Illinois Marathon Training Recap Week 4

This is my first week of recapping my training, but according to my marathon training plan this is week 4.  To keep things simple for me,  I am starting to number at 4.  My training plan is 24 weeks long which is quite a long time for a training plan in my opinion, but the mileage is low to start with and isn't too challenging so far.   
I combined two training plans to come up with a good training plan for me.  I'm using the Tuesday runs and Saturday long runs from the Hal Higdon Marathon 3 Plan and the Thursday speed work runs from an individualized plan from Runner's World Smart Coach.  I liked the slower build-up of mileage in the Marathon 3 plan, but am hoping the speed work will shave a few seconds of my average pace.
This is what I have for a training plan so far.

Of course, this schedule is adjustable to whatever I feel like doing for the week.  And this week is a good example of that.  Here is what I ended up doing.

• Monday: Off
• Tuesday: 5 miles treadmill + pushups, squats, curls, and abs
• Wednesday: Off
• Thursday: Zumba, 1 hour
• Friday: 4 miles treadmill
• Saturday: 9 miles
• Sunday: 20 minutes on the bike trainer

This past weekend I was invited to a Christmas/Ugly Sweater  party hosted by a friend of Matt's in Cortland, Illinois.  It was a treat to see and hang out with several of his college friends again.  Of course I indulged in much too much alcohol on both Friday and Saturday nights, but thankfully didn't get too out of control this time.
I woke up around 8:30 on Saturday to head out for a run.  Another guy was running as well, but he was much faster than I so we didn't run together.  I got to run on some low traffic country roads which is one of my favorite places to run.  No stoplights, no other people, not very many cars and nice scenery.  I felt surprisingly good.
These were my splits.
Mile 1: 9:55
Mile 2: 9:56
Mile 3: 10:06
Mile 4: 10:18
Mile 5: 10:05
Mile 6: 10:10
Mile 7: 9:54
Mile 8 10:42
Mile 9 10:00
9 miles, average pace: 10:07
My goal pace for the marathon is supposed to be 9:34 so I actually could be running long runs a bit slower.  I have always just tried going at a comfortable pace and that has worked for me.
I have 10 miles on the schedule for this week and I will be in the very hilly land of Cascade.  I'm not looking forward to it.
What's your favorite place to run?