration pack was really starting to bother me but I had filled up with water just a mile prior to that.  I dumped most of the water before I realized I didn't know when the next drinking fountain would be, so I saved a small amount of water and I finally took the pack off and carried it the last 2 miles.  I walked for a minute or so every 1/4 mile and was so glad to see my Garmin finally register at the 10 mile mark.  My last 2 miles logged at 12:12 and 12:45 due to the walking.

My final stopping point?  The firefighter memorial where I took pictures last weekend!  I stretched for a few minutes and called Josh to tell him where I ended up.  My final stats were as follows:

10 miles in 1:54:26
Average pace: 11:26/mile

Mile 1 - 10:54
Mile 2 - 10:53
Mile 3 - 11:07
Mile 4 - 11:04
Mile 5 - 11:16
Mile 6 - 11:06
Mile 7 - 11:45
Mile 8 - 11:13
Mile 9 - 12:12
Mile 10 - 12:45

Final.

Slacker Blogger (part 2 of 2)

I've divided this into 2 posts because I wanted to include pictures in my post about today's long run, but didn't want to make it a ridiculously long post.  You could also call this post something like "pictures of things I've never paid attention to in Boise."

Saturday night, while frequenting my favorite little beer store, I figured out that I have 3 weekends (this one included) before the 1/2 in Pocatello. I have not even come close to following my training plan and I have skipped my last two long runs.  In short, I have been a slacker.  I turned to Josh and our friend, Ryan, and said, "if I'm going to run the 1/2 in Pocatello, I need to 1) register for it and 2) run 7 miles tomorrow, 9 miles next weekend, and run 11 miles the weekend after that."  It was at that moment that I realized I had said it out loud and was now more committed to it because of my loud mouth.

I took Seymour to a potential new home (more later....maybe) this morning and decided to take a run on the Boise Greenbelt instead of running close to home yet again.  I don't know why I don't just make a trek from home to the Greenbelt more often. Seriously, there are so many things and people to see, and most of the path I ran today had shade for most of the afternoon.  The first 3 miles felt pretty great, but it got hot quickly and I was thankful there were several drinking fountains along the path.  Throughout the first half of the run today I kept thinking about how I should have been taking pictures, but I had my phone jockeyed into my shorts and I wasn't sure if I would be able to get it back in there without a whole lot of maneuvering, so I didn't.  I got to Quinn's Pond and saw a whole bunch of people on stand up paddle boards, and it looked SO refreshing.  I nearly jumped ship on my run and went into Idaho River Sports to rent an SUP and had Josh come pick me up to take me back to my car.  I didn't.  I kept on running, but I also vowed to stop and take pictures on my way back to Park Center Bridge. 

Stand Up Paddle (SUP)

And then it got hot.  This is probably one of the most unflattering pictures of me, but maybe it shows how hot and kind of miserable I was (note that I wasn't even attempting to smile):

I passed the main Boise Firestation (I think?) and a monument and some art nearby and then ran through the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial for a brief second and snapped these photos:

 
Anyway, I did 7 miles today with a few stops here and there.  My best decision of the day was when I took off my hat and soaked it in one of the drinking fountains and threw the sucker right back in my head.  The second best decision was upon getting back to the truck, I took one of the ice cubes in my water bottle and threw one down the front of my sports bra and one down the back.  Relief never felt so good!

7.0 miles at 11:09 average pace (1:18:01)