I would like to admit that I wasn't very excited about running in the Warner Parks. The first time I went there with my wife and I ended up getting pissed when we got lost trying to find a place to park in Percy Warner. I had no idea where the trails were and ended up just running on the roads. Which wasn't awful, it just wasn't what I was looking for. There were people driving down the road, a lot of bikers and I guess it was a little crowded for my tastes. On a lot of my runs in the less trafficked areas a little farther west it's rare that I see anyone at all. So the roads through Percy Warner on a nice evening made me feel like I was running down Times Square. It was a while before I made it back and decided to give Edwin Warner a try. I was able to locate the trails with no problem, and quickly made more of an effort to quit smoking. I found the first decent hill I'd run in Tennessee. I got that good deep cough after I finished the climb and was reminded of the physical toll inhaling smoke a little too often can have on you. I've cut back a good deal since then and don't get that reminder too often anymore, but remember it well.
I started running the blue trail there and when that got easy I added some of the paved parts of the park too. It took me a surprisingly long time to cross Old Hickory though. One day while running with my dog she decided that she wanted to try a new trail and we ended up in Percy Warner on the Mossy Ridge trail. I quickly realized I'd found a really good trail. I actually felt a little ashamed that I'd written off the parks for so long.
If you're training for a trail run with some decent elevation gains the trails in the Warner Parks are the best I've been able to find near Nashville. I ran the Stump Jump in October and if it hadn't been for my training runs in the Warner Parks I'd have gotten my ass kicked even worse.
