Lick Run

At Andrew’s suggestion, he and I decided to run a section of the greenway last night that we had not previously explored, Lick Run. The primary reason I had never headed out that way was quite simple. I have no desire to be shot at – ha, ha. In all seriousness, this part of the greenway runs through some very questionable areas of town and is a pretty unique experience. One minute you’re running alongside a nice little creek with trees on both sides of you in what is a very rural setting; the next you’re cutting across a highway and going through a neighborhood that some people might not want to venture into (although it really isn't all that bad).

After lots of joking around about what might happen to us and how we might have to throw in an involuntary tempo to escape with our lives, we started the greenway section by crossing a major highway (Orange Avenue) then running up a long hill. At the top of the hill, we heard a girl scream off in the distance. I resisted the urge to turn around right there, assuring myself that it had to be a kid playing on the playground (right???). From there we wound our way around for about two and a half miles before arriving at the base of a big hill that would have dropped us in the parking lot of the Valley View Target. Having come that far, I wanted to run the hill to “complete” the run, but Andrew balked, stating that it was Evil Steve trying to force us to do something stupid. Ultimately I knew he was correct, so I agreed to turn and head back, which was a good thing because we wound up a mile longer than planned as it was (I was accused of adding on, but we won't go into that).

As for the new route, I think it will stay in the rotation. I wouldn’t want to do it a lot, but it will be nice for something different every now and then. The fact that it adds variety is the biggest upside to it, along with the fact that the trail is marked every tenth of a mile. The downside is you have to cross several major streets both to get there and while running the greenway itself, and it’s pretty hilly and a little windy, enough so that it would be difficult to do much in the way of real quality work out there. You could do it. You’d just have to adjust goal pace for the terrain and be careful when running fast that you didn’t miss one of the turns going through the neighborhoods and wind up off course (which could be bad - ha, ha).

Here’s a link to a map of just the greenway section - http://www.rvarc.org/maps/LickRun.pdf, and here's one with a few pics of the route - http://www.rvarc.org/greenways/lickrun.htm. Below is a pic of the elevation profile as recorded on my Garmin.