Ankeny, IA

Gay Lea Wilson Trail

Run Time: 59:08 + 2-minute kick

This was an unexpected find. I was planning to run at a local high school, but there was track practice. The middle school track across the street was all locked up. A paved trail around a lake on the nearby community college campus looked promising, but it was all permit parking. There was an overpass right by the hotel. It looked like a reclaimed railroad. I drove back a different way from the schools and saw it was a newly paved path.

There was room to run alongside the trail most of the way. A few hikers, a few bikes, but mostly empty. Once I got away from the main road the hotel was on, it was primarily wooded. The trail ran past some wetlands. It actually diverged from the old railroad path, which I tried to take, but that trail was a little overgrown. It had probably been a walking path before they put in the new one.

These urban trail runs are a crapshoot. Since this trail was newly paved, it was safe. Safely is a concern. To the north, the trail ran past some old homeless encampments, as well as a sketchy mobile home park. Fortunately, the ground water had created a moat on both sides of the path. I never felt like I was in peril, but it is not a path I would run after dark.

Most of my meals on this trip were home leftovers, which was a pleasant change. Barb sent me with St. Patrick’s Day corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots (enough for 2 meals); cajun pasta; Graydon’s Crossing omelette; taco meat, and chile verde. I bought some snacks for the daytime and no dinners. Breakfasts were hotel freebies (other than the omelette).

I have found that I prefer to not eat a large lunch when I am driving between sales calls. I usually will eat a meat stick and some chips at some point during the day, maybe a cookie as well, or a macaroon bar. This leads to pronounced hunger in the afternoon. If I run after getting to the hotel, I am really hungry by the time I eat dinner, which leads to eating too much, usually. The leftovers strategy mitigated that effect slightly.

Next week I am on the road in North Dakota, with outside temperatures down to below zero, so running will be on the treadmill only, unfortunately, if at all. I was glad to sneak this trail run in when it looked like all of my options were depleted.