The Trail

One of my favorite places to walk/run is the Lafayette-Moraga Trail close to where I grew up. My first days of running were on this trail with my junior high cross country team at Stanley Intermediate School in Lafayette, CA. Was it a competitive cross country team? No, we didn't actually go up against other junior high teams, I think it was just a passion of my 8th grade science teacher, Mr. Boucher. He volunteered to coach the students who wanted to participate during the After School Sports program. We would run up to 5 miles several days a week during the cross country season. Along with this, and other sports I participated in (volleyball which I loved even if I was on the "B" team, and Softball where I sucked, but stuck it out), I earned enough points to get my block "S" before I graduated. : )

Stanley is located just past the 1 mile marker on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail and this was where we ran after school. To be honest, I think I just ran with my friends and gossiped. We certainly weren't trying to make PR's!

The Trail is also one of the places my parents ran and trained for marathons when I was a kid. They have taken advantage of the Trail, whether walking or running, as long as I can remember. When I was training for races 5+ years ago, I would go to the Trail from time to time to do a training run. It's so familiar to me, it's part of home! Recently, I went there for one of my run/walks.

Isn't it pretty?

Stanley Intermediate School. Go Wildcats!

A mile marker.