Use this topic for posts that will collect community stars for the Waterfront Trail course. You can also ask questions or make comments about this course.
Here’s how it works.
Click the “Post Using This Template” button below to create a new post with a Story heading and boilerplate text.
Replace the boilerplate text with your report for one or both sections. The Story header is key for distinguishing between posts and replies—don’t change it.
Your post must be on the same calendar day as your run as entered in the leaderboard.
Story
To pick up a community star, replace this text with a write-up of what your run was like, a photo you took on the run, a link to your Strava track, or something similar. Don’t delete the Story heading above.
The Challenge is back! I have some pretty ambitious goals for my weekly mileage this summer, so I thought no better way to do it than go for all 44 courses. I got until the end of August, before off to college. We’ll see….. . 2 down, 42 to go:)
I was out of town for the first week of the challenge so I decided to try to catch up by running the a waterfront course in the chilly drizzle today. Turns out I wasn’t the only one, I was happy to see @melissawallace at the turnaround and again at the end! I didn’t take my phone out in the rain for a photo but I did stop by gimme for an obligatory post run latte and scone (I’m only in it for the snacks!)
I had to drop a kid at Boyton for practice, so it made sense to kick off my 2026 Challenge today! Pace was slow and steady, and I’ll take it considering I ran the Seneca 7 on Sunday and have a cold.
As Sarah mentioned, the Waterfront Trail is currently closed for work - as of this morning (04/30), the second bridge is closed, and the trail between that and the Fire Department training ground is also completely closed.
Trip down memory lane (with unintended warmup/cooldown)
Senior moment - thought course started/ended at MM 0 by the IYB..didn’t realize mistake till watch gave me the 3-mile update by the boathouse. Oh well - it was such a glorious morning along this course that the extra distance was a bonus. Memories of countless other runs on the past kept recurring - runs in the dark of morning, runs with various companions, getting swamped by cross-country teams and rowing crews at times…but pretty much had the course to myself.
Shoutout to @StephBailey who held off passing me until we were over the wooden bridges…they were a bit icy and slippery..
I waited to run this morning until after the rain passed, so this course fit perfectly with my timing. I ran through a little rain and sunshine and largely had the trail to myself. There’s a short bit by the pavilion that’s currently closed but easily bypassed, and the newly paved portion by the municipal mulch pile is so nice now!
Blowin’ in the Wind
Leaving Lansing Center Trails, there was a light rain and darkening clouds threatened worse. But, since my shoes were already soaked, I decided to do this course anyway. The only other time I had run it was for my first Ultra Challenge in 2021 at about 1:30 AM (because I mistakenly thought the Ultra Challenge had to be completed in a single calendar day).
Parked, threw on a rain jacket and gloves, and started. This photo captures the conditions at the start:
The sun did sneak out again before I finished. Saw an osprey (I think) take off from the nesting platform and could see another head sticking up above the edge of the nest. Crew teams were on the water, though I think a couple of them were just learning. I hiked the last mile or so to end my day.
Had just enough time at lunch to get this done. Proximity and ease of access was a big factor in picking this course. Much cooler today and a lovely day for a run!
All the spots that had been closed for repaving are open again, so no barriers at all to running the full course.
Great group run with familiar and new faces in unexpectedly nice weather. I’ve installed the blue flag to indicate the turnaround point. And there were cookies and chocolate milk at the end.
Stroller course 6 of 10 is in the books. This is Theo’s favorite course. He loves the suspension bridges, or as we call them, the bouncy bridges. He also loves to play on the playground after a run.
As a stroller pusher I was happy that newly-paved trail is smooth as silk, but Theo was wondering where the bumps were. At least he got a slightly bumpy ride on the gravel drive near the turnaround.
It was a musical Waterfront Trail day. Prior to waking up this morning, "Mic Drop" by BTS was playing loudly in my head and, even after taking time to watch the video of them performing it live, it didn’t quell the song from continuing its strong rhythm beating through my mind when I got to Stewart Park. And that’s OK. I enjoy a good song with strong rhythm floating through my mind while I’m putting in miles.
Out to the turnaround I went and was very happy with whomever had placed the blue ribbon at the exact point to begin the return. (After reading the past Waterfront Trail stories, I see it was Adam E. Good job!)
Then during my return, there was a tall slender man in blue jogging towards me. From a distance, he looked like Gerrit VL. Then, as we got closer and I waved, I wasn’t so sure it was him, as he was singing loudly while jogging. Does Gerrit typically sing while jogging? I wasn’t sure! Either way, it was apparently the morning to jog and enjoy music.
Today my dear friend Marie Fitzsimmons and I decided to complete two of the challenge courses, Waterfront Trail and Duck Trails. We warmed up with Waterfront and it was wonderful. Blue skies, puffy white clouds, sunshine, and a nice lake breeze. We were having such a good time that we over shot the turn around point and did a little extra mileage. If was great!
I had a 6 mile progression run on my training schedule for today and decided that was about perfect to challenge myself on the Waterfront Trail course. I just ran a fast 5K in the Peter Demott Peace Trot on Sunday so wasn’t expecting to go too hard. On my first, warm-up, loop I was very pleased to see a green ribbon marking the turn around point. Thank you @adamengst! It was also fun to run into @krishainessharp and get to catch up for a bit. For my second attempt, I went out much faster than planned but was able to mostly hang on and ended up running even faster than on Sunday. Not sure how that was possible…but I’ll take it! Also nice to see @mclark enjoying his run in the park.
. 2 down, 42 to go:)
practice, so it made sense to kick off my 2026 Challenge today! Pace was slow and steady, and I’ll take it considering I ran the Seneca 7 on Sunday and have a cold.
