Running through town

I decided to do something different for my run today. I wanted to go at least 5, maybe 6 miles, but I thought I might take some pictures along the way. This would serve a couple purposes:

1) it would intentionally slow me down. (Or so I thought.) I have been running most of my miles lately without much regard for pace. I'm running comfortably, but probably in a zone that wasn't very beneficial to me. Junk miles. If I was taking pix along the way, I'd have to go slower, right?

2) it would give me something to contribute to my own blog, which, by default, would

3) give anyone who reads this blog a (sort of) glimpse into what I see on my runs some days.

So here we go:

I figured I should start by showing off my new running jacket (thanks, Mom and Dad!), but all this picture really shows is a Santa getting a peek at something... (what?! I didn't realize!)

This is the view from my deck, looking across to the road where I will start my run. I turned on the 305, let it link up with the satellite and the HRM, and made my way across the street.

As I head up that road, I cross a little creek. This area has the potential to be a really nice park area, but the town does NOTHING to keep the water/area clean. Such a shame.

Soon enough I'm heading past the street where my mom grew up, and then under the speedline,and then past the street where my dad grew up and the pool where he was the head lifeguard as a teen. (They think it's cool I am living in the town where they grew up!) The pic I took of the pool complex didn't come out clearly through the fence, though...

So then I headed up a long road and made a turn towards town. I passed the church where my parents were married, my sister and I were baptized, and my sister and BIL were married.
This is where I decided to extend my run a bit (I can keep track with the Garmin now!) and I headed to the hilly, rich part of town. This is the first hill I hit, a nice decline, which is the precursor to all the ups and downs I'll run over for the next 3ish miles. I run through the country club area and hit the steepest (but short) climb of the run so far. Alas, that pic didn't work, either. I tried to take it over my shoulder but all you see is my big ol' face. On we go... Finally, I hit the last real climb of the run - a three-tiered hill up to town: As I make my way into town, I pass the dinosaur that commemorates the fact that dino bones were found here in town:I stopped at the running store to grab a sip of water and say hello to the guys. Of course, I forgot to snap a pic here. They probably would have laughed at me anyway for it. At this point I have covered a little over 7 miles, and decide to make my way home via the park loop. I pass through town, past the high school my parents attended, and around to the park path.

A little less than a half mile from home, and finally I pass the ONLY water fountain there is when I run through town:

As I come to the end of this run, I end up right back where I started, to the left of the first picture from my deck...

I ran 9.5 miles total, and while my average pace wasn't as slow as I planned, I did have many miles of easy running. It was about 40* and windy (which made it feel a lot colder), but super clear and sunny, so it was one of those days where I could have just kept going and going. I didn't have anything else on the schedule for the day, so this was a great way to spend much of my morning!