Suburban Trails

I've started adding a few more miles per week to my treads in effort to gain distance and speed for my upcoming races.  In doing so, I've had to seek out new trails and time for these longer runs.  With my new training plan I've started running when and where I can.  This has been exciting and humorous.  Last weekend, I decided to use my feet to take me to my local Walgreens to pick up a couple small items.  The Walgreen's is about 3.5 miles from my home (7 miles round trip)and the run itself was generally paved with concrete and asphalt and with a few monstorous hills to fight with, but it wasn't the actual pounding of the pavement that was so much fun during this journey.  It was showing up sweaty and gently out of breath into a general public setting and seeing the glances of the less active society watching me that was so amusing.  Sure, I may not have smelled as appealing as the other shoppers and my clearly impatient demeanor at the check-out line(not wanting to be idle for too long) was a little irritating but I myself was a little smug, knowing that my body was all I really needed to get me from place to place.  It's nice to get past the tethered feeling that we seem to have to our cars.  While I don't live in an area where I will ever be able to completely go without my car for any length of time, knowing that once in a while I can steal away on nothing but my feet to complete my errands is liberating.

I did learn a great lesson during this trip, I need some gear!  If I'm going to be adding distance from my home and gym I really must get myself a good handheld water bottle and some obnoxious neon shorts or tops!  I've discovered that venturing onto the suburban sidewalk trails may open a whole new world of opportunity and danger!  While I'd like to imagine most people whizzing by me in their cars are aware of my presence and proud of me, the reality is just the opposite.  Sadly, most people driving in their cars pay little attention to the pedestrians around them. In fact, the NHTSA found that in 20120 that nearly 12 pedestrians a day lost their life in a motor/pedistrian accident! From the cozy cabin of most cars we pedestrians seem to be nothing but an annoyance at best and a speed bump at worst!
So please, be careful while your hitting the pavement, and enjoy!