What’s your favorite place to run?

Mine is Central Park. I ran there for years when I lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan—out my door, along 74th Street, and straight into the park. The full loop is a near-perfect 10K. The southern end buzzes with locals and tourists. The northern end is quieter, hillier, and feels more remote.

I still find it hard to believe that a green space of that size persists in the middle of one of the most valuable and crowded cities in the world. Growth and pressure push in from all four sides, yet the park remains. It’s an oasis in a steel jungle. The lawns, trees, and lakes feel timeless, almost as if the park has always been there.

It hasn’t.

Central Park was designed in the 1800s by Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the most influential landscape architects in American history. His work shaped not just New York, but cities across the country. If you run in Atlanta, you know his work too. Piedmont Park is part of that same legacy.

Landscape architecture is more than laying paths or planting trees. It involves imagining how a space will feel decades into the future. How it will age. How people will move through it long after the work is finished. The hardest part of the job is trust. You rarely get to see the finished product yourself. A park doesn’t look impressive at first. Young trees don’t offer much shade. Paths feel exposed. The space looks unfinished. Years have to pass before it becomes something people can’t imagine living without.

Running works the same way.

Each run lays groundwork that doesn’t announce itself. You build fitness no one can see. The benefits don’t show up right away. They come later, after enough consistent effort has taken root. It’s easy to doubt the process when progress feels invisible. The runners who improve over time are usually the ones willing to think long-term. They train with patience. They trust the work. They understand that today’s miles are meant for a future version of themselves.

You don’t need to see the finished park today. You just need to keep showing up and planting.

Best wishes on chasing your running goals,
George