Interstate highways are a wonder for getting us from Point A to Point B
They are lousy at helping is get to know Point B. For that, you need to lace up your shoes and hit the sidewalks and side streets.
Karen and I are regular and serious runners. We usually run six days a week, and challenge each other to go farther and faster. When we are in new places, we love to explore them on foot.
Running around a new town has so many benefits. You get the flavor of different neighborhoods, and development patterns. You absorb the architecture. You find local parks.
We’ve actually signed up and paid for running tours in five cities: Paris, Prague, Annapolis, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. Karen wrote about the domestic city tours here.
I’ve had a motto for years: ‘Random Goals; Obsessively Met.’ I track my miles in a journal – and have run at least 100 miles a month for 135 consecutive months — or more than 11 years. Hitting that marker is absolutely a random goal.
Karen has now started tracking the number of states she runs in each year.
We started our 2023 Prufrock journey with Karen having run in six states so far: Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Delaware.
She (and we) has now added Ohio and Missouri.
In Columbus, OH, we ran out the door of the home of our friends Paul and Anne Marie, who live a mile from the Olentangy Trail. It was lovely, and packed with plenty of runners and bikers. We went fast.
Then we drove more than six hours to St. Louis. Our Sunday run was around the Gateway Arch, through downtown and along the river.
Here’s what I learned about St. Louis: it has fantastic architecture and civic pride. There is a major commitment to preserving and telling history – from the Louisiana Purchase to the Dred Scott decision.
But there are warts: we couldn’t get to the Riverfront Trail because of detours and roadblocks around decrepit warehouses and homeless encampments. The whole stretch of industrial waterfront north of the casino is tremendously blighted. At one point, I saw a few cars parked around a building and thought that the signs of life indicated the point where we could get on the trail. Instead, it was bunch of junkies who were getting high.
I write these observations without malice or agenda. Within an hour, we saw the best of what St. Louis has to offer a visitor, and the tremendous challenges facing any American city grappling with economic woes, racism and social ills.
Over the next month or so, Karen will likely add a dozen more states to her random list. As will I. We will do almost every run together. She needs me as a companion; my sense of direction is better.
I’m glad to be needed.
