Thoughts on a Saturday Run

Saturday mornings are becoming my time for long runs. Today I did a nine mile route down Summit Avenue from Cretin Avenue to the Cathedral and back. Some thoughts and obervations:

1. There's a little park on Summit Avenue and Ramsey Street that overlooks downtown Saint Paul and the river. It offers an amazing view early in the morning.

2. A lot of people go to the Cathedral around 8 a.m. on Saturday for mass.

3. When you are running and thirsty, all of the sprinklers going off present quite a temptation. I think I would have been shunned by the other runners if I tried to get a drink.

4. I ran by the Governor's Mansion, but didn't see T-Paw. He's probably off giving a speech in New Hampshire or something.

5. A long run in the morning makes Chris sleepy all afternoon.

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Saturday Morning Run

It's a beautiful Saturday morning here in Saint Paul. The kind of morning that makes me very happy that I live in this wonderful neighborhood in this great city.

I wanted to do a longer run this morning, but I wasn't sure where to go. I'm pretty bored with my usual routes. After checking around various websites that allow people to share running routes, I decided it would be fun to run on Summit Avenue. I've driven it many times, but never walked it or run it. I picked a route from Cleveland Ave (near St. Thomas) to Dale Street and back which was around 6 miles.

View Summit Ave Run 6 mile in a larger map

I'm telling you it was a fantastic run. Perfect weather. Sunny, but with lots of shade on the route. There were other runners out, but not too many. There was almost no traffic. Days like today make running worthwhile. They cancel out all of those crappy runs on days when you don't want to be out there.

While running, I noticed a lot of houses for sale on Summit. I wondered if this was just normal turnover or were these people who had overreached during the boom times and were now being forced to cut back due to the recession? I saw a lady in front of one of these houses watering her plants. I was going to ask her if they had purchased too much house and now had to cut their losses, but she had a hose and looked like she wouldn't be afraid to use it.

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