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Well, a few weeks ago I took a day to myself and checked out what I could use down along the Grand River.  I figured I could just make the rest up as I went along and offered my group to go on a “not so normal” run.

The moans and groans confirmed that it was a success.  In fact, I had a request to try it again today.  The group now expanded from 5 of us to 9 of us with the addition of some runners and body builders from my work.  I’m not saying any of them will be converts to functional fitness, but they seemed to enjoy the variety we brought them.

The run itself was about a mile and a half total (I’m just guessing here). Here is where the fun came in. We would do Dips whenever we came across bike loops. We did Push-ups with our feet on benches or Box Jumps on the benches. We did Body Rows hanging from railings and some Pull-ups on cement walls. We did a lot of stairs, including a Bear Walk down a few. We did Frog Jumps. We did Burpees. We did a nice little circuit with a Sabertooth Walk up a small hill, Dips on a wall, then a Panther Walk back to the bottom. We did that one 2 times.

We did Gorilla Walks up a hill and Crab Walks down. Then we laid on our backs and only used our feet to push ourselves up the 2nd hill and did Inchworms on the way down. Try Frog Jumps up the 3rd hill. Throw in some Spiderman Push-ups and runs on ledges whenever I could find one.

My favorite was when I – at the last moment – noticed an Art Prize entry still in place on one of the bridges. We spider crawled under it for the 20 yards or so along 6 X 6 inch beams. It was awesome, except for the spider webs in my hair.

Basically it was a “follow-the-leader” type event.

I can’t wait to plan for some more after the winter. For you folks down in Georgia and Texas, that means May or June for us up here in da north.

All it takes is a little imagination.  I strongly suggest you try a Urban Jungle Run and don’t forget to share the pain with a group!

Pete