Unbelievable Greenway

Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. Saturday morning, as part of the route for the running clinic, our group took a turn down the Alpharetta Greenway. Given that it’s one of the best places to exercise in the metropolitan Atlanta area, I didn’t find it unbelievable the coaches had us run on the course. In fact, I was delighted when I heard it was part of the plan.

We entered the well-shaded and stunningly sublime trail about two and half miles into the six mile course. It had been some time since my last run on the Greenway. I welcomed running through the densely wooded and calming path along Big Creek. As I took in all the wonders around me, I realized something was markedly missing.

Where were all the other people? I ran ahead of my group, but what I was thinking of was the bikers, walkers, in-line skaters and other joggers who generally crowd the trail. Here it was a Saturday morning with the temperature barely reaching 70 degrees. Most people see this as an ideal time to get out and exercise, in terms of both time and weather, yet seven minutes ticked by before I saw another human being. In our mile or so on the trail before we pulled off to head back to the starting point, I passed only one other jogger. I felt like a character in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

It was a grand morning to be outside. Sorry y’all missed it.

**Post script- as the temperatures in the piece above indicate, this blog was written at the beginning of September.

Tom