Titan Exposed!

Well, after a good run Saturday, the weather turned foul again. Not really cold as far as temperature, but the wind was really blowing putting the "real feel" temps down to the low 20's F. The wind finally let up today and I was able to do 5.6 miles with the temp in the low 30's F.

Bring on the photos!

Now for the real reason for this post! After the run last Saturday, Maria and I headed out to the park after church on Sunday. The weather was still pretty good so we brought our cameras. So here we go with my Titan exposé:

In the beginning...
The only real tricky part of my runs is right here. After leaving my bloc, I have about 1/4 mile on this fairly busy street. The sidewalk is nice and wide, but you'd never know it since its used as a parking lot!
After dodging the pedestrians, the cars, and the dogs, I have to cross one big street at a traffic light and then enter the park.



The Park Entrance...

After surving 1/4 mile of urban jungle, the park entrance awaits. You can see the puddles, which are due to the remainder of last weeks snow melting away.
The smooching teenagers are usually found on the park benches, but as you can see - you can run into them everywhere.

To the Lake we go

After about 1/2 mile along the park walkways I usually take this set of stairs down to the lake level.
There are several sets of stairs and "ramps" down to the lake, and I usually do some stairs during the runs for "fun".
I know - I'm a sick-o.



Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water....

Is that Simon & Garfunkel in my head? I wonder what brought that on? Anyway....This bridge divides the north half of the lake with the south half. You can go up stairs, cross the bridge and go back down another set of stairs to stay on one side or the other.
Or you can go under the bridge and run the whole lake. Total distance around the lake is 2 miles (1.1 for the south and .9 for the north).


The South Side....

From the bridge, we are now looking at the South end of the lake. The only interesting part of this section is the unpaved portion of the trail located on the far right side of this pic. When the snow melts, it turns into a muddy mess.

Due to the lack of a restaurant here, there are usually less people on this side.



The North Side

The next couple of pics are taking on the north end of the lake. This end has the highest concentration of people. This is also where I run during wet weather to avoid the mud at the south end. This first shot is from the bridge. The trees in the middle of the pic are on an island in the lake. There is a small bridge to walk to it.

This next pic shows the center of activity around the lake. There is a bar/restaurant here with lots of outdoor seating along waters edge and on a permanently moored boat which you can see in the distance.
There were quite a few people there on Sunday, with the temp over 50 F. I may have to detour around this area in the Summer!!
We have not tried eating here yet, although we enjoyed a good meal at Casa Rustica, another large restaurant in a another area of the park.

This pic shows the extreme northern end of the lake. You can see the different levels of walkways here. There are acutally 3 levels in this section of the park.
Casa Rustica, the restaurant we ate at on Friday is located roughly behind me when I took this photo.

So, who's that cutie?

If you haven't guessed, here is Maria, my daughter. She was my photography assistant Sunday. This pic shows her with a bridge that connects an island in the background.