Day 95 - June 10, 2010

14 miles 2hours 40min

This run was...not worth talking about. However, Pete and I have been using the same route for most of our long runs, so I thought it would be fun to include a couple of photos here. It is a seven mile loop, which we run one or two times, depending on the length of the run, and there are lots of opportunities to do an extra lap around a pond to add a mile or two here or there. It is a pretty good route with one major exception. This is a photo from the first section of trail. This trail runs right by our house, and it is almost a mile long. It reminds me of the opening credits from that show Weeds. It is certainly suburbia's version of a trail. It is not as nice as a real one, but a very welcome change from sidewalks and pavement. This is the regional park, where I spend a majority of my time running. It actually is a little nicer than it looks here. They are putting in trees tomorrow (the hole you can see), which should be a great improvement. It is almost a mile around this large pond here, and sometimes, if I'm lazy about finding new routes I just run around it a bunch of times to get in the miles.

So, behind that bush, is a poodle, dragging the picnic table it is tied to, with a smattering of broken pots and dirt surrounding it. Yes, the tied up poodle decided to try to chase me, dragging the entire picnic table (and spilling the pots piled up on it) behind it. This is the exception (to the nice route). It is a very brutal mile. This road is always bad. Cars whizzing past you, hot sun burning you up, or today, pelting rain and a strong headwind. No matter what, this road always seems more like ten miles than one mile.
Yay! On to another trail, around another pond, and through what we call the "Green Park". There were some American White Pelicans on the pond today. Unfortunately, my picture of them was very blurry. They are just beautiful. There were two on the water, and when four flew by over head the two took off to join them.

Here is the final pond on the route. This is a half mile loop just behind the mall. This really is not my favorite place to run. On a long run a few years ago, I put a bag down with water and snacks, and it was promptly stolen from me on the first lap.
I love this view. In the distance you can see the beautiful Bridger Mountains. You can also see this is a nice gentle downhill, on mostly trail, for the one mile home.