Looks like from a distance that the Razorback Greenway is closed. Still closed down there? Yeah. Okay. Do you know why it’s closed? What? Do you know why it’s closed? I don’t know.

I emailed them in February. They said it would be about a month. It should have been open by now. Are they doing construction?

I guess. Some kind of repair or something. Whatever they’re trying to keep people off of is blown down, but it may be something farther down the road or trail. I don’t know.

They used to have something right here. I don’t want to get in trouble. Well, we’re not going on the Razorback Greenway today because it is still closed, even after… It should have been open by now, but it is not, so…

We’re just going to walk around. The last time I was here on the first aborted run, it was a lot colder, and I was less inclined to just kind of cruise around here. But I wasn’t going to achieve my objective. But today, well, it’s a very nice day here at Mount Kessler Regional Park.

And so I’m going to cruise around the park. It’s pretty big, so we’ll get a pretty good walk in. I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes.

But no greenway today. So yeah, it is a beautiful day here at Kessler Mountain Regional Park. And supposed to have, I guess, the high was in the 60s, low in the 40s. The last couple of days, it’s been in the 90s for a high.

So it’s a very nice respite from that. So, there is a 49% chance of rain in the forecast. But as of right now, it’s a little bit cloudy, but nothing like, it does not look like it’s gonna rain. So that will probably be later in the evening if it happens, which will be fine.

Be fine. If it were right now, you know, I kind of like rain. So. Oh, yes.

So perfect. Really perfect for me. I don’t like it hot. I like it cool.

By the same token, it did look sunny earlier today, so I put on sunscreen. Can’t be too careful with that. Don’t wanna get skin cancer. And I did hydrate, hydration department.

I have drunk 20 or 24, I can’t, I think it’s 20 ounces. I don’t know, I’ve got Gatorade bottles now, but they’re… so they’re kind of bigger. And I’m using the Mio Hydrate mix.

And I usually keep some of that in the fridge, but not what I needed today, so I filled a couple of bottles, put some ice in them, and had one on the way down here, which is quite a ways. I mean, it’s not quite rush hour yet. 20-something minutes. But it is a long distance.

I went down the interstate during those 20-something minutes, and we’re down in the south, I believe we’re still in Fayetteville, southwest Fayetteville. So Samsung Galaxy Ultra, which is, of course, a lot more than a fitness watch, but it does have me walking for 10 minutes, which is what I estimated. So, Kessler Mountain I went over extensively during that episode at the outdoor classrooms and the trails on the complete other side of the mountain. Good novel for Young adults, by the way, my side of the mountain.

Not the other side of the mountain, my side of the mountain. Check that out. I think there’s a movie, too. So I covered the hydration department.

I actually have another bottle of Mio mixed water in the truck for when I’m done here today. So we’re covering it from beginning to end. It’s rather nice here. I bet this is going to be very active once the summer starts.

And maybe on weekends now. I don’t know. I haven’t been here on a weekend day. I don’t think.

At least not when the weather’s good. Like I said last time, it was very cold. I don’t know if I should go up that way. If I’m going to be able to go around that ball field, or if it just ends there.

I’m going to try it, though. It’s a new adventure today. Never before have we walked the circumference of the Kessler Mountain Regional Park. So here we go.

Taking a bit of a risk today, and it’s turning out to be paying off pretty well. The last two times that I tried to go out and walk for exercise, I had so much pain that I could not continue and shortly returned home. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I somehow tweaked what feels like a tendon in my hip. And this will be closed.

I’ll go the other way. Kind of windy. Yeah, so it was very painful, but the weird thing, and I think what happened was, a while back I was working on a computer, and I had to get down behind it in the place, my little studio, where the computer is, very tight. I had to get down on my knee, and I think I might have pulled it then, but I went on a hike at Hobbs State Park with a friend and did okay.

And I didn’t have any trouble. I might have felt it a little bit, but I didn’t really have any trouble. And I’m wondering this, if this goes all the way around this parking lot, I’m just going to keep going at this point. So not that adventurous today, but all this is relatively new. Look at the new wood, there’s new fencing. It just all looks like it’s I think this has all happened in the last couple of years. Anyway, back to the injury department, uh, so the weird thing is, I’ve been walking around my house with no trouble, no pain whatsoever. Walking around at work with no pain whatsoever. Saturday, two days ago, I did quite a bit of yard work, for me anyway. And including mowing my entire front yard, I did have one little tweak in the painful area, but that’s it.

And that was going all over my yard with its uneven surface and its incline. So, it was just weird that when I went out to exercise, it immediately started giving me this pain. I’m out here taking a chance, and so far, fingers crossed, no pain. And you know what the saying goes, No pain, no pain.

One of my favorite sayings. Paraphrasing something else. And there’s more. There’s more to report beyond this being my fantastic return to walking for exercise.

And I’ve got, according to my watch, uh, 4,500 steps today, so that is good news returning to that, but in addition to that, a week ago, not last Monday, but last Tuesday, I had my annual physical along with labs, and I believe, you know, I’m not doing the extra labs now. I’m just doing the standard labs, and I probably need to go figure out some other cool stuff that I can get tested for. But regular labs, and guess what?

Everything looks good, despite my extra weight. Blood sugar looks good. I think I’d only gained maybe 10 pounds since the last one, which was September or something. But I know I’ve gained more than that.

Yeah, blood sugar was great. No problems with liver function. Cholesterol was good. All my vitamin stuff.

I mean, she went through everything, and everything was in acceptable ranges. So, I mean, that is pretty good, I think. Especially since I don’t really feel like I’ve been living as healthy a life as I could be, but fortunately, not affecting my blood chemistry at least. That’s been a fairly good walk.

We’re only 20 minutes into it. It’s probably gonna be less than an hour total walk around Kessler. I’m not gonna not gonna take another turn. I’m just gonna do one lap and just be happy that I’ve been out exercising today.

And I can do some more of this. Look forward to that. Really felt good on Saturday to be out and do the yard work. That gave me some exercise.

And, you know, at age 60, it’s not the same as age 20 when I would go out and run five miles. I know there are a lot of runners my age, but I’m not one of them, and I’m not going to be. I’m just not built for it, and I’ve had injuries in the past that are just not going to… make that possible, so I am not sad about that.

I’m fine with it. And I think we will see the closure up here, not very well closed, according to those people I ran into at the beginning of the walk. Coming up around the bend, you can see the consistency of the Razorback Greenway, even on Dean’s Trail, which doesn’t look like the Razorback Greenway. There are no mile markers on it in terms of the map and whatnot, but It does look like it in terms of 12 feet of concrete and these lamps which look exactly like the ones in my neighborhood, so Gotta think it’s a part of the project in some way Perhaps I will find out on this epic–Lots of wind here today–Epic journey along the Razorback Greenway, one of the wonders of Northwest Arkansas. So lots of good news is going on today. I’m feeling really good today. The last couple of days have felt really good.

I don’t know why, but I’m feeling good. I got some things done today that I’ve been putting off for a while. Yesterday did all that yard work, or Saturday did. So, just doing pretty well, and here is the closure that will not withstand the winds of Northwest Arkansas.

But I want to show it to you this time, which is what I saw last time. I think everything’s blown down. And the trail, it says, is still closed, with a fence across it at the opening to the bridge. So I’ll have to email them again.

This is mile zero. I’m looking forward to showing you the first mile of the Razorback Greenway. That’s going to be nice. Don’t know when it’s going to happen.

It’s already getting into the season where lots of people like to get out. So hopefully they will have that done quickly, and we’ll get to do what we want to do. There is the playground that I was supposed to see, and I commented on it when I did the other side of Kessler Mountain. In the classrooms of Mr. Clyde’s Trail. All those little trails with all the plaques on them talking about the trees and the birds and the other creatures and the wonders of the Arkansas wilderness there.

Anyway, today has been something new. So I hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Got to really see the park.

Even though we didn’t get to go on the Razorback Greenway. We enjoyed some nice weather and good conversation. So until next time, remember, you got the fever, keep it burning. If you don’t, catch the fever.

And I will see you next time on Running Fever.