Tim L
I’m happy to say that I’m nearly complete the Southeastern portion of Edmonton. I’m really impressed with some of the newer neighborhoods that are being built here and the shift in attention to parks and trails by urban planners. You can really tell that green spaces are being looked at as integral in the construction of any new development and is definitely a noticeable change from how residential areas were put together before the 90’s. Getting out and walking, cycling, running, etc, is much more enjoyable when you’re amongst trees and ponds as opposed to traffic and noise!
Anyways, I said I was only nearly complete and not fully complete the southeast section and there are two reasons for that. The first being that with new housing developments being built all the time there will be streets and paths to get later that obviously don’t even exist at the moment. I always realized that the last thing I would need to do to complete the circle in trying to run everywhere in our city would be to complete everything that was created after I left any particular area. The second reason is that there are a certain number of tiny little sections that I somehow missed. When I use the zoom feature on the map on my homepage, I can identify small fragments of alleys, streets, or pathways that were skipped. In some cases, these misses were on purpose because the fragment was a personal driveway or a gated community or something. The accidental misses, however, were usually the result of getting mixed up on where to turn when, say, coming out of an alley or getting disoriented in a neighborhood with a warren of twisty, curvy roads (that’s you Millwoods!).
These sorts of accidental misses were much more common in the first six or eight months when I had a much harder stance on not bringing any sort of a visual reference with me. Laurel, Silverberry, and Larkspur, for example, have many of these noticeable fragments that’ll I’ll have to get later on. At this point though, I’ve gotten into the habit of taking a picture of the Google Earth location of where I’m planning to run to use as a reference just in case I get disoriented, which unsurprisingly for me is somewhat frequent.
But, regardless, the most important thing is that we are up to over $5,000 thanks in part to all kinds of generous donations by you guys! Thanks for keeping the momentum going, all that support that results in assistance to great local city charities like The Hope Mission, and Wellspring Edmonton. It really is great motivation as I move into Rutherford and west towards the river across from Cameron Heights! Thanks everyone, see you out there!
-Tim
