BF 26: A Coldstream Campus Walk

 

This walk and its post is in memory of the many happy times I ran my BreyerFest 5K on the Kentucky Coldstream Campus, right across the road from the CHIN.  This year the 5K was cancelled and god only knows when it will occur again.  (I suspect it was cancelled for budget reasons.)  As things fell out, the cancellation coincided with my own reasons for not racing again, having to do with a left toe injury in April of 2025 and the subsequent 16 weeks of limping.  That performance pretty much strained my right hip past the point of being able to run races.  It did heal,... today I can slow jog for several kilometers.  (I did enter the 2025 BreyerFest 5K, finishing in an hour and twenty minutes, as opposed to the usual 45 to 47 minutes).  Entering any 5K is a big ol' question for me right now, so perhaps it's just as well.  

My walk was along and around the area in pink line-dots on the map below.  This is a smallish park easily accessible by car.  The dog park is right on the other side of the trail.  

Environs of the CHIN & Marriott, with Embassy and Coldstream Campus across the road

We'll throw in this portrait of the central character, just for identification purposes.  I'm sorry to say I wasn't carrying a horse, but there surely was one in the car.  It must have been Magia Pesca, my new Other Fish in the Sea, since I'd just gotten him the previous evening.

We all remember how much it rained this past BreyerFest!  This park had some low-lying ground but I was pleased to find this was the worst of it.

Here's one tiny glimpse of what the Coldstream Campus trails are rich in.  Normally it's my husband who shoots the flowers but occasionally I have to take a stab at it. 

I have labelled the dog park on the map.  While I was there 2 enormous Great Pyrenees dogs were having their time out.  The second one is behind the outhouse.  

This is really a peaceful place to walk.  This view is right at the end of the dog park and facing east, which is to say, back at the CHIN behind the trees. 

 I went far enough to be able to catch a glimpse of the hotel across the highway.  If you look closely enough you can find the fallen finial (spike on top of a tower) shown in my last blog, lined up with a straight one and making it look like there's two.

At the easternmost point of my stroll I came in sight of an HSO.  A fellow blogger has mentioned trying to photograph every HSO or image on her travels;  I felt like that at this moment.  This spotted thing was quite big enough to sit on;  it was the size of a large rocking horse.

Continuing in this vein, here are some HSOs I saw on the drive out, along Aristides Boulevard, the main entrance to the Campus.

Although this is the last picture from my walk this year, it won't be the last time I take a stroll along the famous Legacy trail of Lexington, where I've run so many races.  

My virtual 5K race plan  (2022) 

 My BreyerFest Virtual 5K Race   (2022)

My BFest 5K: Sunrises   (2023)

 Here's a couple of bonus shots on a related subject.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, my degree was partly in construction.  No doubt these photos are out of date by now, but one must document the steps.  In my above map there is a green "C" [for construction] just north of the Marriott parking lot, where the old restaurant used to be.  That is the location of our new neighbor a-building;  and those concrete towers are its skeleton as it rises.

Naturally I have quite the mixed bag of feelings about this development.  While BreyerFest does need a place to expand to, I have no idea if this could be it (where would they put all the cars?!).  This next shot shows the view just to the left of the above.  It's the gate to the golf course's back door.  Many happy times I have walked through that gate, made my way over the pond bridge to the Marriott and even ran on the golf course for exercise (usually in the dusk or pre-dawn).  Now I cannot go through.  The pond bridge is permanently closed.  I dearly miss the access to the privileged spaces back there, their peace and beauty.

I will trust that other places, like the Coldstream Campus, will continue to provide the much-needed dose of nature and escape.