the Way of the Turtle

13 Mi Run on the Bike Path
Monday, February 26, 2007

The last time I did a non-snowshoe run (almost two weeks ago...) I commented on the fact that it would have been nice to run in the falling snow. Tonight I got my chance... fortunately, it wasn't falling too heavily and barely left a dusting on the ground, or this could have been even more challenging than it was...

Ran the bike path from the Niskayuna Lions Park to Lock 7 and back, a distance of 4.5mi, then repeated that out-and-back again, and on the final leg knocked off half a mile by turning around at the crossing for Lock Seven Rd instead of going all the way to Lock 7. Not the most exciting run I've ever done, but I needed to get in the miles on pavement and this is one of the only safe places to run pavement at night right now... most of the sections of the bike path are still covered with snow. On the plus side, I did hear an owl early on and repeatedly heard the ducks chattering away on the river. And the river was rather pretty with light snow falling.

This was more difficult than I had hoped (silly me) which emphasized that I can only do one race this weekend - if I decide to run the Celebrate Life Half Marathon (which I'm leaning towards) then I'll need to skip the Hawley Kiln Klassic snowshoe race. That's a bummer - I was looking forward to doing one last snowshoe race this season with the WMAC crew - but this will also be a busy weekend work-wise, so it's for the best that I can't spend a big chunk of both days off at a race. I'll make a definite decision toward the end of the week when I see what the weather's supposed to be like... if it's going to be lousy, the half marathon is not happening (running 13.1 miles for 3 hours in lousy weather doesn't fit even my twisted idea of fun.)

Tonight's run HURT. The first two legs weren't bad, but I seriously considered stopping after 9 miles. I'm glad I convinced myself to stay out there for the last 4 - it was slow painful going, but I finished. But I definitely have work to do for the Eastern States 20 Mile Road Race in (yikes!) a month.

No more long runs this week... maybe a short one tomorrow and a short one Friday.

JMH