Frisco Greenway Run

AM: 9 miles
10 mins. core
PM: Travel

A few days before heading to Joplin, I sent a message out to Kimi Shank, a Missouri Southern runner (technically a former runner, since she just graduated). I know Kimi peripherally after having competed against her this year both indoors and outdoors, and at Nationals I'd mentioned that I might be in touch with her about meeting up to run when I was in town. As it turns out, she has since moved to Kansas City, but she hooked me up with the contact info of her former coach. And that's how Jordan and I ended up parking at the Joplin fire station at 6:30am on Sunday morning, slightly groggy but nonetheless excited to run with a few new peeps. The reason for parking at the fire station was that it's adjacent to a gravel, shaded, mostly flat trail called the Frisco Greenway. It runs almost four miles in one direction, and for the life of me I can't understand why I've never known this was here before. Countless miles of running along main thoroughfares and down hilly back roads could've been avoided over the years I've spent visiting family here had I known about the trail. Oh well, at least I know now.

As for the run, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It's always nice to run with new people in new areas, as the combination of the two somehow makes the miles pass twice as quickly. Jordan and I spent most of the run with Jamie, the coach, and Ashley, a distance runner who just missed out on making All-American in the steeple at Nationals. Both of them were super nice and amenable to geeking out with running talk. Though I'm not sure when I'll be back in Joplin, I definitely plan on hooking up with these two again. Good times were had by all.