Tour De Peoria 18

I once again topped my longest run ever... by going 18 today!  I didn't sleep well last night, up at 2:00am.  By 3:30am, I was frustrated with tossing in bed.  So I grabbed the laptop and started messing around with a long run route on MapMyRun.com.  By 5am, I was laced up and parked in front of my gym, Landmark Health Club.

I love the early morning just as the dawn breaks.  Streets are so quiet and peaceful.  I had my iPhone along with GPS, so I took some odd streets down neighborhoods I'd never seen before.  The good part is exploring new areas of your city.  The bad part is they almost always have hills...

I took my sweet time this morning, and snapped lots of pictures to give you a Tour de Peoria in just 18 miles... Settle in and enjoy the tour!

Shortly after mile 1, I passed by the Bradley Braves soccer field, formerly the home of Peoria's minor league baseball team.

I entered the park and passed by Peoria's Corn Stock Theatre, an outdoor venue... 

Now showing FOOTLOOSE!

Running through Bradley Park, I got many views like this on the windy roads through the wilderness.  At the bottom of this hill, I came face to face with three baby raccoons!!  We all stopped dead in our tracks.  Where babies are, the momma is nearby too... and raccoons are NOT nice animals.  I stopped and waited... They stared me down and eventually crossed over the road and up the hill into the woods. Whew!

 Continuing on, I got to cross over cool bridges like this...

And climb neat steps like these...

And see scenic views like this...

And climb a really big HILL to get to the upper portion of the park...

Where I said "Good Morning" to Christopher Columbus...

Traffic and roads through universities are always busy and difficult.  So today I ran through the Bradley University campus... first time I received an "inside view" of the campus.  

Next I enjoyed a couple miles through the Historic Districts of Peoria, specifically down Moss Ave, where I dreamed of living in the big beautiful 1800's Victorian houses like the Pettengill-Morron House...

Next I took the turn downtown via Main Street, where it's pretty much all bars and banks. Even at 6am on a Sunday, there were some partiers lingering on the sidewalks.  We both kinda looked at each other thinking the same thing... "You're Nuts!"

And since I was doing a picture tour of Peoria for you, I just HAD to climb up the Bob Michels Bridge to snap some pictures of our beautiful riverfront...

It was nearly 7:00am, so I stopped by the Riverplex Rec Center, where the Sole Sisters were meeting for a morning run.  I thought maybe I'd grab a couple miles with them.   But they were slow to get going, and after waiting 10 minutes, I could feel my legs stiffening up...

So I flipped on the ipod (yes, I went 10 miles without music!) and headed down the riverfront trail solo...

A little over 11 miles in, I turned away from the river and headed past the Sonnemaker runner statue... up the really, really big hill into Glen Oak Park.  My run has been pretty hilly already, and I finally had to stop and walk up half that hill.

After winding through Glen Oak Park, I passed the Peoria Zoo & Luthy Botanical Gardens.

I took a brief venture into the Historic Springdale Cemetary, which was neat running through streets lined with flags for the holiday...

And then I passed by a Peoria landmark... Emo's!  Too bad they weren't open at 8am or I would have stopped for an ice cream cone!

By now, I'm at about 15 miles.  

My legs and feet are starting to hurt.  

The sun is getting warm.  

And my mind is thinking, "Whose bright idea was it to run a marathon?"

Finally the turn home on Forrest Hill... back to the gym.  I felt every incline along the final stretch, but I was so deliriously happy to be near the end!

18.20 miles

3 hours, 19 minutes 

Average Pace of 10:58 (which isn't too bad considering the hills and all the photography stops!)

HOT, but HAPPY to be done!!