the Way of the Turtle

12 Mile Run Along the Mohawk-Hudson Bikepath
Sunday, July 23, 2006

The original plan was to go to Massachusetts and run 15-16 miles at the October Mountain State Forest. But I've been feeling tired this weekend, and the thought of the 2+ hour round trip drive (in addition to the 3-4 hour run!) was just too much. So instead I headed over to the bike path west of Schenectady and shortened the run a bit (I need to work on building up distance on pavement, given how little pavement running I've been doing during the past few years.)

The cold front which moved through earlier in the weekend brought some rain but also cooled things down a bit and most especially cut the humidity (one of the reasons I'd plannned to do a long run this weekend!) It was great weather for running in July - sunny and definitely warm, but not horribly so. Not a lot of traffic on the bike path either, which was nice. I started at Lock 8 and ran along the river to the park in Rotterdam, then continued along the Old Erie Canal until the end of the path at Scrafford Lane. When I got back to the Lock, I decided to extend the run a bit (I'd gone about 9.5 miles) so I ran somewhat over another mile out and back in the other direction, for a total of about 12 miles in 2 hrs 20 minutes. I was particularly pleased with my time - I wasn't pushing super hard but still managed a decent pace, which bodes well for the Adirondack Marathon (assuming my knees and legs hold up for 26 miles of road running...)

JMH