Don't Forget Your Running Shoes

Let's be honest. Keeping up your fitness/exercise/running program going while traveling is never easy. If you're like me, you do what you can to get your runs and avoid the hotel dreadmill.

But when you go to a new or an unfamiliar town, finding a good place to run can be a challenge.

So imagine my surprise and absolute delight when I found the Greenbelt Park when I recently spent the better part of two weeks in Kingsport, Tenn., as I worked a couple of college baseball tournaments. And it was a double score since I had easy access to it from my hotel, meaning I could just step out of my hotel room and begin running to the park.

It was a lovely situation for me.

I literally stumbled across this gem. The first morning I was in Kingsport, I headed out for a run and ran along Stone Drive a bit and then jogged around a shopping center. It was during one of my loops in the shopping center when I discovered the Greenbelt Park. I was running near the back of the complex, next to the tree line when I saw someone coming out of the woods on a paved trail.

Intrigued, I went to investigate.

And I am so glad I did.

As soon as I made my way back there I was in heaven. The majority of the bike/running trail is tree covered and winds along a creek. It is very picturesque. In fact, when I was running along one of the many wooden bridges, I felt like I was in one of Runner's World's Rave Runs.

In all, I covered six-plus miles of the Greenbelt Park, and I didn't get to explore all of it. The best part was that the entrance to the park from my hotel split the trail perfectly for me, setting up two different types of runs. If I went one way, I was able to get a good hill workout in. Nothing to hard, but challenging enough to strengthen you. The other direction was relatively flat and great for working on speed.

It's an absolutely beautiful park, and I truly enjoyed my time there. In the eight mornings I was there too run, I logged over 38 miles along the trails. The coolest thing about the park is that you don't feel like you right behind a string of shopping centers and businesses but rather out in the woods.

Long story short, always taking your running gear with you. You never know what you might find. Sometimes you'll fun a park like this, other times you'll get to run across some historic sites like I did with some SID friends in San Francisco when we ran across the Golden Gate Bridge. That run was definitely worth the early wakeup call.