Mile High Rush

Cherry Creek Bike Path

Fit As A Fiddle

If you’ve been reading the blog, you know I regularly run along the Cherry Creek Path as it cuts through the parks and neighborhoods around Denver. It is named after the large cherry orchards that used to crowd the banks of the creek. Today was a quick 40 minute run along the concrete path shortly after the end of the work day. I must have passed over 200 runners, bikers, and dog walkers going this way and that along the trail. Seeing the numbers of residents out on the path reminded me why Denver consistently shows up on lists of the fittest and healthiest cities in the country. The mayor, John Hickenlooper, aside from owning one of the most popular breweries in the city, the Wynkoop Brewery, works out three days a week. Residents who reported similar routines totaled 55% of the city, more than the average across the country. Denver has more park acreage per capita than nearly all other cities too and direct links have been found between access to open space and obesity. Denver residents, on average, participate more in martial arts, pilates, snowshoeing, snowboarding, skiing, cycling, yoga, and mountain biking than any other city. According to the 2009 American College of Sports Medicine’s American Fitness Index. Only Washington D.C. and Minneapolis-St. Paul ranked higher in this year’s survey. With that in mind, I cruised along the path for twenty minutes and then turned around to head home. As I passed under the bridges of the streets above, another runner passed me. This usually doesn’t happen, and though there was no reason to (aside from ego and the fact that this guy’s form was pretty bad), I decided to pass him back. I gave him a head start and didn’t speed up drastically, but over the next half-mile or so I reeled him in. Hopefully the twinge of competition I felt on the short training run will help me push myself to reach my goal at the marathon too.