Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Cowtown Jaunt

~57 mins.

8 miles

This morning I awoke at 5am (that's 4am Central, for anyone who can't do the math) and immediately headed to the airport. I had no idea how busy things were going to be on the morning before Thanksgiving--the busiest travel day of the year at one of the biggest airports in the country--and I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to spare before my 7:30am flight. To my pleasant surprise, everything went incredibly smoothly, and I even had time to read a magazine before boarding the plane and settling in for a catnap.

After a brief flight of just over two hours (which felt even shorter when contrasted with my day-long cross-country travels of the previous few weeks), we landed at DFW. I met Jordan just outside my baggage claim and we headed to the rental car center to procure our luxurious vehicle for the weekend. For a mere $7/day I upgraded us to a Jetta, and I think it's safe to say this is the nicest rental car I've ever had. Sure beats the hell out of that minivan. Anyway, we drove to Ft. Worth to get in a run before driving to my parents' house in Nowhere, East Texas (otherwise known as Mt. Pleasant). A good friend of mine lives along the Trinity River trail, so we stowed our belongings and changed at his house and then headed out the door. I had a loop in mind that I thought was somewhere between 7 and 9 miles and would give Jordan a nice sampling of Ft. Worth neighborhoods.

View of downtown Ft. Worth from the river trail
As it turns out, the loop ended up being almost exactly 8 miles. We headed east on the river trail for a few miles, then crossed a bridge and meandered through the posh neighborhoods around the Colonial Country Club. From there we ran toward Overton Park and then hopped on the bike path for a bit. We crossed Bellaire and continued along the trail until we reached the low water crossing opposite the side of the river we'd started on. I opted to cross on the stepping stones, while Jordan wussed out and took the concrete dam. We jogged the remaining mile back to Cabe's place and then did a few strides in the grass near his house to shake out the legs.
Low water crossing on the Trinity River at sunset

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