Distance: 14 miles
Effort: Moderate
Body: Fair
Weather: Sunny/balmy
After a 7 a.m. meeting, I headed out from my hotel, which is located right on the Mississippi River, about 1/2 mile from the French Quarter. I ran though the warehouse district to St. Charles Avenue, which is a long, straight road with a wide median and streetcars running down the middle. St. Charles runs through the Garden District, with its tall live oak trees and antebellum mansions.
You'd think that there would be a path/sidewalk running alongside the streetcar tracks, but you'd be wrong. People just run down the middle of the tracks, as did I. Whenever a streetcar was approaching, I'd just jump to the next track over and keep running. The nice thing was that the singletrack path between the rails had a soft, yet packed sand/dirt surface...really nice on the feet.
I followed St. Charles about five miles, past Loyola and Tulane Universities and the Audubon Zoo. Where the avenue took a hard right in front of the levees separating the Mississippi River from the Garden District, I found a bike path atop the levee and followed that back in the direction of my hotel until the path ended. From there, I ran on sidewalks along a number of side streets about a block from the river through poor neighborhoods and industrial areas. It's too bad the city and neighborhoods along this section are so separated from the river. Design-wise, it sucks that people can't access such a desirable resource.
The weather this a.m. was sunny and warm...warm enough to run shirtless and sweat! Hard to believe it was 20 degrees and snowing when I left Denver yesterday.
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