A decade ago, there were perhaps 50 miles of greenway in the Triangle. Small stretches of mostly 1- and 2-mile paths that offered recreation for the immediate neighborhood, but not much more. Certainly nothing to throw the bikes on the roof rack and drive across town for, let alone rely on as a secondary transportation network for commuting to work or getting groceries.
Explore Wilmington — quickly — by foot; explore the Triad at 18 mph by bike; or take a mountain hike frequently interrupted by plunges into a cool mountain pools. Those are but three of your options for getting out and exploring North Carolina this weekend.
After Saturday’s BluePoints 5K at the Ballpark, I ran into Lew Borman milling about in the post-race/pre-awards-ceremony crowd. Borman hadn’t run — he was there supporting his son, Elliot — but he had the air of a man who had been exposed to race fever.
Monday (or in this case, since yesterday was the July 4 holiday, Tuesday) — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast, especially come summer. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy.
To help ease this trying transition from out-in-the-Sun-day to Mon-I-wish-I-were-back-in-the-sun-day, we’re running a new feature every Monday, at least during the summer, called 90-Second Escape. Essentially, it’s a 90-second mini-movie of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s out in the sun. Because there’s a good chance you might want to make such an escape yourself, we’ll include a resource list with each escape showing where and how to make it happen.
One thing I like about 5Ks: Like snowflakes, no two are alike. That’s not to say they don’t have similarities: they’re all 3.1 miles, for example (usually). This summer’s four-race BluePoints 5K Race Series, for instance, is turning out to be a very fast series.