the Way of the Turtle

6 Mile Night Run in the Albany Pine Bush
Friday, September 5, 2008

Between work, errands, and covering the Friday night class at the karate school, there was no way for me to get in a run until after dark. In some ways, that was probably fortunate - today was another extremely hot and humid day, and sundown alleviated that slightly, though I still found myself completely drenched by the time I was done.

Hit some of the trails at the Madison Avenue Pinelands and Great Dunes sections of the Pine Bush, mostly because I know that area very well and have run it in the dark more times than I can count. The current "habitat restoration" work has parts of the blue and yellow trails closed, which meant I had to be creative to come up with 5-6 miles without running repeat loops, but I managed.

Running after dark in warm weather has a major difference from all the fall and winter night runs I do - it's much noisier! Tons of insects, peepers, animals... there were numerous points where I heard rustling in the woods beyond the light of my headlamp, which can be a bit disconcerting, but in the end I know there's nothing in the Pine Bush that's likely to bother me. Even the coyotes are likely to head away from me as quick as they can.

With tomorrow's storm moving into the area, at times there were wonderful cool breezes blowing across the open areas. I stopped twice to just stand there and enjoy the cool air, the night sky, and the sounds of nature all around me.

Wednesday's long haul at Plotter Kill definitely took a toll on my legs... they were stiff and sore all day today, and it took quite a while for me to warm up during the run tonight... and every hill hurt. Hopefully they'll have recovered more by Sunday's race in Pittsfield!

JMH