Exploring the White Oak Bayou Trail

First off, if you like to run and explore in Houston you need to check out the website Bayou Greenways. They don’t call Houston they Bayou City for nothing. Bayou Greenways does a great job of outlining where all the bayous are, where there are trails, and parking lots and stuff like that. Having run along Buffalo Bayou and Brays Bayou multiple times, I was excited to find this site and discover new trails in Houston.

White Oak Bayou

Most of my exciting runs the past two weeks took place along the White Oak Bayou. The first was a 5K as part of the Houston Wellness Project and the Run for Wellness 5k Series along the Heritage Trail West. If you want to run this trail, you can park in the UH Naylor Student Parking lot (just north of the UH Downtown campus). The run is a concrete trail that connects Downtown Houston to Stude Park, and also passes by the Freed Art and Nature Park. It’s 2.5 miles long. While on this trail (about .5 mile in) you have the option of continuing along the MKT Trail. This trail takes you through some neighborhoods in the Heights, ultimately ending at Shepard Dr. It’s 2.8 miles long.

Another week of training. Another awkward pic to prove it:

Mile 1.5 of Run for Wellness 5K along White Oak Bayou in the Heights

The second run I did was a fat 12 mile run along the White Oak Bayou on the TC Jester Trail. This trail was also a nice wide concrete trail with a yellow stripe down the middle of it. Not so many trees, but there was lots of people out an about running, biking walking dogs, even four-wheeling it across the bayou. I ran past several play grounds, a dog park and even a Frisbee golf course. I entered the trail at TC Jester and 11th Street and just parked in the neighborhoods. The trail extends 7.4 miles north along the White Oak Bayou–and I ran nearly all of it (5.6 miles to be exact) this past weekend.

I’m feeling pretty accomplished here. I’m on the home stretch with this half marathon training. I ran 12 miles this past weekend. I know I’ll totally be able to do 13.1. I can crawl the last 1.1 miles if I have to. Home stretch baby! T-minus 3 weeks till the big day!