The Soulpower Tumblr

The day after Peachtree Road Race, I knew I had no strength to run (see why here) but could definitely go for a walk and check out another one of Gwinnett County’s (GA) finest.  So I fired up the parks and rec map and Google maps and landed at Lenora Park in Snellville, GA.

Lenora Park in Snellville, GA has many of the features that residents and visitors come to expect in Gwinnett’s larger parks including: baseball/softball fields, a track, leisure pool, dog park, batting cages, gym, pavilion, children’s playground and disc golf.  I didn’t know what this disc golf was until I came back on Saturday and saw it in action.  There’s something for everybody in this park and the second visit revealed it in full use.  For me though, it’s all about the trail.

On Tuesday I walked it, really early around 7:00 am and walked it slow to take pictures and poke a round and what became crystal clear is that the paved trail is for EARLY MORNING or cooler weather use, unless you are the hearty type who can take the heat and humidity of the Dirty in July.  There are plenty of trees but for all but the back side of the park and a little piece on the Lenora Church Road side, runners, walkers and bikers get to enjoy plenty of wide open unshaded space in which to move.  That aside, I love this trail.  It is relatively flat and fast for all rabbits and is a nice break for turtles like me.  The paved trail is 1.7 miles which is fantastic with only three loops you’re at 5.1 miles and four loops puts you at  6.8.

What was especially beautiful for me at this park is that on Saturday morning the park was full of black people.  Since my folks have such high rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes, I was really encouraged to see so many folks out there handling their health business.

Lenora Park is great for runners, walkers and bikers with that fast trail and is great for more leisurely pursuits as well.  If you’re in the area, check it out and if you’re not I encourage you to visit the parks near your home base.  July is National Park and Recreation Month, why not grab your kids, running shoes, book or nothing at all and experience parks for yourself.

See you on the trail!

I’d just completed a run at my favorite spot, Bethesda Park on a weekday morning.  In order to avoid traffic which was backed up I stayed on Bethesda Church road until it turned into Bethesda School Rd and lucky me, another park was in sight, Sweetwater Park.  Having the day off and no schedule to follow I pulled into the lot to check it out.

Sweetwater Park is a small but well maintained park in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Features include a playground, pavilion, tennis courts, half-court basketball, and sand volleyball lot, something I’ve not seen at other Gwinnett Parks thus far.  Having arrive around 10:00 am there were not a lot of people around including one staff guy on hand to clean up after a holiday weekend.

The trail was easily accessible, .75 miles long and not hilly.  However, coming up on the volleyball side is an incline that will leave you slightly winded once you actually reach the sand.  Beginning at the park entrance and going right, the trail is shaded for the better part of .5 miles, which is a nice reprieve when needed.

Since the initial visit I’ve run at Sweetwater twice.  The first time around 7:00 am which was really nice.  There were only walkers and runners there and the .75 mile loop is perfect for a 3 mile run, four times around and you’re done.  The Pavilion area is a nice for your cool-down, stretch, meditation and for watching personal trainers put clients through their paces. I went back a few weeks later around 7:00 pm and it was CROWDED.  Walkers, runners, bikers, skaters, dogs and all of the courts including the sandlot volleyball were full, there was a girls basketball team doing drills and a boxing class at the pavilion.  To top all that off, it was STILL 88 degrees.

For runners and walkers Sweetwater Park is perfect for short distances, in the morning.  For families and other sport enthusiasts the evenings are on and poppin!

For more information on Sweetwater Park and others, go to the Gwinnett County Parks website.  Hope to see you on the trail!

This parks post is a bit different out of necessity. 

Graves Park is located on Graves Road in Norcross, GA. The parks site indicates that the main paved trail is 1.25 miles. The actual markings from my trek around it end at 1.14 miles. The park mostly consists of open fields for volley ball, has two tennis courts, pavillion, children’s play area and a really nice dog park split for large and small dogs.. Trail is about 50% shaded with some hills and inclines. The trail is just challenging enough but not so hard as to leave you gasping for air.  This park will definitely be in rotation for running and one in which I can take my shared custody dogs to :-)

Mountain Park Park is located on Five Forks Trickum Road in Lilburn, GA and it has a LOT going on. Baseball/softball fields, football field, lighted tennis courts, batting cage, grassy shaded areas, a skate park and a 1.0 mile pave trail.  The trail runs close in to all the fields, so it might be a bit distracting for someone used to running on trails surrounded by trees.  There are some trees on the back side and the trail is really most conducive for easy run days.  I likely will not run in this park but will pull up in one of those grassy areas and read or chill or watch all the kids play.

Having taken an extra day off during the holiday I went to these parks because I made a promise to myself to change up my routine a bit after Peachtree and run in some different parks throughout my county.  Both Bethesda (visited on 7/5) and Graves (visited on 7/6) meet my criteria for good spots to run, enough hills, adequate shade, not too close to the other activities and so on.  What I found most disappointing was the discrepancy in the maintenance of these parks. Both Bethesda and Mountain Park were clean, trash bins empty and doodie bags (for dogs) stocked appropriately throughout the park.  Graves Park on the other hand had some trash on the side of the trail, the trash bins were full and there were no doodie bags in the stations along the route.  Norcross, in which Graves Park resides is in a majority Latino area.  So my mind really started racing at the point.  Instead of flying off the deep end altogether I contacted the Parks department to find out why the other parks were clean and this particular park was not and was told that the supervisor for that area was out as a result of an accident.  Now, the supervisor generally is not the one who cleans the park there are work crews that do this.  Even after the holiday it’s highly unlikely that not every single one of the work crews was off, which means the parks still should have trash picked up. Besides, is there not some sort of contingency plan for when people are out so that the work continues? It’s all too fishy for me, because even ignoring the trash problem, there is still an element of  maintenance in terms of weeds and grass and overgrowth in Graves that was not present in the other parks visited.  So the question in my mind is, is there willful neglect of parks that serve minority areas and those that do not?  I’ll be returning to the park to see next week and will be checking out more of the parks in the more heavily populated minority areas in the county.  My desire is to be presently surprised to find them all in pristine condition. My expectation however is that they won’t be.  Gwinnett County on the whole is a “majority minority” county but there are pockets where this is not the case.  If I find maintenance to be equitable, I’ll let it rest, if not I’ll be calling for back up.

Stay tuned.

One of my favorite things are parks. Dating back to when I was a child the biggest treat in the world was to go to the park with my father after which we’d head over to pick up ice cream.

I don’t get the ice cream anymore after the park, but I still enjoy going to them immensely. All my long runs during the spring, summer and fall are done at the park. I look for animals and birds, listen to the sounds of all the wildlife, pray for breezes and always find peace there.  Now that Peachtree is over, I am looking for some other parks to run in just to shake it up and decided to head over to Bethesda Park in Lawrenceville, GA. 

I drove around the place first and it is huge. There are softball/baseball, soccer, and football fields, basketball courts, an aquatic center and senior center as well as play areas and pavillions.  I was most interested of course in the walking trail.  There are two a short trail around a man-made lake and a longer 1.5 mile trail. I took a leisurely stroll on the longer trail and it’s fantastic.  I’d say it’s over 80% shaded and fairly flat.  The only hills and they are short are near the end of the 1.5 if you start the trail going to your left.

The short trail is mostly unshaded.  People fish, feed the ducks and geese and basically chill out in this area. All the pics in the post are from the short trail.

Overall for purposes of running/walking/biking, Bethesda has a great trail, with welcome shade from this GA heat in the summer and is a welcome respite from some of the hillier fair in the area.