Trust me, I know you’re probably reading the title of my article and thinking, “Now why would anyone even want to read this? Like what kind of person would voluntarily choose to feel pain in almost the worst form possible, for fun?” But just hear me out for like five minutes, and I swear maybe I’ll change your mind:
I know running for fun may sound a little strange considering it sucks most of the time, but I think that the level of suckiness definitely depends on you. Do you want to be a sweaty mess in the middle of campus? Do you want to be dry heaving on the side of the road with cars zipping by you? Or do you want to be slowly suffering in a fairytale forest where birds are chirping in the distance? Yeah, I would go with the last option too.
I used to run the same route around campus every day, but it didn’t take long before I was bored, sweaty, and cursing every single stupid Tallahassee hill that felt like a mountain. So when I stumbled upon a small trail near the back of campus, I felt like I had found a secret path that no one else had … well, except for a few stragglers. Yeah, don’t go running alone, I learned the hard way when one of them decided to chase me. Twice.
However, my not-so-secret trail slowly lost its color, and I soon became bored with it, so I called up my friend and asked if they wanted to go for a run around the Tallahassee State Regional Cross-Country Course. And don’t get me wrong, the trail was super scenic and nicely paved, but it was kind of a pain to get there.
I went back to running around campus for a while until I couldn’t take it anymore and called up my friend again. I heard about this place called Lafayette Park, and I wanted to see what it was all about. I’m not lying when I say that this place is the best place I have ever run in my life. It was like exploring a giant green jungle gym that had a bunch of rocky obstacles and random bridges. I felt like I was in Temple Run! We were having so much fun exploring the mountain biking trails, which led us to a giant bridge blanketed by trees. This led us to this railroad, which led us to this small meadow, which got us totally lost in the forest with a phone battery at 11 percent. When we realized that we were four miles out with a quickly draining phone, we knew that we had to run a little extra faster on the way back. The adventure was so worth it though because I knew that I finally had found a place where I would never be bored again.
Lafayette Park isn’t just for runners. I’ve passed bikers, dog walkers, fishers, speed walkers, birdwatchers, and more on my runs. Basically, if you ever need to get back in touch with nature, you should definitely check this place out!
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