OKC River Trail & Other Shenanigans

AM: 89 mins.
~12.5 miles
Wind: 13-15mph
PM: 60 mins. tennis

Scotty, Jordan and I were out the door and on the road early this morning for a field trip. Instead of hitting up the roads around Norman, we opted to venture up to the city for some new turf. Our decision was largely aided by the fact that Lake Draper, our preferred soft surface option, was still wet from the recent rain, and also that there was an international-distance (whatever that means) triathlon taking place in the city. We were hoping to spectate for a bit and let the competitive buzz carry us through our run.


The boathouse, where all the action happened

The drive took at most 20 minutes, and before I knew it we were parked at the Bass Pro Shop just a few hundred meters away from the triathlon start...or so we thought. Turns out those meters were "as the crow flies" or, in our case, "as the cyclists ride," but we were forced to take a rather roundabout route to circumnavigate both the interstate on-ramp and the influx of competitors barreling through on two wheels. As a result, almost four miles of the run had passed by the time we made it to the boathouse. This is where all the action was, so we hung out for a few minutes to observe. After that we headed out on the nearby river trail (no idea which river), which I'd never run on before, so even though the bike path was paved it was still a nice diversion from our typical routes.


A section of the bike path along the river

Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to mention this, but the air temperature was--dare I say--bordering on COLD this morning! As in, a few clicks under 50 degrees when we woke up. Definitely not the norm for mid-May and not what we were expecting, but it sure was a pleasant treat. As a result, the entirety of our run took place under sunny skies and pleasant temperatures. It was so nice that I didn't even complain when the wind nearly blew me backwards on the return trip, or when I got dropped by the boys halfway through the run.

By the time our morning of running and spectating was over, our party consisted of four hungry athletes (did I mention Carrot Top joined us? Yeah, he did. I could add that at the top of the blog but I'm lazy.). Though one would expect our options in downtown OKC to be plentiful, we opted to go for the sure thing and patronized the IHOP a few blocks over. Dad, I know your eyes are welling with tears of pride as you read this.

Not wanting the amazingly gorgeous day to go to waste, Jordan and I suited up again in the afternoon and headed back over to the park for some tennis action. While we're still far from stellar--hell, we're not even adequate at this point--we both agreed that our quality of play was markedly increased from the previous day (which coincided with a decrease in our quantity of shouted obscenities). After two days in a row of this foreign mode of exercise, it's almost guaranteed I'll be unable to walk tomorrow.

Oh, and have I mentioned it was a gorgeous day? What a perfect end to the weekend, and a great beginning to the summer.