What were some of your favorite routes?
Mine:
- Any Mountain Run... Colyer Lake, Bear Meadows, Ski-Mont, Harry's Valley Road...
- Pine Barrens
- Houserville-Lemont
- Houserville-Airport-Toftrees
- Any run ending up 4 Hills
"Ski-Mont" now has a par 3 course... Hmmm, Clark!
Colyer Lake, from the A-Frame.
When I was in grad school at the Human Performance Lab at Ball State U. we had a number of names for differnt runs. One was Dead Dog Road Run, because along the way a large dog was hit by a vehicle and lay close to the roadside. Over several months when we ran that route we could observe the decomposition process. Even a year later when remains had disappeared it still was known at Dead Dog Rd.
ReplyDeleteAnother road run was along Morrison Road west of campus, but it became known to us out of staters as Martian Road, because of the way Hoosiers pronounced the word. The third run which looped through the Muncie ghetto became known as the Ghetto Seven.
Muncie was also the site of one of my most frightening long runs. It was around Halloween time and I was on a ten miler through the countryside, passing a cornfield that had been cut down, and old stalks and leaves were still on the ground well dried out. I heard a rustling in the field and looked over and saw hundreds of rats swarming through that field. It became a very fast run at that point. I could only think of the movie 'Willard' when I saw all of those rats coming toward me.
Never had any fun with the naming of our Happy Valley Runs that I could remember. They were all straight-forward descriptive names. Scariest we had was "Switch-Back" which was part of the Bear Meadows area of the Mountains. The newest members of our group particularly like that one!
ReplyDeleteBack in the late 60's we used to have the Observatory Run, of approximately 8.5 miles. It was an out and back from Rec Hall across campus, down the hills out past East Halls and the dairy barns to the Observatory. Since we didn't have watches, it was always unofficial. I had the unofficial record for a year or two until Greg Fredericks took it away. I think he posted a mid 43s time.
ReplyDeletePhil Peterson 1970
What about "North Choak Lane", that was a renaming or have you suppressed that memory?
ReplyDeleteWhat about "North Choak Lane", that was a renaming or have you suppressed that memory?
ReplyDelete@Phil We called that run the Deer Pens/Observatory Run. After seeing the exposed brains of experimental deer, I never liked running past there. And the last time I ran to the Observatory there was a horrible smelly mist in the air. Later, I learned that it was an experiment on the trees and crops in the area and no one was supposed to be exposed without proper gear. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop!
ReplyDelete@Harry I don't remember that at all. Are you sure that wasn't until after I was gone? It's either that, or my mind is indeed "going".
Dave - Seriously you don't recall running from rec hall up 322 to North Oak Lane and doing repeat hill intervals?
DeleteThe standard Rec Hall 3-mile warm-up loop for Indoor Track and some XC workouts. And a similar but slightly shorter one for cool downs.
ReplyDeleteThere were also the same type for Beaver Stadium track workouts, included passing by the nuclear facility and the road by the front of the outdoor track.
The By-Pass "10" Miler (lotsa time trials too).
Don't recall a name, but a standard one from Rec Hall took you down 322 to a farm behind Hills Plaza and came out near OUR Hampton Inn then up through fields which brought you across the road and into the field that is between Bryce Jordan and Horace's House.
Of course, there were also clothing-optional loops as well.
KKOB80
I remember the North Oak Lane workout very well. It was one of my favorite workouts considering it was a hill workout. I don't remember the catchy name "North Choak Lane"! I could actually trace the route we used to get there in my mind as long as it is still there.
ReplyDelete