"We're not afraid of no stinking uranium"

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Another great project for cyclist, runners, walkers and hikers is near completion and could be a huge benefit to people working and living downtown. The Plain Dealer reported in a story on Wednesday that the Towpath Trail’s final hurdle in connecting downtown Cleveland to Akron is a contaminated parcel of land near Harvard Avenue and Jennings Road.

The site in question is the former Harshaw Chemical plant where work was done during WWII to refine uranium for the atomic bomb. The Army Corps of Engineers says the site won’t be fully cleaned until 2016, but trail planners want to open a lot sooner. The ideal plan for the Towpath Trail would be to skirt the property with just the trail. It looks good for approval with out the four years of site cleaning, which is fantastic for those using it.

Having ridden the streets from the suburbs downtown, I know how dangerous it can be and how much better and safer for those with access to the Towpath to ride to work. It doesn’t help everyone, but it runs along the Cuyahoga river following the historic Ohio & Erie Canal from Cleveland south to New Philadelphia. It’s over 88 miles long! It would also be such an asset to downtown Cleveland residents as a way to get their recreation. It takes you directly into the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and if you could do this without having to get onto any city streets, well, too cool.

Don’t get me wrong…I’m all for clean-up of sites that are potential hazards to humans, but if all people are doing is passing through on the edge of this site and not stopping to ingest the soil…shouldn’t they be okay? I hope so. It would be a shame to hold this up for another four years.

It was a little warmer and sunny as I started the run. My legs were telling me not to expect much and I started slowly with that in mind. I was thinking I’d go over an hour again, which was aggressive, but what the hell. By the 40-minute mark though, I was questioning my judgment. It was too late to change anything though, because I was almost a half an hour from the car…so I kept going. I did make one stop to try and find the wood thrush I could hear singing in the woods. I love the flute-like call, but I never seem to see them. As soon as I entered the woods, he stopped singing.

The last 15 minutes were a real drag, but I finished them standing. I’d managed another run over an hour – my third in four days. The rest of the night was very fatiguing, though. Holly and I went to Holden Arboretum for a walk and I was suffering from that little exertion.

I’ll go for a run tomorrow, but probably shorter. Tired legs are okay and, in fact, are part of the process of getting faster – training with and through the fatigue, but it’s the shits while you’re doing it.

Run duration: 65 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 135.

Calories burned during workout: 1100.