Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – Bowling Green (Alvaton), KY
Coming off my PR push in the half marathon this past Saturday I had another up and down week. On Sunday I managed to get in around 8 miles through the countryside on the South East side of Town. I met Brent and parked behind Split Tree Barbeque on Scottsville Road (231) and ran down this road to the newly developed Drake Ridge neighborhood and we eventually made our way out the back of the subdivision onto Old Scottsville Road. I love running through the rolling hills and farms in this area of Bowling Green. Before I began running regularly I often spent time on the Drake’s Creek and have kayaked almost its entire length beginning in Simpson County and ending in the Barren River that runs through town. In the early morning hours as the sun begins to rise above the horizon there’s something very beautiful the mist that hangs over the Drakes Creek and the sounds of rushing water.
The landscape is slowly being consumed by multi-thousand square foot palaces these days, which I should perhaps lament, but there’s something beautiful about these mansions sitting atop hills in a scene that is otherwise filled with cow pastures and empty fields. It seems there’s still plenty of land out here, but the closer one runs towards town the less this is true. I did find the most charming bungalow about 4 miles into the run. It was little more than an oversized tiny home, but occupying a small parcel of land with a goat farm behind it, the covered porch seemed like the perfect setting for a cup of coffee on a Fall morning.
But this was late winter and the little homestead hadn’t come to life for the day. We were about 4 miles into our run now and things weren’t going particularly well. We had steep hills to negotiate and the chronic pain in my left hamstring was flaring up. I had probably pushed it too hard the previous day in my obsession with setting a new PR in the half marathon (which I managed by almost 6 minutes). I had wanted to sleep in and rest, but it had promised to be a beautifully clear morning and I thought a little shake out might help with the soreness. I hadn’t planned on the hills, although I should have realized they were ubiquitous on this side of town. After a few miles I stopped trying to run them and decided to just enjoy the scenery and being outside when most people in town were still in bed. One of my favorite aspects of running is precisely this; being outside no matter what season or what weather I find myself in simply enjoying the calm stillness of the early morning. And so we trudged on as the sun creeped higher and before I had realized it we had gone over 8 miles and I after cresting a final hill I saw our cars parked in the distance. I felt awake, refreshed and focused and was ready for the rest of my day.
After putting some work in over the weekend I decided to take Monday and Tuesday off (I had set an alarm on Tuesday morning, but my desire for sleep won and so I stayed in bed). On Wednesday morning I did a fairly standard progression run from my house through Lost River Cave and then headed South on Nashville Road to Pine Grove and Hunting Creek. I had run a similar route on Saturday, but that day I had been so focused on my pace and time that I had basically tuned out my surroundings. I did, however, notice that I had run past an old cemetery on Lois Lane, which I knew to be the old Covington Family Cemetery. I thought I would check it out a bit more today and so even though I was doing a progression run I decided to stop about 4 miles in to check it out.
Elijah Covington had come to Bowling Green in the 1790’s as a land surveyor it would seem, and for his services he had been granted a large tract of land, although it appears that land was closer to town and not the land where the cemetery was located (Modern Hunting Creek subdivision on Lois Lane). The current spot was close to a farm and orchard that his son apparently had operated in the 1800’s. Ironically enough, it appears that Elijah Covington nor his wife were interred at the present location, but many of his descendants were. The cemetery stood in stark contrast to the relatively modern houses that stood nearby and was a reminder that this area of town had really been nothing more than bucolic fields in the countryside as late as the 1970’s or 80’s. Of course I personally have no memory of these days gone by, but even in my childhood in the 80’s the Hunting Creek neighborhood was the furthest extent of civilization on the South side of town. Now it’s hemmed in by the Natcher Parkway and there are thousands of new homes spread out well beyond even this boundary as our town grows towards the Simpson County line.
The cemetery was locked and as much as I wanted to climb the fence and explore the tombstones in greater detail, I decided better of it and jumped back into my run. I only had a few miles left and so I turned on Lakeshore Drive and headed towards Grider Pond (Grider, like Covington is an old Bowling Green name that goes back a couple centuries). I crossed over the little stream that exits the pond (Grider Pond, perhaps?) and continued my run. This little spring runs down towards lost river where it enters the cave system. There’s a slight climb after crossing the spring and I held my pace through this and then for the quarter mile downhill that follows before exiting onto Cave Mill Road. At this point I decided to just jog the last mile in as a cool down and after all was said and done I ended up around 6 miles, which I crammed in (including my stops) all before 6:15, giving me just enough time to jump in the shower, wake the kids up, make breakfast and get to work by 7:00! Even when I feel rushed, a morning run always sets the tone for the day, and I think I can honestly say I have never regretted a single morning that I woke up and ran!
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