TrailHonky

Today I decided to make a southerly turn after crossing the bRRidge and check out the portion of the Riverparks trail down towards 71st Street. My original plan was to go until I saw the 5.5 mile marker … but they seemed to run out after the 4.5 mile post! I suspect with the recent trail work they removed the marker to make way for new fencing and guardrails.

So after running just about an hour, I turned back around. I figured I was pretty close to the Turkey Mountain trail heads and after consulting the maps once back home, I indeed was quite near them.

I do like this trail though there were fewer water fountains than I expected. I opted to use the one conveniently located near the waste water treatment plant around 41st Street on both the outbound and inbound portions. Looking back, it was probably not the best selection of a water source, but nothing tasted funny!

Overall this was a really great training run. I went a little over 11 miles in just over 2 hours with relatively even splits (right at 11:00/mile pace), particularly since I practiced some power walking on a few slight uphill sections in the second half.

Landmark highlights for the run included:

• The PSO power plant lit up on the return trip
• The Channel 2 tower lit brightly on the evening sky from across the river
• A small pedestrian/bike bridge crossing an inlet of the river just north of I-44
• The railroad crossing on the trail, and finally
• A exhaust torch burning off excess energy at a plant just south of I-44…this puppy is right on the other side of the fence from the trail and you can feel a significant temperature increase for a few moments!
• The TATUR Estim8ur turnaround spray paint which is now quite faded on the trail surface.

I got a late start on today’s run but it turned out to be a great decision. The temperature was actually tolerable and though I was sweating like mad, I never felt hot during the run.

Today’s route took me a bit more north along the recently redone Riverparks trail. I joined up with it at 31st Street since there is construction south of here and followed it all the way up to 11th Street. Until now, I hadn’t ventured past the 21st Street bridge. Though there is no crushed limestone “chat” on either side of the super smooth asphalt trail, I’m still a fan. So were several others today: there were lots of walkers, joggers, bikers, skateboarders and rollerbladers out tonight and many kids playing on the playground that borders the trail. But it wasn’t overly crowded and there was only one mad hatter biker racing to set a new world speed record :-)

After noticing the nice Route 66 sign and monument along the road, complete with a flag for each state the road passes through, I crossed the river to the west side. At the start of the trail here there is another disc golf course that’s just on the edge of the apartments. After navigating through the geese and ducks, I followed the curving trail around The Reynolds Amphitheater and floating stage. By this time I was still holding a steady pace and feeling great.

At some point around here I crossed a wooden bridge that had a smell like Six Flags. It’s not too wide and the boards are uneven but it was kind of neat. I’m starting to like running the routes around here and crossing all the bridges. With the river in the middle, it reminds me of my old favorite routes in Austin around Town Lake (now Lady Bird Lake) and Philadelphia along Fairmount Park.

After managing my way along the grass on Riverside Drive, I crossed the road and headed back to Brookside. In total, I logged 6.7 miles at a 10:34/mile pace for a time of 1:10:50.

Though I only got about 3 miles in this afternoon, I really enjoyed my run. I decided to check out the west side of the Riverparks trail between 21st and 31st Streets since I normally run a bit more south. I used the 21st Street Bridge to cross on the north side and the bRRidge to cross on the south side. Since I started at 6:15pm, there weren’t too many walkers and runners out due to the heat, but there were a fair number of bikers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday at 10:30pm I took part in my first official TATUR event, an informal night run organized by several of the “regulars”. The plan was to meet at the QuickTrip at 94th and Riverside and head east on the Creek Turnpike Trail about 7 miles before turning back. Though the temperature was kind of cool all day, the humidity was still lingering from the morning rains.

TATUR night run on June 28, 2008 ~ Photo: Ken Childress

Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of things tried to keep me from running today. The commute home from work took longer since I left earlier than usual and had slight traffic, it started raining really hard less than a mile from my house, and I didn’t feel like getting on the trail once I got inside. After I convinced myself to go, I noticed that the Riverparks trail is fenced off at 31st so I drove up to the dam on Riverside but couldn’t find parking. I finally opted for the parking lot adjacent to the bRRidge.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the spirit of trying to establish a training rhythm, I followed through on my declaration that I’d hit the trail one more time today. Though it was still hot, I decided if I didn’t go around 5pm I probably wouldn’t go at all.

Read the rest of this entry »

Something’s up with the Riverparks trail so my usual route from 41st to 71st and back is all screwed up. The parking lot at 41st and Riverside is in fact completely blocked off. All this is for good measure, though, as the area from 31st to 48th is getting a revamp.

Read the rest of this entry »