Normally on the weekends, I take the Amtrak from St. Louis to Chicago to visit my partner Daniel. However, this week, starting a couple of days after the half marathon, I became sick. I don’t know if it was a cold, allergies, or something else, but on Tuesday, I started sneezing a lot during my bus ride to work. My co-worker asked me about my weekend, and after I told her about the race, she said my voice sounded different. Another co-worker later commented that she was hearing a lot of coughing around the room. At the time, I thought it was just allergies from doing extensive yard work, but my condition devolved throughout the day, with runny nose and sneezing getting worse. I tried drinking some herbal tea, which helped me feel a little better at the moment, but I knew it wasn’t going to be enough. The next three days I took some sick leave, staying home from work (except for a few hours to submit my timesheet – don’t want to miss out on getting paid!)

While I had a hard time sleeping from not being able to breathe/a runny/stuffy nose/sore throat, I still ran on my own. I found that, although it was harder to breathe and my heart rate was a bit higher, I didn’t notice any sneezing or runny nose (although it came all at once as soon as I stopped). Not wanting to infect Daniel, I unexcitedly cancelled my trip northward that weekend.

With a full day off, I decided to go on a longish bike ride. I wanted to go to Pere Marquette State Park but knew leaving at 2:30 pm (by the time I fixed my bike and got all my gear/clothes packed) would be too late. Instead, I planned to ride on the Madison County, Illinois Transit (MCT) Trails, after seeing countless Strava entries from bikers I followed.

Within the first mile, I picked up and discarded a run-over flexible reflector that fell off the bike yesterday. Around 7 miles in, I passed the Arch. Just north of it, a homeless camp was growing, right along the flood wall which closed the trail for a short section, sending me on a detour along the Horseshoe Casino. After that I passed what looked like a festival near a bunch of abandoned buildings and the Ashley Energy facility.

From there, I continued northward on the Riverfront Trail past the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing, to the Chain of Rocks Bridge. This was probably the lowest level I had ever seen for the Mississippi River. In 2021, this route (in reverse) was the course for the GO St. Louis Marathon. I crossed the river into Illinois, and continued on the Confluence Trail. Next, I stopped to refill my water bottle at the Lewis & Clark Confluence Tower. From there, I rode down New Poag Rd. to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. Several of my co-workers went to school there. It was nice, albeit isolated, very spacious and scenic with plenty of forests and small hills. Next I rode through downtown Edwardsville where numerous high schoolers were taking photos for homecoming (I saw a sign for at at a local theater).

At the end of the Watershed Trail, I got a bit lost but eventually found my way to the Goshen Trail. I had planned to ride all the way to Marine, IL before turning back but at 6:00 pm, I realized I still had 6 miles to go and it would likely be past sunset before I even got there. In 2017, I clumsily collided with a bollard, flying several feet into the air before slamming into the ground (luckily I had a helmet on), while riding at night and didn’t want to do that again. So I turned around and headed back toward St. Louis. By then the temperature was dropping, it was 50° F (but felt much colder).

I only ate a small lunch and was over 50 miles into the ride by the time I reached Glen Carbon. There I spotted a Casey’s gas station. I remembered my credit card had a special promotion there (I think a whopping 5% off), so I went in to get some snacks (some 2/$4 candy and a pack of gum) and put on another layer of clothes.

The last 30 or so miles were kind of a blur. I was just trying to ride fast enough to not get too cold. I got a little lost at the end of the Schoolhouse Trail in Madison, IL but eventually found my way to the McKinley Bridge and back into Missouri. A few more miles through downtown, and along some bike lanes and I was finally home around 9:45. The grand total was 82 miles for the day, the most I’d ridden since probably 2019. I was exhausted, starving, and glad I had leftover soup to eat for dinner. I looked at my watch and saw that I walked less than 2,000 steps for the day, about 10% of my official Garmin step goal – what a slacker!