Lullwater at Last

Greetings! I’ve wanted to run in the Emory Lullwater Homecoming 5K race for MANY years.  Last year, I registered, however, it was pouring rain on race morning. I passed. We attended a few other homecoming events on campus that day, but the rain kept us from staying for the afternoon free concert. Race coordinators could not have planned for better weather this year. At long last I participated in the race. 

What a grand course! Runners never had to enter public roads. We meandered through student housing, and then around Lullwater Park. This beautiful area, with non-skittish deer, a stream and lake, surrounds the university president’s house. I encountered a few new parts of the campus along the way. That’s odd given my mother worked at Emory, I worked there on two occasions, and I attended the College and Graduate School. On all counts, it was super race and I really enjoyed it.

Shannan participated as well. She ran/walked to check her time for an upcoming 10 miler in October.  She needs to make 16 minute miles for the 10-mile race. At the Emory event, Shannan completed sub 14 minute miles. She’s been working hard since July and its paying off for her.

Run in Races.

Tom

Running in Circles

Greetings! We spent a super weekend in Knoxville, TN. One of our great problem solving activities included scheduling tourist visits and meals around the football game. Like in many other college towns, TN Volunteer fans get started early for tailgating and carry on the good times long after the game. This made downtown available to us only early in the morning and in the evening.

We managed quite well with visits to the Ijams Nature Center, the Museum of Appalachia and the American Museum of Science and Energy. Across the day we made a rectangle around the city. It all worked perfectly. The beginning of the day went extraordinarily well also. I set out for a run in the dark before dawn. The area around our hotel had a few cars on the road at that hour, and no sidewalks. The good news is I quickly happened upon Founder’s Park. 

The park had a little of everything- a putting green, benches, shaded picnic tables, volleyball, soccer, bleachers, a basketball goal, Frisbee golf, a horseshoe pit and a few resistance stations. In the middle of all these goodies was a gravel track. I loved the place, however, the track was only about a 440.  I’m not a huge fan of running circles over and over. 

The experience proved for a great option to reflect. There are many things in life that provide excellent opportunities, however, for me, it’s important not to get stuck in a rut of doing the exact same thing again and again. I relished the fact that we were off on a weekend get-a-way, rather than sitting around the house. Albeit in quarter mile circle, I was fortunate enough to be running at all, and particularly in a new place.

Run outside the circle.

Tom

http://ijams.org/

http://www.museumofappalachia.org 

http://amse.org/

Running Shoes as Casual Wear

Greetings! Earlier this year the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Metro Atlanta’s population expanded to 5.7 million residents. The number includes the 11 county metropolitan area, with Fulton county as the largest with 1 million people.

The Atlanta Track Club proudly stands as the second largest running organization in the United States with more than 26,000 members. The Track Club hosts over 30 races a year, including the world’s largest 10K with 65,000 participants. These numbers in light of the Sneakers exhibit, which was recently at the High Museum of Art, led me to think about the number of athletic shoes purchased. In the process, I learned athletic shoes have crossed over to the realm of casual wear and thus sales have increased yearly for over 15 years.

I haven’t tracked down exact numbers for units of athletic shoes sold or runners in GA, however, the southeastern region has over 7 million runners. This includes 8 states. Meanwhile

Some 45.1 million pairs of shoes were sold to support an over 70 BILLION dollar athletic shoe industry in U.S. I saw two numbers for the average shoe price, one at $66 and the other at $88.

That is a terrific amount of people spending a fair amount of money on athletic shoes not to actually be running, walking or working out in the footwear.

Spend Money Wisely. Run.

Tom