A jogging life#
--Late December view south from the high NW corner of Arvada Blunn Reservoir loop--
My jogging affinity began in eigth grade when an adventurous, happy-go-lucky schoolmate and friend, Tom, declared we should go jogging as a form of Saturday entertainment (this was, I believe, the most benign and danger-free activity Tom ever instigated). Having no athletes or fitness-minded role models in my immediate family, it was a new idea to me, but I had nothing better to do, and the price -- nothing -- was well aligned with my budget. Happily for me, I found I enjoyed it and suddenly noted there seemed to be a fraction of the population in all places who jogged about the town and countryside daily with the tacit approval of the public. And so it began for me: a daily activity that improved fitness, costed nothing, and gave me license to have some time alone.
With only occasional gaps over the decades, jogging has been a valued habit and refuge. Though I have taken reasonable precautions, I still count myself lucky to be carrying on -- injury free -- into my graying years. When life or travels take me anywhere, I almost always pack running shoes, and I like to think I connect in a novel way with a place by "jogging it", especially if I'm able to do so multiple days or to return there in later years for more.
At present, my home jogging turf is the city- and county-maintained trails near the west edge of Arvada, Colorado (west suburban Denver area), but below is the list of places I have enjoyed jogging multiple times over the decades. I'll include and maybe rotate some corresponding pictures below the list. The list is not chronological.
- Oak Creek Village streets, Sedona, Arizona
- City streets of Las Cruces, New Mexico
- Snyder Mountain area roads, Evergreen, Colorado
- Highland Lakes area, Divide, Colorado
- Congress Park neighborhood, Denver, Colorado
- Clear Creek trail, Golden and Jefferson County, Colorado
- Reservoir loop trail, Boulder Reservoir, Boulder, Colorado
- Lakeshore UW campus paths, Madison, Wisconsin
- City trails, Middleton, Wisconsin
- City streets and rural roads, Viroqua, Wisconsin
- City streets and rural roads, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
- Northeast area streets and parks, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Luther College campus area, Decorah, Iowa
- Pentagon and Crystal City area, Arlington, Virginia
- City streets and trails, Los Gatos, California
- City streets and trails, San Bruno, California
- City streets, Rochester, New York
- City streets, Wiscasset, Maine
- Manhattan borough, New York, New York
- Old campus area, Princeton, New Jersey
- Promenade des Anglais and vicinity, Nice, France
- Promenade du Soleil and vicinity, Menton, France
- Sillon Beach waterfront path and vicinity, Saint-Malo, France
- Loop on either side of Seine near the Louvre, Paris, France
- Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, France
- Rhone River embankment walking path and old city streets, Arles, France
- Regents Park, London, England
- City streets and trails, Frisco, Texas
- Convention Center and Disneyworld areas, Orlando, Florida
--Luxembourg Gardens center circle--
--Luxembourg Gardens tree-lined southern entry--
--Saint-Malo waterfront path view of Sillon Beach and the English Channel sunset--
--Promenade des Anglais (Nice) from a East-end vantage point--
--Promenade du Soleil viewed from Menton's high-perched cemetery--
--St. Joseph Cemetery in Las Cruces (Organ Mountains in background) provided a peaceful turnaround loop for a downtown jogging route--
--Rhone River embankment walking path in Arles, France--
--View up the canyon from the western terminus of the Clear Creek Canyon trail (between Golden and Idaho Springs, Colorado)--