Enger Tower Power

Date: Tuesday, November 27 (6:00PM)
Meet Location: 24th Ave W Parking lot (below Skyline Pkwy)
Activity: Running
Gear Required: Headlamp and trail shoes
Weather: It looks like it may be a bit cool & breezy


Post-Run Recap
Four of us for this slightly chilly Tuesday (Keven, Greg, Clint, and Dave). As usual, it doesn't take long to warm up when running, even on a cool winter night. We followed the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) after crossing the overpass adjacent to the parking lot. The trail had a light powdering of snow which is kind of nice for trail running because it softens impact slightly and clearly demarcate them.

This part of SHT weaves below Enger golf course's driving range, past an abandoned baseball field and basketball court and, after crossing back over Skyline Pkwy, eventually emerges in Enger Park. The hill running up to the park was the location of our first set of repeats. Four runners = four times up the hill, every runner taking the lead & setting the pace once. On the positive side, this hill wasn't like Rock Hill or the Chester Bowl hill from our previous get run.

Once complete with the first repeat, we moved on to Enger Tower itself, which was the original plan for the repeats. I can't remember if it was Greg or David that made the final call we would do the hill and the tower, but everyone was game in the end. Set one was running straight up and down. Sets two and three were running up a level then around the tower until we reached the top, resulting in some slight head spinning. Set four, the last one, was half a flight of one leg stair hops and the second half running it. This repeat was rewarded with an amazing night view of the City.

We then followed SHT down toward Superior St, but lost it for a portion and had to run on the streets until we were able to pick it up again. When we reached Superior St, it was time to start working back up. We took a wrong trail, which went a bit west of the SHT. The result was taking a more direct route back to the parking lot. The hills were pretty harsh because, unlike SHT, there weren't any switchbacks to catch your breath. By the time we reached the lot, everyone was certainly huffing!

I will try to remember to take a few pics next run if we have sufficient light for my camera phone. Since it is doubtful that anyone is as interested in a lengthy monologue!

Final note: when, in the future, we have more runners or runners of different levels, no one will get left behind, even if we break into more than one group. This could be fun for the repeats as well in that we could assemble teams for repeat relays.