I just spent the week in Atlanta on business, and with the an 86km ultra marathon just over a week away, I had to make sure that I found the opportunity to run. I’m tapering down so the distance wasn’t going to be large, and actually not having access to trails might actually have been beneficial to sharpen me up.
4 Wheels Good, 2 Legs Bad
The big problem with Atlanta, and indeed most big American cities between the coasts, is that it’s not really built with the idea that humans might want to travel around it on foot. With a grid system of 6 lane roads, and a number of major interstate highways travelling through the city, my initial run to get my bearings was a bit of a disaster. Stopping at crosswalks every 15 seconds, and running the jay-walking gauntlet.
After a quick search on Google Maps I found a large park to the northeast, that could be accessed by running up W Peachtree – it was, it worked, and I got to Piedmont Park, which was an oasis of tranquility. The only other problem was the heat and humidity.
