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Blazing a trail around Annapolis
By JOE SHAFRAN, For The Capital
Last Friday morning, in the fog, I jogged on down to the opening of the new U.S 50 / MD 2 highway interchange in my Annapolis neighborhood. I had known that on the blueprints of that massive interchange, there was to be a runner, hiker, biker trail and I wanted to make sure it was there as promised. Sure enough, it is ,almost. They will have to wait until spring to lay the blacktop. Right now it’s a stone base. It is yet another link to what I believe they will call the South Shore trail that conceivably can take you from BWI Marshall, through Odenton and then loop down to South Anne Arundel County someday. It is being constructed in segments and may take a few years but it is being done. This 50/2 highway project, conceived many years ago, cost close to $18 million, $10 million of which was contributed by Anne Arundel County according to the Maryland State Highway Administration and in talking with some of County Executive Janet Owens staff, I get the impression, that when Mrs. Owens signed off on that $10 million dollars, three years ago, she made darn sure that the trail was in the plans .And you can be sure that madame Executive was right there to see how that 10 million was spent. I note that these days, when any new highway is built in this County, there is to be an adjacent trail. This new trail section, almost a half mile in length, will terminate at Sommerville Rd. near Value City. It’s now connects to another section that was built a few years back around the Westfield Annapolis Mall, when the Nordstrom wing was built. It comes along Bestgate Road as an 8 foot wide concrete sidewalk, comes down Medical Parkway as asphalt, put in about 5 years ago and then connects with this new 50/2 project at Jennifer Road. I repeat this is one small section of what is envisioned as a massive trail system that will eventually traverse the entire county.. Last summer, I spent a morning with the County’s Superintendent of Trails, David Dionne, who drove me on a tour of just parts of the massive system It would have taken the entire day to do it all. Dionne is also involved in a national trail project called the Greenway, a transcontinental route whose eastern section will eventually include the Anne Arundel County portion. I will say, as funds are available, these people mean business for us runners and also hikers and bikers. Interestingly, Dionne tells me that horseback riding is permitted also on some of these trails, so be careful.. At that opening on Friday,(they don’t do a ribbon cutting. The dignitaries move one of those massive “road closed” barriers aside). I thought I would qualify as being the first runner on the new highway, but I was shot down. The foreman for the General Contractor, American Infrastructure, whose job it was to also put in the trail, told me that he ran the new highway the night before. Truth be known, I hold the title of being the first runner on nearby Medical Parkway in Annapolis, the 1/8th mile section also in my neighborhood that runs by the Anne Arundel Medical Center that connects Bestgate Road and the new 50/2 interchange. I have a picture to prove it. A different contractor built that one and the project engineer on that job luckily wasn’t a runner who stayed up half the night to be first. If you are a thrill seeker, the only other eight lane highways yet to be fully opened are the so-called “mixing bowl” ( I-95,395 and 49) at Springfield Virginia and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the I-495 Washington D.C. Beltway. But be my guest if you want to be the first runner there. I’ll pass on those.
This past summer I mentioned a book for your “at the beach” reading. And now I have one for your front of your fireplace or ski lodge reading. It’s, The Paleo Diet For Athletes. It’s cover mentions that it is “ a nutritional formula for peak athletic performance ..that can give you the competitive edge with secrets from our Stone Age ancestors.. discover how meal timing can turbo charge your performance.. Improve your long-term health in just weeks, and learn how successful athletes fuel up for specific sports” …The authors are Loren Cordain, Ph.D. and Joe Friel, MS.(Rodale Softback. $14.95 in the U.S.). I hope I’m not giving away the ending when I say the authors (Cordain is a distance runner) , say in the preface ” the Paleo diet is somewhat higher in protein and fat and lower in carbohydrates” … It’s just off the press and a copy was given me by the authors’ agent, Sandy Trupp of Washington, D.C. who is the renowned publicist for many of the best-selling authors. I had lunch here in Annapolis last week with Trupp (pron.troop) and her husband, Phil, who is a noted journalist and author in his own right and also a deep sea explorer. We were at a window seat at Carroll’s Creek and I could see that Phil Trupp’s attention was on the waters of Spa Creek. Here’s a man, who can teach us a few things about running and other athletics, who explores with the Cousteau’s, and others and over the years has run his hands through piles of gold in the wreckage of those sunken Spanish galleons. But at lunch last week, he admitted to me, lustfully, that one of his great pleasures would be to explore the bottom of Spa Creek and the bay around Annapolis.
But, on another but somewhat tangential subject, I have always thought this, but until now never had the occasion to mention it. If you ever wanted to see how the caveman or woman ran, go the Annapolis Strider’s web site. They show a runner in motion whose gait reminds me of a Neanderthal or now that I have the book, perhaps the Paleolithic man or woman. See if you don’t get the same impression.
And on another tangential subject, when you visit the Strider’s website, note the picture of the triumvirate, Myers, Muskin and Bowman who collectively have gone “where no man has never gone before”.
Running Calendar:
Sun. Jan. 29., Pleasant Valley,Maryland, 12 noon. Bear Run Four Miler( race day entry only) Pleasant Valley Fire Hall. Contact Sam Alspach at 410-875-2621 or at McDaniel College at: salspach @mcdaniel.edu.
Sat. Feb. 11., Kinder Farm Park, 10 A.M. Strider’s Valentine’s Day 5K . Contact
Ellen McGee at 410-981-8809. The park is on Jumper’s Hole Road, listed as Millersville on the press release, but closer to Pasadena on my map.
Sat. April 29th., The Beginner’s Running Class starts in Annapolis. Keep the date open. For beginners or even runners who think they know it all but need a refresher.. More later.
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