Run 155 - Around Castlerock Park and then some

March 19, 2024

It’s a Tuesday and I’d usually be on a 7-miler with Jerry but he’s still gone so it’s back to the Heights.  The weather perfect, about 60° and only a very slight breeze.  Here’s the plan:

I parked in the south lot of Castlerock Park.

The streets in this area have a Revolutionary War theme.

Some nice yard art.

Some work being done on this one.

Some of these views could be Anywhere, USA.

There were barking.

I love what the houses in these next two photos have done.  Yellow and purple.  That’s the way to spice up the neighborhood.

Neptune is a dead end with lots of little dead ends.

A city park run under the power lines.

Rather than run back up Neptune, I found a trail back to Governors.

I had to go down Senators to pick up a couple streets.

This is from the end of Judicial.

A fancy house.  I know someone who used to live here.

A view from the end of Aquarius.

Slogging back up the hill on Senators.

Castlerock Middle School.

Looking northwest from Governors.

Governors and Wicks.

This apartment complex off Wicks and Governors had lots of little dead end streets to run.

I finished up at the corner of Wicks and Nutter.  I headed back across the park to where I’d left the car.

I’ll admit that the last mile was tough.  It was getting warm out and I’m not used to that yet.  A good run though and scratched lots of Heights streets off my map.

Run 154 - Early morning in the Heights

March 16, 2024

Shelley opined me for our usual 6.2 mile Saturday morning run but instead of meeting downtown we met in the Heights to work on more of these streets.  The drive there rewarded me with a great sunrise.

I made up the route map in two parts since I wasn’t sure how long each would take.  We ended up doing both.

We started across from Sandstone Elementary School and headed north to Wicks.

We got distracted looking to the eas

t

The first part of the route wound through street after street of apartment buildings.  A quiet neighborhood.

Once we looped back to where we’d parked we grabbed a drink and shed some layers before continuing on.  The next neighborhood was all single family homes.

We saw a nice old Valiant.

We wrapped it up with 6.19 miles on the clock.  Shelley is training for a half marathon and took off for another couple miles but I had to head off to my car club meet up.  Here are the stats.

Run 153 - More of the Heights

March 12, 2024

I usually do a 7.2 mile run with Jerry on Tuesdays but he’s vacationing in Panama so I went off to the Heights to work on some more streets.

I parked at Walsh park, a nice city park in the middle of a neighborhood.

The run was, well, just a run.  All residential and not much in the way of interesting architecture.  People are at work and kids are in school so very quiet.

Here is Aronson and Governors

A tight fit.

On Aronson looking west, just a block or so froom Governors.

Another view of Walsh park.  This is from the west side on Toole Court.

At Babcock and Nutter.

One neighborhood had apartments across from single family homes, the only rentals I saw on this route.

There are lots of these sidewalk shortcuts.

Edgerton Park.  I was taking a shortcut through here to get to Dixon but sort of went too far to the left and ended up with a tour of the park.

Eaton Circle.

That was it, 7.54 miles.  It was perfect temperature, in the mid-50s, but I was out of gas after 6.5 and was ready to be done.

Run 152 - Back in the Heights after a Break

February 26, 2024

It’s been over 7 weeks since my last entry for this project and I have a pretty good excuse for why I took a break.  I had surgery on January 9 so running had to wait. They said to take it easy for 5 weeks and I made it 3 weeks before I got back to running but have taken it easy.  I was given clearance to go back to normal but hadn’t brought this project back on my radar until today.

I decided to go back to Billings Heights and start working off more segments there.  It’s hard to get motivated because, well, the neighborhoods are, for the most part, boring.  The houses all look a like, mostly snouts or split-entry, and the only thing that makes it interesting is that the streets are not laid out on a grid.  Having and following a map is required.

I made up a route and tried to eliminate so many duplicates but this is what I ended up with:

I drove to the Oasis water park and parked there.  I got started about 11:10am.

Here’s a house that goes against what I just said about all the houses here.

Looking south on Aronson by Camel.

Mecca and Tabriz.  Most of the streets in this section have names related to the Middle East or Africa.

I ran for quite a ways and then stopped for this photo on Aronson, approaching Sahara.

Some serious power running here on Nubias Place.

I did a very sort out-and-back on Bazaar where it meets Hilltop.

I know that pop-outs on recreational vehicles are thing but on houses they are an architectural abomination.

Near the end of the trail, actually, the east end of Caravan near the water park.

It was pleasant enough with a cool wind ahead of the promise of snow later.