close, but no cigar

Yesterday afternoon, I came as close as I ever will to running a marathon. I drove a marathon .. all 26.2 miles of it (and boy, are my arms tired).

okay; it was a scouting exercise. Jill-Bob, who will run in next month's White Rock Marathon was advised to scout the course. So, I volunteered to drive if she would navigate. I chose the theme: Scout the Route (this only works for English purists, who naturally rhyme those two words .. most Americans would say Scout the Root, which makes no sense at all).

One thing I should've brought along: a CD of crowd sounds ("hey Jill-Bob .. you GO girl !!" and so forth). Today, the course was much quieter than it will be on Race Day.

The race starts and ends at the American Airlines Center. Soon after the beginning, and near the end, the marathon goes through the West End and even goes within a block of the former Texas School Book Depository (from where Oswald shot at JFK). Most of the White Rock Marathon goes through neighborhoods (besides a 10-mile segment around White Rock Lake itself). There are precious few attempts to awe the runners with the commercial side of Dallas, which is probably for the best. The George (not a -Bob since she's not a Texan) wants to watch from atop Reunion Tower, where the runners will look more like ants.

There are several stretches where the runners will be on the same road for several miles: these include McKinney Avenue (trendy); Turtle Creek Boulevard (wide and majestic); Ellsworth Avenue (narrow and occasionally kitschy) and tree-lined Swiss Avenue (the latter was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973). Nearby you can find Munger Place. Around White Rock Lake, we found ourselves in a vast minority of cars .. most vehicles were bicycles (and of course, there were hundreds of runners .. some of whom will undoubtedly be in the race next month). It didn't hurt that the weather was perfect .. mid 70's and slightly overcast. Next month, it'll probably be frozen rain on Race Day.

GoogL'ost: DallasSky.com