Last year we were made aware of the skyline trail along trinity river at downtown Dallas. That's where many beautiful pictures of downtown skylines were taken. In January this year we ran on the trail in a freezing cold Sunday morning. It was a new, different and beautiful surroundings - 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.
We participated the Too Cold to Hold 10K race at White Rock Lake in February. We ran with over thousand people who participated in the 5k, 10k and half marathon races. We ran through underpass of highways, on bridges over wetland, along the lake shore. We saw birds flying in the sky, glittering water in the white rock lake, beautiful lake front mansions. A great variations from our routine. A nice check on our running capacity: Lily won her division, and I ran my personal best.
In March, we went camping by ourselves at lake Ray Roberts. We planned to run 13.1 miles, half marathon, on Jordan trail at the park. The trail hugs the shoreline of lake Ray Roberts for several miles. We saw grand egrets, grey herons. On the more inland portion of the trail, bird chirpings followed us most of the time. It was otherwise quiet, it was beautiful. We were the only people on this trail until we nearly finished our run. What we did not expect was that the trail condition was rough from time to time since the trail is shared by runners, hikers, bikers and equestrians. The trail is not good for running. We cut our runs short because of this. We finished 10 mile run, the longest distance I ran thus far.
The Chisholm trail turns out to be our favorite trail for longer distance run, it is in the city, closer to home than state parks. There are two big advantages of this trail than other trails in cities, it is well shaded for a good portion, and it is safer traffic wise since there are underpasses for all major intersections. The trail is parallel to spring creek most of the time, and passes through several community parks and intersects with the blue bonnet trail, it is paved. We first run on the trail in May. It was a beautiful morning, blue sky, bright sun shine and green landscape. We were surprised to see that the creek becoming pretty wide at cross bend, and that portion is called "Big Lake". We have ran there a few more times since.
Eisenhower park at lake Texoma is our alternate default outdoor destination in north Texas. We went there camping, kayaking and running in October for a mini fall break. We ran on the south portion of Ike's trail. The trail is in the woods most of the time, portions of it are pretty "rocky", we had to walk for a couple sections.
I started bringing my running shoes with me on business trips since 2017. My first business trip run was at Chicago. Last month, November, I went to Salt lake city for a conference. I took my running shoes with me, and run a 5K in downtown. I ran from my hotel to state capitol, had to stop at many cross sections. The run to the capitol hill was an uphill run, very tiring. The run was refreshing and energizing!
We still run around the neighborhood 90% of the time - the "trail" is right outside the door, we are familiar with many routes for various weather and body conditions, it saves time ( from driving to trail head), and it is safe.
Running in new places provides variations from routine, induces excitements, and make the run more interesting. Planning is the key for a safe and enjoyable run in unfamiliar territory - decide the route before the run, get familiar with the environment along the route.
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