Savannah was home with her boyfriend Kyle and wanted everyone to meet him, so I was driving to Akron to pick up Heidi for dinner. I knew there was little chance of getting in a workout unless I was going to ride the trainer after everyone had left…and there was little chance that would happen. As I drove, I had an alternate thought and called Heidi about parks near her place.
“Sure. There’s Sand Run about 5 minutes away and they have bridle trails I’m pretty sure,” she said when I called.
I headed there and drove through looking for the right place to park. It appeared to be a ribbon park…long and narrow…but I could see what looked like a running trail paralleling the road and though it offered no serenity, at least it wasn’t paved.
I parked near a park legend and noticed that it indicated hiking trails away from the road, which I headed for. I started along a wooded hiking trail and found that it quickly rose from the road to the ridge running along the top of the park about 300 vertical feet up. It dropped again rather abruptly and then climbed once more before dropping back again. This pattern continued for two more climbs when I first noticed I was the only person running on the trail. I knew there were lots of runners in the park...I’d seen them on the trail next to the road as I’d driven in...but they were nowhere to be seen on this trail. I’d planned a forty minute run, so when I’d finished twenty, I turned and headed back...and still no one. In the entire run, I never went fifty yards on level terrain. The constant up...and I’m talking steep...left me exhausted as I approached the car. I have run in many different places throughout the country in my 40 years of running, but without a doubt, this was the hilliest run I’d ever taken...in Fairlawn??
I picked Heidi up and drove home for another un-Paleo dinner...lasagna. Holly makes a great one so at least when I’m not eating Paleo, I am getting some wonderful food...and calories. I WILL make it through the holidays with my pants still loose around the waste. I haven’t figured out exactly how I’m going to accomplish that task, but when I do, I’ll post it up.
Run workout: 40 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm.Calories burned during workout: 600.
I used to run my long run at sandrun all the time! I love that park! But yes it is very hilly.
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