The Payoff for Getting Back in Shape - A Favorite Route (#runforsteem post)

This is my #runforsteem post for this week. Be sure to check out #runforsteem and @jumowa for this great form of motivation. Here’s the Weekly RunForSteem Challenge Post

For anyone following along, my progress report is:
Distance: 5K
Weight: 187 (started at 190)

There are many benefits to living near and working in the City of Brotherly Love, but one of them is definitely the great variety of interesting running routes. My wife and I used to live near the Philadelphia Art Museum. It was a five-minute walk to Kelly Drive and Boathouse Row along the Schuylkill River, a gateway to an endless variety of routes depending on the distance for which we were training at any given time.

Since moving to the other side of the Delaware River to South Jersey, I usually only get to run this beautiful section on my commute runs, and getting to the river from work requires running the opposite direction of home before lopping back, something that requires at least some basic fitness. Well, Friday was my celebration of getting back to that level of fitness. It was a beautiful spring day (after yet another winter nor'easter and 12 inches of snow two days before!) I had completed a continuous 5K on the treadmill earlier in the week, so this was also the second 5K of the week, and I felt smooth and relaxed heading out on the first mile.

It's a quick 1/2 mile of city streets to the Art Museum from my workplace. It always brings a smile to my face to see the tourists lined up to get a photo with the infamous Rocky Statue at the base of the Art Museum steps. Part of the joy this particular landmark brings is that the statue caused quite a stir among the arts community when it was first proposed that it be moved from storage, to the Art Museum. It is the actual film prop from Rocky II, and after the film found a permanent home outside the Spectrum, where adoring sports fans could see it when entering Flyers and Sixers games, never seeming to mind the subtle blend of fact and fiction. The Spectrum was eventually demolished to build a new arena, and the statue sat in a closet for several years. When it was proposed that the statue be moved to the Art Museum, the city's high brow elite cried that it wasn't art, and had no place at the Art Museum, which as a communication professor just cracks me up. Now that the statue is a permanent fixture at the top of museum row on the Parkway, none of the throngs of tourists seem to mind!

And for those of you around the world who dream of making your own run up the iconic steps:

And the view at the top:

From the Art Museum the route heads south along the river back toward Center City. Then its a hard left up the river back to Rittenhouse Square and my train station.

Here are the stats:

Be sure to check out the 5K Training Pogram by @runningproject. We are now in Week #6 but there is plenty of time to jump in.