Wonderful Weekend of running

I had an absolutely wonderful weekend of running.  Not so much that I logged a lot of miles, but that they were good quality pain free miles.

Friday morning I ran in my neighborhood for the first time in months.  It was so lovely getting back to my hilly Midtown runs.

I live in an older area of Little Rock called Midtown.  It's a relatively new designation.  About 20 years ago, this part of town was considered "West" Little Rock.  I remember driving to the shopping center I now live across the street from when I was a kid and thinking I was so far away from home.  I lived in North Little Rock at the time and the drive from my neighborhood to this dentist seemed like quite a haul at the time.  The area looked so nice and upscale...It was quite an experience.  Now I live across the street in a new development neighborhood.  Funny how things work out.

It was referred to as West Little Rock because it was the sub urban area west of downtown, south of the really wealth old money homes.  It was developed in the 1970's and 80's, mostly ranch style homes with some colonials mixed in.  Some of the homes date back to the 1950's in the northern eastern end of the area.  If you go further east the homes date back to the 20's 30's through 1950's.

Now, west little Rock is much further west.  In the 1990's development began to sprawl even further west.  New McMansions went up fueled by the housing boom of the 90's .  New neighborhoods with winding streets, pie shaped lots and cul de sacs were created to make absolute most efficient use  of every scrap of land that was not a drainage creek or too steep to build on. We never saw anything like it.  Not a  tree was left uncut and the lots were sodded and minimal standard drainage was snaked through the new "wealthy" housing developments.  I was working in Engineering at the water department at the time thinking, who is purchasing these homes, most way over $100,000 ...now that seemed like tons of money at the time.  Some homes were going for half a mil in the elevated areas with nice views of Chenal Mountain.

So, west went west and old west is now Midtown..which I LOVE.  there is shopping, everywhere grocery stores and coffee shops withing walking distance.  A mall withing a mile of my house.  The area is busy which I love.  I am a city person.

It is also very hilly.  When I run my neighborhood it is a hill workout.  So getting back to this run was such a nice change.  I love being able to step out my front door and get a five mile hill workout.  I can run to the heights if I want, Hillcrest is only a couple miles away.

I'm a Lucky Girl!