Running for The Hills

Very soon after I arrived in Hazard I found out there was a rapidly approaching 5K the I could participate in.  It is appropriately named "The Run For The Hills 5K."  Since it will be held October 6th, I went ahead and started training.  Since I didn't exercise all summer while at ASP, and had only just started working out again during the month of August, training is necessary.  But once I started going for runs here I quickly realized that getting back in shape was not going to be the only problem.  As you could probably guess, there are lots of hills here, even more than in good old Chapel Hill.  Another problem is the Coal Trucks that frequently drive through the area at very high rates of speed.  These are a problem when I run on the main roads, not only are they scary, but they also tend to kick up a lot of dirt and dust from the side of the road.  So I decided to try the back/more residential roads.  Please googlemap downtown Hazard, so you can get an idea of the maze of roads.  Finding my way around the windy roads which usually are missing street signs isn't too bad though really, I kind of enjoy the adventure.  The real problem with the more residential roads is the Appalachian dogs.  Any person running (to them) looks like a fun chasing game just waiting to start.  So I endured lots of barks- some behind fences and others not.  As I keep running, I'm learning which roads are runner friendly and which ones to avoid.

But my real purpose in writing this post is to share the good side of my Hazard runs.  Not only are they helping me to find my way around, but also I am able to notice things that I otherwise wouldn't (when driving).  My discovery yesterday was the Bobby Davis Park- an oasis in the middle of Hazard.  It was a small, but welcome sight.  Even though I'm living in the mountains, Hazard sprawls out for quite a ways and since I live right in the heart of downtown, I sometimes miss having green space around.  Here are pictures of the park...

A post on my Buildcorps/HHCK training from last week coming soon...