Kansas City!
Two obstacles in my way:
1. They make you pay $5 to visit the gym (WTF)
2. I’m in a strange city and the 5K suggested on WalkJogRun is really confusing, and has a very high probability that I’ll get lost
So I’m walking around my hotel room, searching for an answer and talking big “Yeah, I’m gonna go RUN in this strange city, YEAH” on gtalk. I read that the front desk offers running routes. Yay! Problem solved.
Get said map at front desk. It’s actually really cute and fits in my pocket. Random older guy compliments me on my Nike +iPod and tells me it reminds him he forgot to pack his own as we try to escape this random arrangements of flat, solid glass walls which involved some Indiana Jones type trickery to open them and walk through.
I chose running route through Penn Valley Park… A living memorial to WWI and early America, complete with Museum and rather large dedication statue atop said museum.
Or more accurately, Home to the Liberty Memorial and its World War I Museum, the 176-acre park was developed in 1904 on land through which the Santa Fe Trail had passed (the grounds feature such commemorative statues such as the Scout, the Pioneer Mother Memorial and the Hiker).
The second part of my run took me through another part of this memorial area, along a park with some really famous statue with a guy slumped over a horse. Unfortunately there were a bunch of tents and gates around for some celebration. I had to stick on the running trail right next to all this glowing vegetation. All I recognized were honeysuckles, so I’m sure whatever I ran by resulting in some of my wheezing for the rest of the afternoon. Below is the view from the east side of the park (or what I think was the east side, I could be wrong), where I stopped to gather myself because a bunch of mobile light fixture carts were parked ON THE RUNNING TRAIL, uh, thanks guys. But I looked over and saw this, and it was nice again 🙂
Run, run, run… Stop, take picture, jog, run…I caught this next photo of the museum from behind during kilometer 3 with my Blackberry.
That being said, I’d like to add my arms were shaking so much I had to bend down and set the bottom of my phone on this small street to get it to stay still. I also almost got ran over by a car trying to do this. WTF was this car during on this running trail in the middle of this huge park?! I should also add that there’s A LOT of stairs to get up to the top of this thing on the side of the park that faces my hotel, a lot of stairs that were definitely a bad idea putting into the first kilometer of my run. Which then made some of it a walk. Channel “Eye of the Tiger” starting now…
There’s a pretty flat overlook atop the museum where that really tall statue is. That’s where I stopped to take this picture of downtown. My hotel is off the right somewhere.
Also, I’m REALLY glad I went running. I went downstairs to cash in my free wine tickets where I found my coworker. Who then told me that he’d been invited to this dinner upstairs for Texans. Well YEEHAW, sign me up for a prime rib dinner on someone else’s tab!
