I enjoyed meeting a Facebook friend and a relative who I haven't seen some twenty years, and had time for some activities outside of work. First weekend I ran a half-marathon, the That Dam Run race in Cherry Creek State Park, the second weekend I spent back in NYC, then the third weekend I volunteered for the Running of the Green 7K, organized by Volunteers of America. I also did touristy things like touring the Coors Brewery, climbing a mesa, and visiting the art museum, the State Capitol, and the zoo.
Almost every day I rode the bike to work and back. The first time I used a Bcycle did not end
well, as the dock that I returned the bike malfunctioned. Luckily someone fixed it and afterward I made
sure the returned bike chirped three times to acknowledge that the return was
successful. One time a station didn’t
release any bike at all but otherwise I did not have any problems with the bike-share system. Bikes were always available and so were open
docks at the stations. Maybe not enough
people are using the bikes or their system of moving bikes around was really
effective.
It took me a few tries to find the best bike route between
the hotel (Broadway and 6th Ave) and the office (Broadway and 16th
Ave). I knew better to avoid the busy
roads like Broadway but then I made the mistake of thinking Cherry Creek
Trail was the best way for me. While the
Trail is car-free, it runs below grade and has entrances/exits only every few
blocks. What’s more, once you are out of
Downtown center, there are fewer bike stations.
The Trail exit nearest to the hotel requires a few blocks of walking to
get to the nearest bike station. In the
end, it was Bannock Street that became my bike route. I would start the bike trip from Denver
Health, where the station is somewhat hidden from public view. I am still used to New York City’s CitiBike
docks that are mostly on public sidewalks, sometimes ever on the street. Just a short ride with motorists and I would
be mostly by myself on Bannock. In the
beginning, I returned the bike at the Webb Building station but by chance I
discovered that there are bike lanes on the sidewalk between that station and
the one at Denver Post, a block further north.
There are also bike lanes on the sidewalk of Civic Center Park, which would come in
handy as one time I actually made the big loop around it, riding on Lincoln
Street.
From my experience, Denver motorists are relatively nice
people. I always keep my bike out of
their way but there were times I had no choice but to ride in front of them and
slowed traffic down. No one ever honked
at me. If they made rude gestures behind me I
would not know. Overall as I traveled in
the city for work or pleasure I don’t recall hearing angry car horns or open
hostility.
After the first week the weather improved greatly. A few evenings I ran outdoor, sometimes along
the Cherry Creek Trail, other times on random street route just to stay close to
the hotel. For my last run in Denver, I
made a GPS art as my entry to Newton Running’s Run It, Feel It, Spell It
Challenge. Details of the challenge can
be found at
http://www.newtonrunning.com/run-feel-spell-official-rules
My entry for the first week of the multi-week challenge is BOULDER. The theme of the contest is "Running Makes Me Feel" and the runner is supposed to supply an adjective to describe the feeling. Ever the punster, my BOULDER is both a homonym of BOLDER, or more confident, and BOULDER the city in Denver where Newton Running is based. It cannot hurt to earn brownie points.
Unlike those Newton Ambassadors out there, I don't have any blings to offer my blog readers. Lace up your running shoes, activate your GPS watch or smartphone apps, then go for a creative run. May the best GPS artists win life-time supply of Newton Running shoes and more!
See how the path is traced out as ran into the night on the street of Denver. Yes, it would be ideal if I actually ran in Boulder, but I am in Denver without a car, not that I have the time to drive to Boulder.
https://connect.garmin.com/jsPlayer/724160498
