Last night I ran from the house again. This time I was sans Jose, since he was off taking the final for the Java programming class he’s been taking all summer. (He is quite happy to have it over with, by the way.) I headed out in the opposite direction from what we’d done on Tuesday with the intention of checking out the trail system in our new neighborhood.
In this case, “trail” doesn’t mean dirt. They are concrete, which is one of the worst surfaces to run on…I know this, yet I almost always run on concrete anyway since that’s what everything is made of around here. So they’re concrete. BUT they are nice and wide, with plenty of room for people to pass each other, AND as a bonus, there’s a significant section that runs through the trees a bit off the main road. It was awesome! It was scenic and peaceful and quiet and I saw tons of rabbits and field mice.
I had only planned to run 3 miles, but ended up covering 4 because I kept expecting the trail to end, but it kept going. I kept thinking I’d turn around at the next corner, but then the trail would continue a bit more. Finally I turned around because I wanted to make it home before dark. (The nearly full moon rising was in view as I ran back and it was beautiful.) This morning I checked out Google maps and it looks like the trail finally ends about a quarter mile past the point where I finally turned around.
I also mapped out a few routes covering the neighborhood in different combinations. I can do everything from 2 miles to 5 miles pretty easily without even leaving our subdivision. When I need to do longer runs this fall as I ramp up for the half marathon in January, it will be very easy to follow the sidewalks into neighboring subdivisions. I already mapped out what looks to be a pretty nice 8 mile route to tackle in a few months, and it won’t be too hard to add a few more miles to that by incorporating loops into other neighborhoods.
This is the best added benefit of buying a house so far! New, interesting, and non-repetitive running routes!
I don’t get that. Why are all the neighborhood “trails” concrete. On the one hand I am glad they have them, on the other hand it sucks.
They are all concrete because its houston and we live in a concrete jungle..
seriously, though, I am not sure neighborhoods could really do packed dirt trails. with all the rain and storming we get here, they’d probably have significant erosion and you’d have to re-do them every year, which I think would be a significant homeowners association expense.
our neighborhood trails have gotten really nice recently, they finally connected them all to the surrounding neighborhoods, and the neighborhood is starting to finally “mature” so there are nice shady trees. I love the trails, its probably one of the nicer part of living in a neighborhood instead of an apartment complex.
We have mostly concrete trails too, but we also have a couple of miles of trails much like the ones at Memorial Park. We also have “trails” through the woods to a nearby creek, but they are a bit overgrown and there are hundreds of horseflies!