The Lady Bird Lake Date

This weekend me and Steve decided to put our new-found sense of adventure to the test and try our hand as an “athletic couple.” You know the type- the ones who love the outdoors and can think of nothing more stimulating on a Saturday morning than a hike down the newest trail or yoga on a mountain top at dawn.

Don’t get me wrong, I admire those couples. But as someone who spent her childhood gym classes in the bleachers beside her emergency inhaler, I have never considered myself a very "active" person (at least in the physical sense). To me, the two miles I have to hike around campus every day is more than enough exercise for a healthy college student.

Unfortunately, Steve cannot relate. He spent his high school years running over eight miles a day on the varsity cross country team. Now he’s “too busy to run,” but I still have full confidence that he could run a marathon at a moment's notice.

So for our athletic date, we had to find some common ground- somewhere between shopping (my cardio) and the Ironman Triathlon. Something told me that sports requiring hand eye coordination wouldn't do either. We had tried playing tennis before, but running around aimlessly swinging a racket at the air and chasing balls failed to capture my interest.

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Then I had a great idea. Since I had occasionally walked Town Lake's Lady Bird Lake trail with my friends, I decided that it might be a good place to start. It’s outside, with a gorgeous view and the millions of fit speed demons zipping by me can usually guilt me into a pretty brisk walking pace.

So we went. Although it took us an hour to walk three miles (probably because as usual we were more concerned with people watching than a physical challenge), I felt great once we were done.

I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. It’s free, affords you plenty of time to talk (and plenty of things to talk about) and is versatile enough to attract strollers and marathon runners alike.