So first of all - I just ran 6 miles without stopping! Albeit slowly...the point is I made it!
And I did it in perhaps the most beautiful part of Atlanta I could have run. Seriously the whole time I was thinking, am I dreaming? Is this real?
Ok, a little backstory. So I have been doing really well, running about 4 times a week 3.1 miles or more. Lifting weights twice a week. Etc. But then, my birthday/Valentine's week rolled around. Veeeerrrrry hard to want to do anything when you are eating all the time & make fun plans to celebrate all week long. So this weekend I was really discouraged, b/c I had a long weekend (no work today! thank you presidents) and had not run Fri, Sat, or Sun! I felt like such a lazy bones. (or dundee bones as we kiwis like to call it) But today, I was like, I HAVE to run today. Kind of a do or die moment here. I have my first race this Sat and I still don't even know if I can run 6 miles without stopping! So I decided to run the Silver Comet Trail (or at least part of it, since it's 60 miles long and goes all the way to Alabama).
I get there and I'm like...hmm where do I park? where does the trail actually start? Everyone else seems to know what they're doing. There are a lot of bikers! (So I can't wait to take mine over there! maybe I will make "biking to Alabama" one of my life goals) I park. I stretch. I look up & down the paved trail. I still don't know which way to go. So I venture toward the restroom hut and there is thankfully a map. So I start running.
The trail is awesome. Flat. Paved. Wide. Mile Markers every so often. Friendly people, all sorts (bikers, dogwalkers, walkers, kids, older people, oh yeah and runners!). But the best part is you just don't feel like A. you are in the city. and B. you are working. It's enjoyable! Trees everywhere. Benches & rest areas every once in a while. Oh and awesome - bridges! You run over bridges! Like, old train track bridges. There is one point where I ran over the East/West Connector and looked back toward the East and thought, man, I have run very far! And then there is another point where you run under an old dark wooden bridge and the sound that is made when cars drive across is scary! But scary cool. I guess what it all boils down to for me is that this trail is interesting. There are so many things to take in & enjoy that you don't realize how far you are running or how long you've been gone. I ran the 6 miles in about an hour. Not bad. But it didn't feel like that long at all. All I could think about was how blue the sky was, how pretty the arch of tree boughs over the trail was, how cute that person's dog was, how neat this bridge looked, how serene that creek looked, how pretty the sound of it gurgling...
Ok I was channeling Thoreau there...point is the Silver Comet Trail is by far the coolest thing I have ever run on. It beats the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, and anywhere in Atlanta. In essence, it's just a paved trail through the woods. But it's a getaway, it's a mile & confidence booster, it's a secret. I love it!
And now I feel like this weekend wasn't a total waste, it was just a weekend of rest so I could conquer 6 miles of the Silver Comet Trail =)
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