In my mind, this run is beautiful. The middle part meanders by a stream where wildlife abounds, along a dirt path over a bridge, through a nursery and back to a lovely neighborhood. Clearly, my photos show otherwise :) While it is still my favorite route - the beauty is (mostly) apparently in my head! I took my new phone with me on my run and snapped some photos. Granted, it was a gray morning (great for running, bad for photos) - so it doesn't look as pretty.
I started my run about 8am, through my neighborhood and down a big hill to the dirt path along the river. I accidentally took some photos of myself while running. That made me laugh!
After passing some barbed wire and graffiti, I ran along the river (jumping over dog poop) until I got to the bridge and enjoyed some bird sightings.
I then ran through the park, nursery and back through my neighborhood. Waving to my neighbor on the way home. It was just under 4 miles and 40 minutes. Probably could have gone faster if I'd not taken so many pics! I will definitely keep running this route - I like the variety and lots of dirt to run on!
I do need to search out some prettier routes however! Where is your favorite route?
My favorite route is almost always trail runs. Serenity while pushing yourself harder than ever isn't an easy task but that's how it feels on the trails.
ReplyDeleteWhat a pretty running route! One of my very favorite parts of running is being outside and seeing all that Mother Nature(and sometimes man) has built around us!
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite runs are when I don't worry about my time and just stop whenever I want to take photos of my route. I live in Boston and my favorite place to run is on the Charles River. It never gets old. I love the views.
ReplyDeleteI love running near creeks, and heavily wooded areas. Unfortunately, there are not very many of those in my area. Ha! So I think sometimes I have to visualize in my head! Great pictures!
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I am not sure that I have ever run past barbed wire :) That is fun.
ReplyDeleteI have done many trail races (some of ultra length) and love introducing road runners to the trails.. it is so cool to see their faces and smiles at the end of the run! They really weren’t expecting it to be such a neat experience.
It is also really fun trying out a new trail that you heard about.. you never know what is around the next corner.
But what isn’t fun (and it has happened maybe a half dozen times) is getting lost. It can really be a tough feeling especially if it is hot, you are low on water and you haven’t seen much of anyone for a while.
One thing that I have found to really help me is to use the compass feature on my Garmin.
I check as I am going out on the trail (in the beginning) which general direction I am going (is it East?) and then when I am trying to get back to where I started and I am a bit lost.. at least if I am going generally West I should be going in the right direction (if not exactly back to the start). It has saved me a few times.
It’s funny but I go up and down with my desire to run the trails. We have a lot of great ones around the St. Louis area, but I really haven’t been on them for some months and am not missing them currently. The draw will come back (it usually comes back when the bugs go away and the heat goes down in the Fall!) but I can say that I am not one of those that always needs to be on a trail. I also like trail running a lot more when I am doing it with someone (if it is a longer distance). I just get sort of lonely out there alone in the forest if I am running for very long :)
Great photos and so cool that you found a great route!
Chris
A runner who still uses a regular watch...they do exist! (I do, too! ) :)
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