11 Mile Run Along the Mohawk-Hudson Bikepath
Friday, February 2, 2007
Just checked my old posts and discovered that almost exactly two months ago I did pretty much the same run as I did today. At least there was more snow (but not much more) on the ground today...
Headed over to Lock 8 and the bike path along the Mohawk River and Old Erie Canal west of Schenectady. Just to be different I ran east to the small park as the warmup, and then back west all the way to the path's end at the Scrafford Lane railroad tracks (and of course back to Lock 8 to finish!) Had a nice tailwind when I was running west, which meant I was running into the wind for the final 4 3/4 miles... that was a pain (and chilly, too.) Parts of the path were clear, paths had a thin layer of snow... very runnable all the way. I took it fairly easy... averaged a bit over 13 minutes per mile, but today was about building distance, not going fast. On the plus side, things didn't start to feel difficult until the last mile or two... maybe there's hope for me running the Eastern States 20 miler at the end of March in decent time after all. All in all, today's run was a good one. I even got to see a hawk and a small woodpecker.
The river was disturbingly low... it's always low this time of year (they raise many of the mobile dams and let the water level drop while the canal is closed) but I remember it being higher in previous years... I can recall ice jams not far below the level of the bike path. The lack of snow is a bother in part because it means little chance to snowshoe and XC ski, but more importantly it makes me wonder what our ground water supply is going to be like next summer. (Of course, we could always have a snowless winter and then get hammered with rain in the spring and early summer, like last year.)
After my run I headed to the Rotterdam BJ's to do some shopping... when I came back out it was snowing! Not enough to give us more than a dusting, and it's supposed to end by midnight... but it sure was pretty. Almost made me want to go for another run!
JMH
Friday, February 2, 2007
Just checked my old posts and discovered that almost exactly two months ago I did pretty much the same run as I did today. At least there was more snow (but not much more) on the ground today...
Headed over to Lock 8 and the bike path along the Mohawk River and Old Erie Canal west of Schenectady. Just to be different I ran east to the small park as the warmup, and then back west all the way to the path's end at the Scrafford Lane railroad tracks (and of course back to Lock 8 to finish!) Had a nice tailwind when I was running west, which meant I was running into the wind for the final 4 3/4 miles... that was a pain (and chilly, too.) Parts of the path were clear, paths had a thin layer of snow... very runnable all the way. I took it fairly easy... averaged a bit over 13 minutes per mile, but today was about building distance, not going fast. On the plus side, things didn't start to feel difficult until the last mile or two... maybe there's hope for me running the Eastern States 20 miler at the end of March in decent time after all. All in all, today's run was a good one. I even got to see a hawk and a small woodpecker.
The river was disturbingly low... it's always low this time of year (they raise many of the mobile dams and let the water level drop while the canal is closed) but I remember it being higher in previous years... I can recall ice jams not far below the level of the bike path. The lack of snow is a bother in part because it means little chance to snowshoe and XC ski, but more importantly it makes me wonder what our ground water supply is going to be like next summer. (Of course, we could always have a snowless winter and then get hammered with rain in the spring and early summer, like last year.)
After my run I headed to the Rotterdam BJ's to do some shopping... when I came back out it was snowing! Not enough to give us more than a dusting, and it's supposed to end by midnight... but it sure was pretty. Almost made me want to go for another run!
JMH
