A Run Around My Hometown

I stopped down to visit with my folks on Thursday night, and I stuck around until I had to be back in the Cities for some portfolio reviews on Friday afternoon. I got up early at my parent's house and went for a run. It's pretty common for me to run at my parent's house, but they are out in the country so it's always just wide open miles down Hwy 109. But before sunrise, that would be dangerous and stupid - it's a rural highway that's not lit, so I surely would have tripped and died.

So I drove into town and decided to run the old routes that we used to run for track in high school. Here was my 6.5 mile run around my hometown:

Yeah, I hit a lot of my hometown.

Splits 1-2 were the "warm-up loop" we used to run around the high school (which has since been leveled and moved to the south edge of town as you can see), around the tennis courts (also gone), and past my track coach's house.

Then splits 3-4 were the "cemetery loop" that we often did on easy days. That was NOT lit, so I just stuck to the gravel paths through the cemetary as it was very hard to see. I couldn't see the big hand pump that we used to stop at to get a drink, otherwise I would have had a sip of rusty water for old time's sake.

Splits 6-8 were the "golf course loop" that was my first run for track. It was about 2 miles, and I was proud when I was 15 years old that I got to the far corner (by split #7 on that map) before having to stop and walk. When coach told me that our first run was 2 miles, I was shocked at how far that was! But then I was running 2:12-2:15 800s a few months later.

Splits 9-12 were just wandering around town. I ran past the community center, ran down main street, went past my insurance guy's office, past the old lumber yard, out behind the old DQ, and ended back near my car.

But I had noticed that the old track was left open, so I finished with a lap on my high school track!

First time running that loop in 25 years!

It was about as much grass as it was rubber, but that still brought back some memories of HATING that back-stretch in my 3rd quarter of my 800 meter races.