I went for a run at the park a few weeks ago (before they put up that fence) and paid the price. I hadn’t done a lick of exercise since the new baby. Okay, so she’s not that new anymore, but she hasn’t hit the one year mark yet so I feel like I can still claim her as my exercise exemption. In any case, my pitiful twenty minute run left me hacking some major spittle and gave me a bad head cold. I wasn’t back to my normal self for a week. Maybe the exercise gods were trying to tell me to wait, just a little bit longer.
Back in the old days, I used to run around the “track” at the park. I know it’s not a real track per se, but it looks to be about a quarter mile loop and has that hillclimb (okay, slight incline) at one end that makes me feel like I’m trail running. No, it’s not exactly Mt. Si, and yes, I’m obviously not much of a runner, but even wannabes like me still like to feel the burn. The park track was also great for prenatal exercise. I could visualize the countdown to B day by the length of my walks – somewhere during the third trimester, 3 miles whittled down to 2, and then towards the end I found myself waddling a twenty minute mile.
My husband thinks it’s weird that I like to run around a track. He likens it to a hamster wheel. I’m not sure if there’s some hidden message in there. He, on the other hand, prefers to take more scenic routes and take in the sights during his excursions. I think that works better when you actually run more than a mile. For short-timers like me, running around a track is somehow both motivating and calming. When I’m dragging my ass, I like knowing how many laps I have left to go, and then when I’m feeling it, I can see how many extra laps I can push for. Sometimes I even sprint to the finish, trying to channel my inner Usain Bolt. He’s got to be in there, somewhere.
The other thing that makes me run faster is the dark side of the loop. As much as I enjoy running at the park, I wish it had better lighting in the evenings. Wallingford is a relatively safe neighborhood, but I feel you should always be cautious and alert of your surroundings, especially when the sun goes down, which is earlier and earlier these days. So I always look for running companions – fellow runners or walkers, families playing soccer, folks throwing Frisbee, and people playing with their dogs. If there’s a quorum, it’s usually a good sign. Perhaps additional lighting will be part of the 2010 Playground Improvement program. Maybe that would attract a few more tracksters and folks who generally enjoy a good evening stroll, even around a track. It would be great to have a little more light and some extra company.
It is great that you enjoy the path that Friends of Wallingford Playfield and Parks added to WP in 2003. This design element, a walking path with multiple benches for sitting and viewing, was not present before and was added as a means to include features for use by our neighborhood seniors, many of whom still live nearby at University House and are frequent path walkers. Community surveys during the community design process determined that seniors were an underserved population at the park. As you have discovered, the walking path also functions as a place for light-use running. It was not designed as a running path and will not hold up to heavy use. We tried not to duplicate features in the design for Wallingford Playfield that were present nearby such as the full-blown running path nearby at Green Lake.
We also discussed lighting during our many design meetings. As you can imagine, there are pros and cons. The balance selected by the community was to provide enough lighting for routes to walk through the park after dark, between Densmore on the north, to the East entrance, the SE entrance, the South entrance and the SW entrance. Lighting was not provided along the west and northwest portions of the park out of courtesy because that part of the park is very close to homes and also because Parks experts informed us that lighting can exacerbate illicit activity, which may seem counter-intuitive.
The park is a great community resource and we worked very hard to improve and add to the multi-purpose features that encourage shared cooperative use. Providing a place for our neighborhood seniors to walk, or sit to converse and watch the activity was an important element. Thanks for your entertaining reports about the park!
Greg Flood
Friends of Wallingford Playfield
Thanks for the info — and all your hard work — Greg!
Thanks Greg – great information! BTW – do you have a specific contact at the parks dept that you could send me? I’m looking to get an update on a few things. Thanks.