I walked up the concrete hills in my neighborhood.
Most of them.
Okay, all of them but one.
We’re lucky to have a beautiful trail right across the street from us. It is well traveled on the weekends, but I suspect during the week it’s a lot quieter.
One side of the trail is a green belt with a tangle of weeds and blackberry bushes and tall slender evergreens providing lovely shade above the dirt and gravel pathway. The other side, for part of the way, is the rear end of the houses in our nieghborhood. There’s a gulley with weeds and thorny plants between their backyard fences and where people do their jogging or walking or biking. A little further on down the path, that side of the trail drops down severely (maybe 30 feet or more), to Lake Wilderness. The view is gorgeous. The black surface of the water glitters, framed by cedar branches. I try not to get too close to the edge, though, ’cause yikes.
The problem with the trail, however, is I’m paranoid that a) a freaky mass murderer will jump me or b) a bear or coyote or snake or some other wild creature will jump me. It doesn’t help that every once in a while I hear rustling in the leafy outskirts.
So, on the weekdays I will be running within the safe concreted sidewalks in my neighborhood where people can hear me scream (you know, if one of those bears from the trail decides to wander down my street). But there’s a whole set of issues to deal with when running around cul-de-sacs.
First, the direction of the sun changes, so I have to keep adjusting T Junior’s shade on the BOB. This requires running along side of the stroller, holding on to it with your right hand and crossing your left across your body to move the cover.
Second, no tall evergreens means you only get little patches of relief from the sun every few feet made by fairly young (and sparse) oaks. It really doesn’t count as shade.
Third, and this is the worst one, there are hills. The trail is nice and flat and straight. The neighborhood has several inclines and loops and corners and intersections to contend with.
But, I did jog about 90% of the time today even though I felt stiff and sore and the sun was beating down on me.
And, oh yeah, did I mention this already? There was no shade.