Ode to Lorain County

So, April has been another month for me of exploring the Ohio countryside that hugs our campus - often in conjunction with various running adventures. A couple weeks ago, Oberlin's Recreation Department sponsored its annual Earth Day 5K around town, which I ran in for the first time this year. It's a really fun, laidback race, full of a lot of locals, runners from all over Lorain County, professors and their significant others, and it covers a great route that really showcases many of the beautiful, historic old homes of Oberlin.

After brunch, we walked out to the edge of a long pier and sat by the lake under a huge, cloudless, blue Ohio sky. Did I mention it was 85 degrees and sunny here all weekend long? This whole week, Obies have been hobbling around campus all sunburned and stuff - it's been great. (As a child, my parents used to ground me for getting sunburned; it's instilled good sunscreen habits in me, for sure, and I'll thank them later when I don't get skin cancer - but sometimes you just have to take advantage of the Vitamin D when you can soak it up!) The rest of my Sunday included root beer floats at the '50s-style drive-in Dogs and Suds in Elyria and a great Ani Difranco concert at the House of Blues in Cleveland later that night with Daniel, so I've got no complaints about the weekend.

Other running routes I've explored this month include Carlisle Reservation (a very doable bike ride from Oberlin), Kipton (ditto), Sandy Ridge, Bur Oak, and most recently, Oberlin's reservoir. There are multiple lakes on the outskirts of town referred to as the "reservoir" and I'm still a little befuddled by the exact nomenclature - but a Google search for "Oberlin reservoir" points all signs in the direction of this one, which is just a quick jog down the road from my house:

 

Basically, Ohio is awesome. If you're interested in more photographic evidence of why this part of the country is beautiful and an amazing place to be an athlete or outdoorsy person of any sort, check out Lorain County's Flickr site.