Art Museum Greenway 5.5 Miler: 10/24

The Green way path I ran along and one of the exhibits

Today's run was much better than yesterday's, and I can  tell that I have become a stronger runner.  My endurance has improved more than I expected it would by this point in the year.  I live about two blocks from one of Raleigh's best Greenway's.  It starts at Meredith College goes through the NC Museum of Art Park and goes straight out to Umstead park where I run on Saturday's.  I am not to the point where I can run all of the to Umstead and back.  I felt as if I could run to the museum and back, which is 5.5 miles of hills -- really good sized hills.  I never gave any thought to just doing a 4 mile out and back because I had my mind made up to do the 5.5 lollipop route around the museum once I ran through the art park.   The greenway is paved and open to bikes, so you need to watch out as I found out today.  I was actually hit by a kid on a bicycle.  Luckily his front tire just struck the bottom of my shoe as I was lifting my foot off the ground.  I more startled me than anything, but it did make me jumpy for the entire return.  The kid was part of a group of something like six kids and three dad's all on bikes, who would pass on the up hills and would pass me on the down hills, but if anything they actually made me run a bit faster, so I can't complain.

The Rodin Sculpture Garden which I can see on my run

I used to ride this greenway on my bicycle as well, and I would see runners on it, but I never thought that one day I would be one of them.  I was really kind of a small personal milestone.  I was pretty sure that I would be able to do it but wasn't sure just how bad it would hurt.  I knew that I would at least enjoy running through the exhibits, which make the art park one Hiro and I's favorite places to picnic.  Today was a bid windy, but it was wonderful to feel the breeze as I ran through the park as I began my return trip.  This run was just a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  I was going to time this run, but not run for a certain time, but I messed up the stop watch on my I-pod.  It didn't matter anyway.  All I wanted to know was just how long it took to run the course at a normal pace.  After I finished I felt good and wasn't winded, it was just a nice little run.

The new wing of the Museum that opened this year with the Rodin's