the Way of the Turtle

SIX HOURS IS A LONG TIME TO RUN...
20 Mile Run in the Albany Pine Bush
Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Albany Pine Bush Trail Map

... and for those who are wondering - running for 6 hours and 20 miles freakin' HURTS.

Last fall, as I was working through the Six, then Seven, and then ultimately Nine Strenuous Weekends, I came up with the idea for a Crazy Pine Bush Run, which was basically - run all the major trails of the sections of the Albany Pine Bush that I frequent, in one long run. Today I did that run, albeit leaving out one section (Rensselaer Lake) for logistical reasons (plus I had never really decided if that was included in the Crazy Pine Bush Run or not.) I parked at the Willow Street trail head, ran over to the Karner Barrens (by the new Pine Bush visitors center) and ran the trails over there, on both sides of Rt 155. Then it was back to the Madison Avenue Pinelands/Great Dune (known around here as the water tower section) where I ran some of the trails before heading back to the car to re-provision at 3 hours. After that I headed back out and made my way over to Blueberry Hill/Kalkout Kill Barrens (known around here as Columbia Circle) and ran most of the trails there (one trail is currently a mess due to habitat restoration ie. all the plants have been stripped from the ground to remove a black locust infestation, so the section is basically a sandy desert.) And then finally back to the Great Dune to hit the last trail there.

Don't really know if I'm ready for the Nipmuck Trail Marathon, but the time for long training runs has passed - it's tapering time! Hopefully the taper period will work its magic and the marathon will only be somewhat painful (unlike my long training runs!)

JMH