Prospect Park Trails

After two weeks of alternating between holding steady and slowly increasing distance, my calves have finally started to adjust and I thought I was ready to jump to about three miles. So I laced up the minimus and decided to hit the trails. I biked to the park to conserve mileage so I could do as much of the distance as possible off road.

I parked by the Pavilion and headed East on the bridle path next to the main loop until an opening into the trails appeared. From then on, I just followed a trail until it ended or hit a road, then I backtracked until the last fork and kept going until the next end.

It was a little bit like running in a maze. I tried finding trails I'd explored last year but found them closed. I was worried I'd run out of trails too quickly but instead I found paths and arches I'd never seen.



Off-road Prospect Park seems to shift in shape as trees trick you into running in loops and making you go up and down until you feel you're in an area much bigger than the park. Also, it's so dense and quiet it's like you've left Brooklyn. Even though this was during the morning workout rush, I only saw a couple other runners on the trails. Both of them looked as giddy as I felt.



I might have to work on my self-portraiture skills if I'm going to keep this up. The shoes, the calves, the form were such a non-issue I was just having fun running and I was not looking forward to having to turn back. Since I'd decided to run for about thirty minutes I hadn't brought water with me.



The one fountain I found when a trail met the road failed me and I got lost and couldn't find my way out of the woods and back to where I had left my bike on time for my running cut-off. Instead of about three miles, I probably did about four and a half. I swear I didn't mean to!

When I came out of the woods I landed in off-leash central.


Which is exactly how I felt after this run.