making new tracks

there is a road ever so close to the high school. i have heard that when the cross country coach wishes to torture his students they have them run this road. i'm sure all across america similar roads stretch out next to high schools as though the two are working in conjunction with each other. this road is whispered reverently, fearfully. respected by those who haven't faced her torment. memories of deathly pain for those who have.

ballyntyne.

there comes a point where you fall into a rut of running the same courses day in and day out. what starts as a new route has become a permanent fixture. you try to spice it up by running it in reverse, adding a new little piece, or only running part of it. soon even this becomes monotonous.

driving back from the coffee shop this week i saw that road, that road i heard talked about so much, that road i passed two to three times a week, but the road i had never given a try. for whatever reason on this particular day it got stuck in my head. so this morning for a six mile jaunt i decided to make some new tracks.

ballyntyne.

it starts quite beautiful, peaceful. a nice rolling descent with a forest to your left, a small creek and abandon field to your right. very shaded and very cold. then you turn and see the first of three hills.

the first one is not that incredible. only slightly steeper than what i normally run on and pretty average in length. you roll down the backside of it. i nice break before the true beast that has immortalized ballyntyne.

two consecutive hills. the first one quite inconsequential. but you aren't looking at that one. you only barely see it. for pressed right up behind it is a wall. i giant vertical concrete wall towering over you, daring you on. up to this point, i was averaging 6:54's. at the top of this hill, breathing hard, muscles pushing with everything they had, sweat dripping off, i had dropped to 7:10's. after this is a constant uphill of little rolling hills that under any other circumstance would be a nice little run.

there is a beauty in the beast that is ballyntyne. you are isolated, it's quiet. the people who live there are of a different breed than those who live just a couple miles over the hill. they are country folk. they like the solitude, they embrace it, they want to be left alone, so they live on this beast.

at the top of the first hill i was greeted by a rooster ushering in the morning. as i climbed this street, the houses were growing in size and splendor. at the very top, the very end of the road, the largest of houses, a mansion, lay across a dark green rolling lawn. a large imposing gate guarding the front.

on the way back to the house, i still had to add a couple more miles to finish my six for the morning. i decided to swing by the high school. back in june they started putting in a new track. i hadn't seen if it was finished yet. and there it was. fresh paint, fresh track, perfect white lines and numbers, glistening, sparkling black top. i greedily ran to it and did a few laps. it was so soft and smooth. i can't wait to do a speed session on it.

i'm not sure when i will visit ballyntyne next. i have read that one of the quickest ways to improve speed, strength, and stamina is to include hills in your regular runs. i'm just not so sure that the writers had ballyntyne in mind when they wrote that.