Month: May 2014

Welcome Back to Lion’s Club Park

When I first discovered it about four years ago, it was closed, blocked off and pretty much in shambles.  I kept passing by and in 2013 saw that it was being renovated and shaping up to be nothing like that first visit. The place had been gutted with signs of life appearing that looked very much like many of Gwinnett’s other great parks. This past weekend, on a quest for the next park to try, I found an article about a re-opening. Woo-hoo! Lion’s Club Park had re-opened so I had to go check it out.
Lion’s Club Park in Lilburn, Georgia received a $5.3 million overhaul and was re-opened in February 2014. By Memorial weekend 2014, residents were taking full advantage of its amenities which include: a baseball complex with five lighted ball fields, 1,800-square-foot concession/restroom building, plaza, batting cages, 60-foot pavilion area, maintenance building, more than 850 parking spaces, paved trail system with benches, adult swings and shelters. (Amenities listing courtesy of the Gwinnett Daily Post. The county’s website has not been updated as of this writing).
The Trail
The trail is paved, circles the park and is a short but challenging .77 miles.  From the parking area at the main entrance headed toward Rockbridge is all downhill. There’s a brief flat area on the back end near the furthest baseball field and then it’s back uphill to the starting point.  There are no mile markers, which is okay given the distance.  Additionally since this park is basically new, there are mostly new trees, meaning that shade is limited and located in the back of the park by the residential entrance and the front main entrance. Runners, walkers and other sportos should get there EARLY to avoid getting baked.
The Fork
Now if a quick 3 miles is all you want, circle the park 4 times for a near 5K or, at the bottom on Rockbridge stay left at the fork, pass under Rockbridge and enter the Camp Creek Greenway — Glorious!  Not available until this year, the Lion’s Club Park Trail now feeds into the Greenway.  A potential long route is to loop around Lion’s Club Park onto the Greenway, through Lilburn Park, onto the Greenway offshoots and back, which is some nice mileage with a mix of scenery, inclines and flats. I chose a “tweener” route by taking one loop around Lion’s Club Park over to the Greenway, circling Lilburn Park and coming back to Lion’s Club which was a bit over 4 miles.DSCN7855
The new Lion’s Club Park is a great neighborhood park for families, fitness enthusiasts and baseball/softball fans with the bonus of a feeder trail system. If you’re in the area or are from Lilburn and remember how the park was, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what the park has become.
Until next time, see you on the trail where I’ll be getting my running legs back. 🙂
Photos: MsThorns

FLO (For Ladies Only) – Fear Not Your Body

Oh the gym locker room. I don’t know what it looks like for dudes but for chicks it’s a place in which we can be our most demure, and most pensive selves.

Enter the Naked Evangelist.

I find it more than difficult to keep a towel on while simultaneously applying lotion and deodorant and dressing piece by piece without breaking a sweat. I’ve made attempts to dress with a towel on only to reach the same ending, towel landing on the floor me sweating from the effort and ending up naked anyway so I stopped trying. I’d always wondered why we (women) do all this covering and tucking. Was it modesty, fear? Was it a learned thing because we certainly were not born with towels on. Then one day I got a clue.

I was in the locker room heading to the shower, realizing I’d forgotten my washcloth I made a u-turn back to my locker. A woman who had dropped trou to weigh herself, let out a yelp, and said how embarrassed she was to be seen “like that” followed by the words “I’m so fat”. I’m pretty sure I rolled my eyes, not at her but at the words. I told her, something to the effect that the scale doesn’t always say what you want, but that she had a good body, a body that works, one that got her to the gym that morning, she agreed, smiled and I kept it moving.

Women apply so much pressure on themselves because of all the images and all the words that tell us what we are supposed to look like, what is beautiful, what is fit, what is desirable. All of it is such a crock. Your level of health and fitness cannot and should not be measured by anything except you and science. Are your numbers good – blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar? How’s your stamina, strength, flexibility? All of these factors are measurable. Media driven beauty/societal standards of beauty are not measurable, they are subjective and every changing.

Look, every woman has a day when she’s not feeling or looking her best, bloated, bags under the eyes, whatever the case may be, but what that day looks like is entirely up to you sister. However, that body that you have, the ONLY one you have is a great body. It lets you do what you need to do and get you where you need to go and if it doesn’t there are folks that can help you get there, without judging you. Oh and you’re at it quiet that little judgmental chick on the inside, she’s nothing but a phony, she’s not you.

So here’s your challenge, you don’t have to do it in a gym locker room, do it at home. Stand in the mirror butt-NEKKID and take a good look without judging. Thank you body for being there and serving you well day in and day out, promise it that you will take good care of it and honor it in all you do and tell it that it is FABULOUS. It’s your body, go ahead and love it.

Until next time see you at the gym, the Naked Evangelist will be there cheering for you sister, with your fine self!
Cheers

Photo: MsThorns