We will continue our weekly jogging/running (and sometimes biking) training at Shawnee Mission Park on TUESDAYS. Throughout the summer we've been meeting on Thursdays. But, with Dan's return to school for the Fall semester, Tuesday will work better.

The training is typically a run on the trails that are on the north side of the lake. Sometimes we run a time-trial on a loop of just over 2 miles. After training we get a bite to eat.

Before coming to a training, you should check with me to make sure of the start time and meeting point (these change sometimes). I can be reached by e-mail at meglin@juno.com (my work address, which is best if you're trying to reach me at the last minute on a Tuesday, is mike_eglinski@kcmo.org).

-- Michael Eglinski (meglin@juno.com), August 26, 1999

Answers

Mike, any way to put the course of the trail time trial on a web page so that those who can't be there can do the time trail on their own?

-- Fritz Menninger (fpmenninger@hotmail.com), August 26, 1999.

Here is a description of the test loop.

Park in teh large lot on the north side of Shawnee Mission Park and south of the tennis courts. Go to the trail head about 150 meters north of the tennis courts. Just a few meters into the forest, you'll come to a trail junction. This is the start of the test loop.

The loop begins by heading west from the start. You'll go up a short hill, then down a long hill to a stream crossing. The trail then goes up hill and flattens out as it parallels a small power line. When you are just about even with the north end of the dam, you take a right (to the north). Over the next 300 meters or so, the trail makes a big turn and you head northeast and down a hill. At the bottom of the hill, you cross two small streams as the trail bends back to the west. Once you're heading west, you go about 100 meters and take a sharp right that goes up a steep hill (this is about the half way point of the loop). You are heading almost due north as you go up the hill. At the top of the hill, you follow the trail that goes generally northeast. The trail is mostly flat for the next few hundred meters. You will go through a trail junction. Then the trail bends to the north and then northwest. You are now getting near the large powerline cut that runs east-west. Before you get to the powerline, you'll take a very sharp right turn and begin to head southeast. The trail goes up a few contours over the next 150-200 meters. The trail then is flat for about 100 meters before it begins to go down a hill to another (the last) stream crossing. After you cross the stream, you go up the (almost) last hill. At the top of the hill, the trail is briefly flat, then goes down hill again. At the bottom of the hill, the trail bends to the right and you'll climb a couple more contour lines to return to the start.

The trails for the test loop are NOT on the PTOC O' map of Shawnee Mission Park (unless you have one of the latest OCAD-printed updates). The trails were cut by mountain-bike riders.

-- Michael Eglinski (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), August 28, 1999.

Is there a run on Tues, Aug 31st? Since it's getting darker earlier now - what is the start time?

-- Gene Wee (gmw@ukans.edu), August 29, 1999.