I'm lucky to live in a community that continues to grow and flourish. When my husband was a student teacher and volunteer cross country coach in 1993, the town had around 3,000 people and around 100 students per graduating class in a brand new high school. The last estimates I have seen puts our current population at just over 18,000 people and the makings of a much larger new high school opening in the fall of 2019. Graduating classes are expected to climb over 300 students by 2020. With all those people, new houses of sprouted up all over and corn fields have become neighborhoods. The new high school is on the same site as the elementary school my kids went to when it opened in the fall of 2004. It was way out on the countryside on a narrow road with no shoulders and no bike paths. This summer, the road was widened to three lanes and paths added in anticipation of around 1200 students headed that direction next September. Not only is this much safer for the students headed out to these schools, it creates new running routes for me! Last weekend, I walked the new path to get a lay of the land and check out a view of the new SHS. I think I'm going to like the new options. The path is nice and smooth and Charlie noticed that the utilities are in place for street lights along the new path. That's important for us early morning pedestrians. Back in around 2006, a new development started going in near the elementary school. Well, 2008 saw a big halt to building and spending and it remained a ghost neighborhood. The new high school renewed the idea of living at the north end of town and houses are going in. When I see new large homes going into town, I like to welcome the new taxpayers to come in and help pay for the new school. These homes will likely pay a higher portion of the taxes than I :-) Another upside to all the construction is the presence of random porta potties just in case one of us would need one. While I'm sure we will continue to use a lot of our standard running routes, what a treat to find new roads that can be used for variety or to change things up when the wind is out of an inopportune direction.
Look around your town to find roads that are either brand new or that you've never tried before...assuming your town is void of "bad neighborhoods." In that case, always choose safety first. Happy running--Missee
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AuthorMissee and Stephanie are two Minnesota sisters and moms who love to run. We are not experts in running, parenting or anything else, but we do have years of experiences that may be helpful or entertaining to others. Archives
May 2020
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