Memorial Day Weekend

THREE SHORT RUNS

One of the things I plan to do when visiting a place is to go run in it. What better way to experience somewhere than to open yourself up to it by pushing yourself through it's space? Most of the time that works very well. I get out it at least what I had hoped and usually more.

Consider where I have run recently and you can see what I mean; along the rugged Oregon coastline, skirting the rim of the Grand Canyon at dusk, completing a point to point marathon in my childhood town, scrambling across the arid Arizona landscape, encircling the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol and passing everything in between. My experience of those places is different and better for having taken the time to simply run through them.

So I was excited to find that there was a bike and pedestrian trail near the hotel where were staying in Medford during the long holiday weekend. The Bear Creek Greenway runs roughly north-south, hugging the banks of it's namesake, reaching from Ashland to Central Point.

The trail was easy enough to find, just down a block from the hotel, past the Ford dealership and onto the two lane blacktop path. Sure enough the path does follow "Bear Creek" but what was not in the brochure (remember that line from City Slickers when Billy Crystal has his arm way up that cows backside?) something else also follows the creek-- the I-5 freeway.

There are places where the space between the Interstate and the next tract of private property is wide enough for the path to move away, and give some measure of nature and peacefulness, but mostly you hear and see a lot of cars and trucks whizzing by.

THE GIRLS WENT RUNNING TOO

Side trails divert off and connect to the neighborhoods and business areas, old spray paint writings that once marked mileage and turn around points for past 5K or 10K races occasionally gave hints to busier days on the trail and of course I sometimes saw other runners or cyclists going in the other direction.

I ran all three days while we were there, struggling to find the motivation to do 3 miles the first time, followed by 5 and then a 4 miler. This lull I continue to muddle through is a product of my knee pain, feeling slow and fat and just not having a clear goal that I'm excited about. In a way, training for anything less than a marathon now just seems not worth really training for.

It was different when I had a more open schedule. I could plan to do a run, like up at Forest Park, and make a big deal about it. I mean that I could plan it, set pace goals, push myself and get it done. Now I barely have time to get out, and when I do I just try to "get something done". How fun is that?

So I know I'll work through this and get back to my happy place, but for now running has become just a meaningless grind. No discovery. No new layers revealed. Hard to get out there.

And running along the freeway in Medford is no Grand Canyon.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35098962

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35098972

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35287704