All dried up

Pre-workout fuel: Frozen banana with Peanut Butter & Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams and cinnamon roast coffee
Workout: Ran 8.01 miles in 1 hour, 19 minutes; average pace, 9:56.

Dear City of Fort Wayne,

I run. Sometimes I run far. And most of the time I run, I am running along the Rivergreenway. You know, that path that you tout for being so awesome. It's so long and scenic. It's an ideal path "for activities such as bicycling, hiking, nature study, jogging, rollerbading or just going for a leisurely walk."

That is, of course, if you have the ability to tote around the gallon of water you'll need to do so if you want to participate in those activities during the summer months.

You see, Fort Wayne, your path has very few drinking fountains. Actually, it has none. The only time I've found a drinking fountain is when the path winds through a pre-existing city park. I try to plan my routes so that I can refill my Nathan handheld on my long runs but I ran into trouble today. The heat really had Denali fatigued, and I needed to refill my water bottle for a second time. I could have risked bad hydration to continue on the path home or detour to "Weenie" Park for water.

I chose to detour.

It might have been fine had there been a fountain on the east side of the park. There wasn't. I had to run to the west side of the park and them some to find a source of water. By then, Denali and I were beat. Low on energy, and low on fuel. We were forced to take another detour and run to the in-laws so they could drive us home.

It's true I got in my eight miles, and we got our ride home. It would have been a lot less hassle, though, if you installed some fountains and we could run our original route. And cut down that enormous tree south of "Weenie" Park that was uprooted in the recent storms.

Sincerely,

A Redheaded Runner (and her running buddy, Denali)

P.S. Rollerblading? Seriously? No one does that anymore. And people prefer to say "run" not "jog." Just some more unsolicited advice from me to you.