It was time to find a new running route in Austin! Hook ’em, Gig ’em, whatever Texas says, it was time to run.

Janel and I ended up moving in May from the Downtown Austin area to a rental house in the South Austin community. So that meant that pretty much every run going forward was a new running route! It also meant I could play Tuba for a bunch of new neighbors too. Can’t say they will look forward to it.

Finding a new route consisted of zooming out on the maps app on my phone and looking for the nearest green areas. As I zoomed out of our neighborhood, I found a daycare center next to a neighborhood park. Score! It also had a running loop around it so that meant I potentially had a track to fantasize about running workouts on.

I laced up my shoes and decided to head that way. It was only about a half mile from our new place so I would be there in a (sweaty) jiffy.

As I ran towards the neighborhood park, I loved how our neighborhood had lots of huge trees because of my natural paleness year round. I had a chance to not get burnt as bad as I thought I would this summer. Plus all the yard art around was awesome to see too!

Once I got to the park, I was thrilled to see that there was a track! Even better, it was made up of dirt and rock so my knees would be able to take less of a beating than the pavement around our home. This was likely to become my typical run of going loops and loops around like a hamster loving its wheel.

Luckily, the track had a good amount of trees and a restroom stop built in! (See the blue portapotty in the back of the photo along the track). Maybe a future ultra attempt would be here? Hmmm…

As I continued running, I saw we also had another neighborhood park by us that included a pool and a few tennis courts. I ran up to see the details and if it was open to the public. Unfortunately, it was over $140/year for the pool which wasn’t that bad of a price but since I had started a business, money would be a little tight. That meant I better stick to the hose at home to cool down after runs.

One key feature in our new area was that it was extremely flat. I would not be getting hill workouts in anywhere nearby. I ran about 5 miles and a total elevation for the first run around the house and the gain totaled 20 feet. I wouldn’t say that is a compliant from my end. It’s just an excuse that I can say prevents me from becoming an Olympian. I was so close!

Very fun to see all the cool houses and at the tail end of my run, I found another green space that had a deer trail going through it. That would be the goal run for next week and some shade would be most welcome as we continue through the Texas summer season. My overall pace decreased from lack of running during moving time so hopefully I get more miles in per week in the new area, fingers crossed!

Happy running and hope you found a new fun running route around you!

Average Runner Paul