The Mystery of the Hyde Park Loop

Just in case you are wondering, no, this isn't my latest attempt at a mystery novel.  :)

The Hyde Park Loop is one of our classic runs.  In fact, most of our other runs in the area grew out of this basic loop.  Some nights we just like some familiarity in our workout so we'll break out this straightforward loop.

But we still like to mix it up a little.  So this week, we ran at a faster pace than we had ever ran the Loop before - hoping to get a new finish time record, of course.  We were clipping along at a strong but even pace the entire route.  We finished proudly and out of breath, breaking out the high-fives; a new record time on the Loop.

Thanks to the ingenious, albeit ad-filled, MapMyRun, we were reminded that this entire loop is less than 2.5 miles.  And that is the mystery of the Hyde Park Loop:  only 2.5 miles and somehow we are always stretching to just make it to the end.  Strange when you consider we do okay on 5k (3.1 mile) and 10k (6.2 mile) races....

Regardless, this is still a great classic to have up our sleeves for a weeknight run!