Running on Trinity River Skyline Trail

We planned to participate the Dallas Skyline 10K/Half Marathon in March due to the appeal of running in a new and beautiful surroundings. But the race was delayed into late April - which could be too hot. We changed our plan. We decided to run the course ourselves on January 20th.

We got to Trinity Park Skyline trail trailhead (3030 Gulden Lane, Dallas) at 9:15am. The parking lot is at one end of the Margret Hunt Hill bridge - the landmark cable-stayed bridge with one big arc pylon and many cables, and the Ronald Kirk pedestrian bridge.

Ronald Kirk pedestrian bridge and Margret Hunt Hill Bridge are next to each other

It was Sunny, and freezing cold. We were fully prepared for it, but when we stepped out of the car , we still had a cold shock!  

We walked to the trinity river levee, turned left and started our run on the top of the levee which is a gravel trail, and stayed on the levee until we reached the Westmoreland bridge. We ran down the levee and ran across the flood plain, and over a pedestrian bridge to the other side of the trinity river.

The route we ran

Run in a new and beautiful surroundings was what we expected, and that's exactly what we got and more - downtown skyscraper skyline as a backdrop for the run, egrets, grey herons, and many other water fowls in the marsh land around the river. When we ran on the south levee, we also heard roosters' calls from neighborhood by the levee.

The gravel levee, and up and downs of the trail we ran on made it a bit more challenging than running on paved trail. I finished my 10K run in 1 hour 15 minutes, and walked 4 more kilometers.

After the run, we walked on the Kirk pedestrian bridge and took many more pictures of downtown skyline, and the beautiful Margret Hunt Hill bridge.

A planed 1.5 hour run turned into a 3 hour outing!

running on top of the levee which is gravel covered

running under the Westmoreland Bridge

a pedestrian bridge over the trinity river

marshlands in trinity river corridor

a pound at trinity river park

take a break after the run on the pedestrian bridge

Note: Our trail was based on the Dallas Skyline 10K/Half Marathon trail map , which is NOT exactly the skyline trail at the trinity river. The skyline trail at trinity river park is a paved trail, and is a one way 4.6 mile trail

Exploring Cenote

I heard about cenote for the first time right before the trip.

Cenote is underground lake or flooded cave. Officially a cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. Especially associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, cenotes were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings.

I was really interested in checking it out.

The cenote we went to was owned jointly by several outfitters.The first thing we did on the way to the cenote  was listening to a Maya man pray.

The cenote has clear green water. In addition to the open pit, it also has flooded cave-tunnel. First many of us jumped into the pound one by one, then the group swam into the cave, looked at Stalactite and Stalagmite, listening to the guide's explanation of geology. We also turned all lights off including that from watches and stayed in total darkness without speaking for a couple minutes,  just to listen to the natural sound in the cave.

It is a a good start to explore cenote. There are larger more beautiful cenotes at Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico.

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Swimming with Dolphins

The first excursion we had at Cancun was to swim with Dolphins at Dolphinaris just outside of Zona Hotelera, at the Venture Park. We bought the wet package, which was a more expensive package than most other packages at the dolphin center.  The program included 1 guide, 8 patrons for 45 minutes in the water with a dolphin. The program started with an education on  dolphins and their ecosystem on land and then patrons move into water. 

Our guide was an energetic "small" lady, passionate and humorous. She called our group the family. When Nicholas got kiss from the female dolphin Nanomi, she asked "is that the first kiss you got from a girl?", later when I held the dolphin - she joked -  papa that was the baby girl you always wanted. The program included 6 activities - dolphin swimming by to allow us to touch her skin, pecking from dolphin on the cheek, a kiss of the dolphin on the mouth, dancing with dolphin, and cradling the dolphin, and last riding on the dolphin. We thoroughly enjoyed swimming with the dolphin.

Our time with the dolphin was captured by a dolphin center photographer. When we looked at the photos that captured our enjoyments of the time , we decided to buy a small selection of the photos, and in the end we took the huge discount photographer gave us to buy all the photos. Memory of good time is priceless!

5K run @ Cancun on Christmas Day

It was a partly sunny morning on Christmas day. Lily and I left the resort around 8am and ran on the side walk of the main highway in the Zona Hetelera - Punta Nizuc.  Punta Nizuc boulevard is wide, with Palm trees lined along both sides of the highway, as well as the center strip. 

We ran a pretty slow pace, my pace was about 6.5 minutes/km; and enjoyed the cool air, quiet streets. There were few other runners on the street. My original plan was to run to  the popular Cancun signage at the public beach Playa Delfines and then continue to El Rey - an archaeological site on the barrier island south to the resort, and finish the 5K run inside the site.

We stopped at the Cancun signage, took some photos and waved to police stationed at the beach and continued to El Rey. When we got there, we found that it required admission fee and we did not have any money on us even though I was trying a belt bag - had phone and room key in it. So when we got back to the resort entrance we were short of 5K, we continued,  passing the resort and enjoyed more palm trees, and landscapes in front of other resorts, until we reached 5K.

It was a very pleasant run.