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Pat's Virtual Run Across America
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Location Date California 1503702000 Arizona 1500073200 New Mexico 1490914800 Texas 1486166400 Louisiana 1463698800 Mississippi 1457740800 Alabama 1456012800 Florida 
1453507200 -
Location Date Pensacola
1453507200 Fort Walton Beach 1452902400 Seaside 1452297600 Panama City Beach 1451606400 -
Location Date Sat, 30 January 2016 1454157780 Sat, 23 January 2016
1453555620
Hello from Pensacola, FL - the Cradle of Naval Aviation
Run Stats:
Miles Completed: 93.8
Miles to San Diego: 2006.2
Avg Miles/Week: 4.1
Playlist Favs: The Summit Church (J.D. Greear) podcast, Downhere
Running Shoe: Skora Fit
Verse of the Day: Psalm 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. (NLT)
Running Reflections: The weather in Pensacola today is cold, sunny and breezy (15 kts). High today will be 45 degrees. Guess I can't complain because most of the north east U.S. is caught up in a major snow storm this weekend. Based on my mileage, I am probably somewhere on the long bridge from Santa Rosa Island heading towards downtown Pensacola. Once across the bridge, I'll turn left passing McGuire's Irish Pub and take Interstate 110 through town to I-10 where I will turn left again and continue towards San Diego.
Have to say I have been looking forward to arriving in Pensacola and talking about the town because I've had the chance to live there twice - once as a flight student in the early 80's and then again as a flight instructor from 1986-1989. I'll first share a little of the history of Pensacola (per wikipedia) and then talk a little about my experiences living in Pensacola.
Pensacola is the westernmost with in the Florida Panhandle. As of 2010 census, the city has a population of 51,923. Pensacola is a sea port on Pensacola Bay, which is protected by the barrier island Santa Rosa and connects to the Gulf of Mexico. A large U.S. Naval Air Station, the first in the U.S., is located southwest of Pensacola and is the home of the Blue Angels flight demonstration team and the National Naval Aviation Museum. The main campus of the University of West Florida (location of the Ed Ball nature trail - more about that later) is on the north side of the city.
The city was originally inhabited by the Muskogean peoples. It is nicknamed "The City of Five Flags" as five different governments have ruled it during its history: Spain, France, Great Britain, the U.S., and the Confederate States of America. Pensacola is a good sized town - not too big and not too small. In addition to the beach, Pensacola has semi-pro baseball and ice hockey teams and lost of entertainment. In fact, music legend Barry Manilow is scheduled to perform there on Jan 28th.
As mentioned before, I've had the opportunity to live in Pensacola twice for a combined total of 4.5 years and I have fond memories of my time there. In reflecting on Pensacola during my run this morning, I remember it as a place of a lot of "firsts". Learning to fly was my first "real" job in the Navy and included milestones such as my first solo flight and earning my wings. In addition, Pensacola was also the place where I got my first dog (Heidi), went on my first date with my wife Jody, kissed the moose at McGuire's Pub and belonged to my first record club. The record club allowed me to collect classic music by top artists such as Wham, Mister Mister, The Outfield, Basia, Howard Jones and Tiffany - yes, I had a Tiffany record - don't judge me OK, I was in a club!
Pensacola was also the place where I ran my first marathon (Blue Angel Marathon in 1987) with my good buddy Bob Riehl and discovered my love for running. Pensacola had an active running community back then (imagine it still does) and Bob and I used to run in a lot of 5K and 10K road races on the weekends. In the evenings after work, I spent a lot of time at the Univ. of West Florida logging miles on their series of nature trails named after some guy named Ed Ball. These trails were awesome, windy and hilly and completely removed from the world. Back in those days, we used to run with these earphone headsets with an antenna listening to local radio stations.
So there you have it, Pensacola was both the cradle of my Naval Aviation career (I've include a pic of the her I flew) and the cradle of my lifelong running hobby. Who would have thought that in 2016 I would be back working directly for the Navy again and embarking on this virtual run journey.
Hope you enjoyed this post today, thanks so much for taking the time to share this journey with me.
Cheers,
Pat
Run Stats:
Miles Completed: 93.8
Miles to San Diego: 2006.2
Avg Miles/Week: 4.1
Playlist Favs: The Summit Church (J.D. Greear) podcast, Downhere
Running Shoe: Skora Fit
Verse of the Day: Psalm 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. (NLT)
Running Reflections: The weather in Pensacola today is cold, sunny and breezy (15 kts). High today will be 45 degrees. Guess I can't complain because most of the north east U.S. is caught up in a major snow storm this weekend. Based on my mileage, I am probably somewhere on the long bridge from Santa Rosa Island heading towards downtown Pensacola. Once across the bridge, I'll turn left passing McGuire's Irish Pub and take Interstate 110 through town to I-10 where I will turn left again and continue towards San Diego.
Have to say I have been looking forward to arriving in Pensacola and talking about the town because I've had the chance to live there twice - once as a flight student in the early 80's and then again as a flight instructor from 1986-1989. I'll first share a little of the history of Pensacola (per wikipedia) and then talk a little about my experiences living in Pensacola.
Pensacola is the westernmost with in the Florida Panhandle. As of 2010 census, the city has a population of 51,923. Pensacola is a sea port on Pensacola Bay, which is protected by the barrier island Santa Rosa and connects to the Gulf of Mexico. A large U.S. Naval Air Station, the first in the U.S., is located southwest of Pensacola and is the home of the Blue Angels flight demonstration team and the National Naval Aviation Museum. The main campus of the University of West Florida (location of the Ed Ball nature trail - more about that later) is on the north side of the city.
The city was originally inhabited by the Muskogean peoples. It is nicknamed "The City of Five Flags" as five different governments have ruled it during its history: Spain, France, Great Britain, the U.S., and the Confederate States of America. Pensacola is a good sized town - not too big and not too small. In addition to the beach, Pensacola has semi-pro baseball and ice hockey teams and lost of entertainment. In fact, music legend Barry Manilow is scheduled to perform there on Jan 28th.
As mentioned before, I've had the opportunity to live in Pensacola twice for a combined total of 4.5 years and I have fond memories of my time there. In reflecting on Pensacola during my run this morning, I remember it as a place of a lot of "firsts". Learning to fly was my first "real" job in the Navy and included milestones such as my first solo flight and earning my wings. In addition, Pensacola was also the place where I got my first dog (Heidi), went on my first date with my wife Jody, kissed the moose at McGuire's Pub and belonged to my first record club. The record club allowed me to collect classic music by top artists such as Wham, Mister Mister, The Outfield, Basia, Howard Jones and Tiffany - yes, I had a Tiffany record - don't judge me OK, I was in a club!
Pensacola was also the place where I ran my first marathon (Blue Angel Marathon in 1987) with my good buddy Bob Riehl and discovered my love for running. Pensacola had an active running community back then (imagine it still does) and Bob and I used to run in a lot of 5K and 10K road races on the weekends. In the evenings after work, I spent a lot of time at the Univ. of West Florida logging miles on their series of nature trails named after some guy named Ed Ball. These trails were awesome, windy and hilly and completely removed from the world. Back in those days, we used to run with these earphone headsets with an antenna listening to local radio stations.
So there you have it, Pensacola was both the cradle of my Naval Aviation career (I've include a pic of the her I flew) and the cradle of my lifelong running hobby. Who would have thought that in 2016 I would be back working directly for the Navy again and embarking on this virtual run journey.
Hope you enjoyed this post today, thanks so much for taking the time to share this journey with me.
Cheers,
Pat
- comments
Jan averett Wow, loved this learned a lot about u and pensacola. I was in a music club for cds. I know that I am old but I did not recognize any of those artist. :) Godspeed