LOST

One piece of advice if you are going out for a run:  get directions!  I started out on the Greenbelt Trail in Clive on Saturday and thought I had an idea of where I was going and how I would get back.  Taking the trail West, it ends somewhere in rich upscale suburban hell!  All of these mansions were surrounding a "private" country club lake and though I was apprehensive, I decided I could figure it out by just taking every left I could to go around in a circle and get back to the trail.  As I was running, I went to take a left onto a street that ended in -circle.  Any reasonable and smart person, which I feel I am, would not take this road as the name in and of itself tells me I will end up where I started.  I passed up this option and continued to run.  The next left was a -drive.  Maybe this was me just being skeptical but I did not take this one either.  Something about it told me that I would be ticked off taking this road.  Sure enough, after continuing to run straight, out came the same stinking road that I am super glad I did not go down.  I ended up all the way down on University out by Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, KinderCare and Panera.  To those of you unaware of Des Moines, this is very much WEST of the interstate, somewhere around 140th-ish.  While running East on University, I came across the main entrance into the country club but chose not to stay lost in the maze and continued on University, hoping to run into 128th and an "on ramp" to the trail.  Turning down 128th I thought it wouldn't be much farther until I was back on the shaded, very flat trail.  I was very wrong.  It is quite a distance and I thought I was going to have to run through the on ramp intersection to 35/80 on Hickman.  Thank God, just before I started to have a panic attack, I saw the connection point from the road to the trail.  Just in time!  I took the last mile back to the car at a pretty sloooooowww pace but I did finish, only walking for 15-20 minutes up the evil University hill.  I ended up running 6.33 miles and now have very sore calves and feet.  Good thing it's too hot out to run so I get a much needed day off!  

Case in point:  know where you are going before you get lost on a run!