Covered Bridge

Today was a fun new run. This time, I drove to the north end of Forbidden Drive and ran about 5 miles. I ran by a lot of interesting things. I first passed the only covered bridge within major city limits in the US. There used to be a bunch of covered bridges in that area when there were mills there.

Forbidden Drive and just Fairmount Park in general have had some bad press lately. There were two rapes and a broken tree limb killed a jogger. That did bring my attention to Forbidden Drive though. It's an area where I had never ventured before and I'm now finding it quite fascinating.

I think the parking lot that I started at is where one of the rapes occurred. It's odd because there were a lot of people in that area and it's pretty far from the main part of the city. The terrain on the drive is light gravel to some rougher gravel.

I planned on taking it easy today and just enjoying the run. That was good because my legs didn't have much in them. They really felt dead. Even though it's better to run on a softer surface, I think it bothers my legs and they don't adjust well. They haven't felt like this since I ran the gravel track workout in June.

I continued on though. The area is a little hilly, but overall relatively flat actually. The plan was to run for 42 minutes, since the distances aren't marked there. I decided to run out for 25 minutes before turning around, thus allowing me to walk to cool down at the end.

It was really neat running along the river. I came across the Valley Green Inn. It is a restaurant on the trail that is open for lunch and dinner. There's a nearby parking lot for runners and walkers there too. It was actually quite busy. A lot of high school teams were using the trail and off shoot trails to train.

I came across a makeshift memorial where the girl was killed by the tree branch. It didn't actually dawn on me until I passed it though. I feel like I should leave something next time. She was running with headphones and apparently never heard the branch fall. I never like wearing headphones. Not only do I want to be aware of my surroundings, but I want to take in the sounds of nature too. That's part of the experience of the run.

I didn't quite make it to where I had some when running from the south last week. I wonder how close I was. Eventually, I'll run the entire route. I think I might keep this to mid week runs. It's a nice break up in the middle of the regular Kelly Drive or West River Drive runs on Tuesday and Thursday.

I actually finished pretty strong. That was good. I have been a little concerned because the last two days, I've felt lightheaded at times. It hit me before yesterday's run, but didn't bother me during or after the run. It wasn't until walking around later in the day that I had trouble. I felt lightheaded at times this morning too. If it starts to really become a problem, I'll cut out some training.

I still feel good, although the trail runs seem to be making me quite sore. I'm looking forward to another short run tomorrow. I will probably add the Art Museum steps to the end of the run too. I need to get stronger on hills.