The 14 Mile War

I parked my car at the Manhasset train station and set out to do my 14 miles on the hilly, but beautiful north shore.  I did 6 miles in South Strathmore, including the Americana shopping center parking lot and a quick stop to the bathroom at Christopher Morley Park.  I crossed over Northern Boulevard through Munsey Park and back to the station to have a swig of Gatorade.  Two nasty blisters appeared out of nowhere on both my left pinkie toe and the next littlest toe (What is this toe called?  The ring toe?  Fred?).  It was bothersome, but manageable.

Fred and Pinkie back from the war.

I ran through Plandome and Flower Hill.  At the 11 mile mark, I felt I needed some more water so I popped into Whole Foods for a quick drink from their water fountain, aka sink (A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do...).  I got back to the train station in a little over two hours, an 8:53 pace.  I'm trying to do my longer runs at a slower pace.  Supposedly, this is the best way to avoid injury and it is doesn't affect race pace negatively.  I'm used to doing all of my runs at an 8:30 pace or less, depending on the distance.  According to the experts, when marathon training, the long runs should be run at least 90 seconds slower than race pace.  That takes some discipline and practice, mainly because when I'm out there for a long time, I just want to get it over with and be done.

Isn't it pretty?

By the end of my run, my shorts were soaked from a combination of sweat and a couple of sprinkler sprints.  Unfortunately, this resulted in some nasty chaffing on my inner thighs.  Ouch!  Lucky for me, my freighbor gave me some Glide before last year's marathon.  I didn't need it back then, but was I happy to see that little dispenser in my medicine chest!  Grease is the word, baby!

Say hello to my little friend!

Jamestown

Who needs Twin Reservoirs and their 9am start when there's a Jamestown, Rhode Island half marathon the week before with a...6:30 start?!  Oh yeah!  I found the Jamestown Half on the Running In The USA site this afternoon.  Jamestown, Rhode Island is a seaside island village.  We had brunch a couple of years ago at one of their cafés on the way home from Newport.  We stood on a very long line of about 20 other patrons, ordered muffins and bacon with the same names (ie, "Apple Maple Muffin" and "Apple Maple Bacon"), paid too much for them, and then tried to seat our large family at one of their two tiny café tables, all the while ignoring glares from disapproving people who, apparently, have never seen children before.  At least my children didn't eat them (That's the other Jamestown*).  Even though my recollection of the area might sound less than favorable, I am looking forward to this race.  It's a quaint New England vacation spot that I'm excited to explore on foot.  The race pretty much runs up and down the length of the island, which is supposed to be scenic and a little hilly.

 My brother-in-law lives in Newport, Jamestown's more well-known neighboring island.  We try to visit his family at least once a year.  They have a cute home walking distance to pretty much everything.  The house is too small to accommodate our brood, though.  The hotels in Newport are ridiculously expensive during the summer.  We usually like to stay on the naval base when we visit, but those rooms fill up pretty quickly during peak season.   We will either set up our tent in brother-in-law's backyard and make a mini camping trip out of it (as I'm typing this, it's actually sounding pretty ridiculous) or my sister-in-law presented a possible alternative.option of staying in her neighbor's beautiful and air conditioned home, if available.  The neighbors live elsewhere and allow their kids and friends to stay at the house when vacationing.  Obviously,  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the house option.  As much as I like camping with the kiddos, sleeping in a hot tent with most of my children and a snoring husband may not be ideal the night before a big race.  The only plus being the outdoor din usually drowns out the grunts and snorts coming from spouse's nose/throat.

I ran an easy 4 miles yesterday at 6:30am.  8 miles on this damp morning at 6:45, 4 of which were at a 7:55 pace.

*Note:  Historic Jamestown, Rhode Island should not be confused with the other historic Jamestown of Virginia, known for the unsettling settlers who gave the term "desperate times call for desperate measures" new meaning.

Redemption

What a difference a couple of hours make!  I started my local 10 miler this morning a little after 6:30.  It was a gorgeous 70 degrees.  I did a 7 mile loop and then my 3 mile loop which I hadn't done in months.  I thought about my race performance at Stratton Faxon during most of the run.  I wondered if I hadn't made the conscious decision to use the bathroom and "fun run" it, what would my time have been?  Shoulda woulda coulda.

I'm already looking for a possible redemption race.  There's a half marathon at Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts on July 21, right around the time the kids and I are supposed to visit The Nun.  It fits in perfectly with my training schedule.  That is one of the few Sundays when I am scheduled to run that distance.  Could it work?  There are some hills at the beginning and end, but they're no worse than what's in Manhasset.  I contacted the race director who happens to reply almost immediately.  The main issue is the start time:  9:00am!  Wasn't this a problem just two days ago?  And now we're talking the end of July.  The director said 2/3 of the race is "in the reservoirs" so the heat won't be so bad.  I'm not quite sure what that means.  Are we swimming?   Am I just asking for trouble?

What would you do?

Stratton Faxon Half Marathon Race Review

The family and I arrived at the Shelton Marriott Courtyard ($100 per night with a AAA discount) at 11am on Saturday.  This hotel is very nice, a huge step up from the crappy Super 8 ($150 per night includes unidentified hairs in the bathtub) in Lee that we stayed in the night before.  I swam with the kids in the heated pool (Bonus!  I can't remember the last hotel I stayed in with a heated pool!) for an hour before they went home.  Let's just say that being in a hotel by myself was so unnatural, I had no idea what to do after they were gone.  So I left the hotel to grab coffee and lunch from the Starbucks down the road.  I also got two bagels from Dunkin' Donuts for race morning.

The Nun finally arrived at 4pm.  We went to the Bertucci's next door for an early dinner.  We both ordered the Shrimp Rossini.  It was pretty good.

We went back to the hotel.  What did we high school buddies do on our first night away from the kids?  Pass out from sheer exhaustion at 7:30pm.  Yup.  Kind of sad.  

What happened next may be the highlight of The Nun's weekend.  My cell phone rang and I jumped up out of bed.  My son was calling to tell me the 3 year old was crying.  As I talked to him, still feeling exhausted, I grabbed my bagel and decided to eat it in bed.  Maybe I could go back to sleep for an hour before I had to start getting ready.  I reassured Rema that I would be home the next morning and told Santos to go back to bed because it was very early.  He sounded wide awake, so I doubted this was going to happen.  As I was eating, The Nun turned over in her bed and asked, "What are you doing?  You've been asleep for an hour.  It's 9:00.  At night."  I turned to the window bewildered because it looked as though the sun was rising.  It was the damn "Super Moon" illuminating the sky.  After I got over my initial shock, The Nun and I just could not stop giggling about my absurdity.  I almost wish she let me get dressed in my running outfit and go down to the lobby.  

That's the Super Moon right above the finger growing out of the top of The Nun's head.

Real race morning arrived.  I awoke at 5:30am and finished what was left of my bagel from the night before.  The Nun was up by 6 and we were out the door by 6:45.  Plenty of time to get to the race before 8:30.  Or so we thought (I am quietly muttering a variety of obscenities at this point).  We took Route 8 to I-95 to Exit 22.  This is where the debacle begins.  To say the traffic getting off the highway was ridiculous would be an understatement.  We inched (no exaggeration) along the exit ramp for about 20 minutes.  They seriously needed to have a couple of police officers at the end of the exit ramp directing traffic.  We finally got to the intersection of North Benson Road and Post Road.  The police officer at the corner suggested that we park at the shopping center and walk 3/4 of a mile to the train station because it was probably full.  We listened to him.  Mistake.  As we were walking to the train station, I noticed that the other runners who also parked at that shopping center were neither in front nor behind us.  Odd.  We got to the train tracks, but still no runners in sight.  We quickly discovered the actual station was on the other side of the tracks.  I did notice plenty of empty parking spaces in the train station parking lot.  We lost almost 10 minutes for nothing (Can you feel the irritation building?).  We didn't board the charter bus to the start until 8:15.  The race begins at 8:30.  There were still a lot of people waiting for the bus behind us.  The Nun asked if they would delay the start until all the buses arrived.  I hoped so, but it was doubtful.  

The bus dumped us in the beach parking lot at 8:21.  There were port-a-potties in the lot that officials were directing us to use because the ones at the start will have long lines.  Fool us once...  We took our chances, and whaddya know?  The port-a-potties at the start were empty (Lesson:  Never listen to anyone in charge in Fairfield, at least during this particular race).  The Nun quickly used the bathroom while I ran to pick up my number.  I heard the announcer say 2 minutes until the start.  The women started on a different block than the men.  By the time I got to the end of the women lined up, the gun had already gone off.  The crowd of runners was unbelievable.  I ran at a 9 minute pace for at least the first three miles.  There was a steep hill right before Mile 3.  This helped ease the congestion slightly, but not much.  I picked up the pace, but as I did this I also felt the effects of the heat and humidity more.  Oh yeah, it was a steamy 80-something degrees.  

The crowd support during this race was great.  Lots of cheering.  Many residents sprayed hoses on the runners to cool us off.  Many had signs (A little boy near Mile 11 {?} was holding the best sign: "You're 83.97% done!"  My math is not as good as his, so I could be wrong about his placement).  The volunteers had plenty of water and Gatorade at the ready.  My fellow runners were interesting.  Some back tattoos stood out, like the dragonfly and peacock.  A lot of runners donned the Hole In the Wall charity t-shirts.  Great cause!  One particular runner stood out.  People who run races with their friends tend to create walls.  This can be utterly annoying to the people (meaning me) trying to pass who are already annoyed for other reasons.  When I find an opening, I take full advantage.  In one instance, a couple of women were shoulder to shoulder.  They separated and I ran through.  One of the women shouted, "You can't do that!"  Really?  You can't pass people in a race?  Isn't that kind of the point of a race?  I waved at her and she called me an asshole.  I was both surprised and amused by this.  Although, maybe she was crazy enough to run up to me and trip me or something.  Too bad for her, she wasn't fast enough ;)

Around Mile 7, I overheard a man telling his friend that he felt tingly and feared it could be heat stroke.  Earlier at Mile 4, I saw one woman lying on the ground with her eyes closed.  EMTs were tending to her.  I must have heard sirens on four separate occasions.  I felt pretty overheated at this point.  I also kind of had to go to the bathroom.  We were approaching a small beach with bathroom facilities.  I knew that if I stopped to go to the bathroom, my chances of a PR are out the window.  At the same time, I don't want to be stuck in some residential area with a "natural disaster".  I figured since I started at a much slower pace than I had planned, I might as well just chalk this up to a "fun run" and do what I gotta do.  So I did.  Once I made this decision, I felt a bit of pressure had been lifted.  I even walked at some points, hoping I would see The Nun.  I didn't.  The course finally circled back to Jennings Beach.  I decided to sprint at the end because much to my surprise, I still was going to finish under 2:00.  The announcer at the finish line called my name as I crossed.  I also saw my friend, Devant and his awesome girlfriend, Kristen, cheering me on.  My net time was 1:55:26.  About 10 minutes off what I was expecting, but not too shabby considering I used the bathroom and walked a bit.  

The crowd at the end was just as bad as the beginning, of course.  After crossing the finish line, I had to hunt down a drink.  Many races hand you a bottle of water or Gatorade immediately at the end, especially if it's EIGHTY DEGREES.  There was a hotdog stand next to the water table.  Where are the fruit and bagels?  Devant pointed out that there were a bunch of tents on the beach.  Sure enough, they were giving out pizza, watermelon, yogurt, and oranges on the beach.  I grabbed my food and also picked up my race shirt since I didn't have enough time before the race.  Of course, I got a large (Here you go, Pete).  The smaller sizes were gone with the wind.  I went back to the finish to meet The Nun.  She finished in the 2:20s, a great time for a first timer in this heat.

Overall, the race course was lined with pretty homes and energetic spectators.  Is this worth the crappy disorganization at the start?  Nah.  I won't be running this race again.  They also need to change the start time to 7:00am, instead of 8:30.  The half marathons I ran last summer both started at 7am.  It's too damn hot to run a good distance at a later time.

Sorry, no pre-race pictures, thanks to the time wasted sitting on I-95 and walking to the train station.

Chugging up the first hill.

This is how we roll.

We won!

More Excuses

My daughter's elementary school graduation was today.  Her last day of school is tomorrow.  We drop her off at summer camp immediately after dismissal (sniff sniff).  No mid week 10 miler.  I will be lucky to get a 4 miler in before my race on Sunday.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.

Excuse Me

I went out at 9:20 this morning to do my 8 mile run.  It was hot and humid, above 80.  I was supposed to run 10 X 100 strides.  This means I sprint for 100 meters 10 times.  Running on the streets, I kind of guessed what 100 meters was.  I tried to visualize the distance of one quarter of one lap around the track.  Instead of 10 strides, I did 8.  And here are my Top Ten Excuses why I only did 8 (There are always excuses, don'tcha know?  Their legitimacy is another story):

                 1.  It was too damn humid.
                 2.  I should just stop there.  But I won't...
                 3.  I went out to dinner last night with the Ballet Moms, most of whom I hadn't seen in years, and came home late for a Monday school night (Our daughters, not the mothers, took ballet classes together once upon a time).
                 4.  I was keyed up from my night out and could not sleep
                 5.  I laid in bed thinking of things I should be worrying about.
                 6.  Whether my oldest daughter was properly packed for summer camp seemed like a good nail biter.
                 7.  I fell asleep after 2am and then woke up at 6am to RE-pack my oldest daughters bags.
                 8.  I was sooo tired.
                 9.  Potty emergency!

                10. Lucky for me, my friend who lives at the halfway point of this run was home and let me use her facilities (after I practically beat down her door).

                Bonus excuse: The remainder of the run was done at a super cautious pace, lest my potty emergency rears its ugly head again (No pun intended).

Oh no!  

(You're not seeing things.  I really did post another picture of myself in bed.  In my baby koala nightgown.  Again.   That's how much I love you guys.  I know you're just blown away by my acting skills, on top of my pluckiness.  You're welcome.)

       

Bird Lady

Well, my 12 miler at the Massapequa Preserve was uneventful, except when the BIRD tried to land on my HEAD!!!  I arrived at the park around 7:45am.  The skies were overcast and the temperature was about 70.  Things were looking good...or so I thought.  Most of the bike path has painted mile markers which was nice because I forgot my watch at home (I run at a pretty consistent pace, so I can guesstimate my distance when I'm wearing my watch).  The baseball and soccer fields are exactly at Mile 2.  Oh, and so is the lunatic bird who tried to LAND ON MY HEAD.  So I was just minding my own business.  I was listening to my music and kind of heard some cawing (hmmm...?), but it almost sounded like it was part of the song.  I really didn't think much of it until I felt CLAWS pulling at my ponytail on top of my HEAD!  It happened very quickly.  By the time I realized what was going on, the bird was gone.  There were some bikers coming toward me, but they apparently missed the show.  I tried to hide my look of horror and pretended like nothing happened (as if they cared).  As you might recall, this is now my second close encounter with a bird.  The first was a few years ago at a beach in Florida when a seagull stole a tuna fish sandwich out of my hands.  I continued with my run north, the entire time wondering if this bird will be waiting for me on my way back.  He wasn't.

Bird attack aside, this was a tough run.  Again, I didn't really carb up yesterday.  In fact, the only carb I had was one slice of toasted protein bread in the morning.  That apparently wasn't enough.  I felt pretty weak and tired from Mile 5 until the end.  I'd like to blame it on the PTSD  I suffered as a result of being mistaken for a nest, but I'm pretty sure I was just not well nourished.  In the end, I finished my run in an 1:44 at an 8:40 pace.

Spicy Salmon

I did an easy 4 miler this morning in gorgeous 70ish degree weather after two consecutive days off.  Clear skies, clear mind.  Perfect.

I'm doing a 12 miler tomorrow morning.  I'm going to go back to the Massapequa Preserve because I just love it so much!  To prepare, I had a yummy tilapia crepe with a blue cheese spinach salad for lunch and my "signature" cajun salmon for dinner.  When we were down in Charleston, South Carolina in April, I had an amazing cajun rub tilapia dinner at the Noisy Oyster.  I wasn't quite sure what the rub was made of, so I improvised when I got home.  I just sprinkled a generous amount of Adobo, chili powder, and cayenne pepper on top of some salmon and baked it at 350 for 30 minutes.  It was so easy and amazing.  I've been eating it every week since.  I like hot and SPICY, so if you don't, this may not be for you.

I found this picture on the Skinny Skillet.  It is a different recipe from mine, but I inhaled my salmon before I decided I wanted to post a picture of it.  

Brooks Visor, Baby

No run today, BUT....I got my new Brooks running visor in the mail from Running Warehouse today!  I think it will be perfect for my half marathon.  $13.95 and free shipping!  You can't beat that with a stick.

Fingers Crossed!

I set out to do 9 miles this morning.  The weather was perfect, mid 70s with a slight breeze.  I was a little stiff starting out from my tempo run yesterday.      I took a new route to the south side of town into Oceanside.  It was a relief to have a change of scenery and it broke up the run nicely.  Because I took an unplanned mini-detour, I wound up doing 9.4 miles total.  I felt good and even had a second wind in the last couple of miles.  I switched days from tomorrow because there's rain in the forecast (Shocking, I know.  It's not like we haven't had pouring rain all spring.).  I won't have a run until my 4 miler on Saturday, which is fine.  I've already clocked 31 miles for the week and it's only Wednesday.

I don't even want to jinx myself, but I feel like I should mention it.  My right knee has been feeling a little funny lately.  I'm not limping, but it feels like I may start any day now.  I think it's inflamed.  I'm going to ice it tonight.  (Sigh)

Oh, I'm going to try to make a real effort to incorporate more pictures in this blog.  I realize that the blogs I'm reading and finding most interesting are the ones with lots of pictures, particularly ones of the bloggers themselves.  So, since I didn't take any running pictures today (because I only came up with the vow to photograph more just now), I will share a picture of myself right now blogging!  Yes, I know.  You can't contain yourself.

Me making the magic.  (There are so many interesting aspects to this picture,  from my koala baby nightgown to the small feet sticking out from beneath the Star Wars pillow to the fact that I actually posted this on my blog.)

If you have any advice on how to nip the knee issue in the bud, please feel free to advise!  Or if you have any picture requests, please request!  I, obviously, don't have a lot of great ideas.

Pfitzinger's Pfunny

I aced Day 1 of my Pfitzinger Advanced Marathon Training Plan.  Day 1 consisted of Rest and Relaxation, translation: No Run.  I didn't even run when the baby fell down the steps in the backyard (Oh c'mon, it was only two steps!  She was fine.  Didn't even cry!).

Today was Day 2.  Lactate Threshold, 8 miles with 4 miles at half marathon (HM) race pace.  Okay.  I was browsing through the Runner's World Marathon message boards before I went out.  Someone on the same plan and schedule as me posted about his run.  He found it difficult to do the 4 miles consecutively at HM pace, his HM pace being around 9 minutes.  He broke it up into 4 intervals.  As I read this, I thought to myself, "Really?  How hard could it be running 4 miles at HM pace when you run13.1 miles at HM pace??  Seriously."  I expected most of the responses from the veteran, snark marathoners to be mostly critical and negative.  Instead, they all agreed that Pfitzinger's plan consisted of too many "fast" runs.  What?  I found this completely irritating.  All of these runners have held the Pfitzinger plan up as the ultimate marathon racing program for the ultimate marathon racers.  Now they're saying it's flawed?!  I decided that they were lying to this poster for no particular reason other than I was annoyed that my new plan wasn't perfect.

I headed out on my run.  The first two miles I jogged (Jog?) and then I picked it up to my HM pace (low 8s).  Did I mention that I started this run at 12:30pm in 85 degree humid weather?  Full sun.  So at around the 5 mile mark, I decided that all those veteran runners on the message boards were correct when they agreed with the original poster.  4 miles at HM pace on Day 2 of Pfitzinger is unnecessary and by golly, uncalled for!  Breaking it up is totally acceptable!  I jogged again and then ran two half miles broken up at HM pace.  Pfuck it.

It's supposed to rain on Thursday so I may do my 9 miler tomorrow.

Higdon's Last Stand

I got to the Massapequa Preserve this morning at 7:30, pumped for my two hour run. I was just happy that I was up early enough to squeeze it in.  I started at Sunrise Highway this time so I didn't have to cross the busy thoroughfare like last week when I started at Merrick Road.  I headed north. The weather was warm, but because the path is mostly shaded, the heat wasn't a problem.   There were more people out than I expected at that hour.  I never felt alone.  The Massapequa Preserve ends along the Bethpage State Parkway and turns into Bethpage State Park, home of the world famous golf course where the U.S. Open was played twice.  It gets hilly here too.  They aren't very steep hills, more rolling.  There were a lot more cyclists up on this part of the course.  The path got crowded at a couple of turns.  I kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn't get clipped or run over.  Close to the one hour mark, I was in the parking lot by the baseball fields.  I ran through the woods before turning around to make it an even one hour.  This was tricky because the ground was uneven.  Maybe trail running is not for me.  The run back went by pretty quickly.  I noticed I was going to arrive at my car a few minutes shy of two hours.  Toward the end, I veered off onto a dirt path which got me to my car at 1:59:45.  Total mileage was 13.91, an 8:36 pace.  Goodbye Higdon Half Marathon Plan.  You've been good to me in the past, but it's time to shake things up a little.

I noticed during my last couple of longish runs that right around 8 miles, my bones started to feel achy.  I'm not sure if this is due to poor diet, inflammation, or the inevitable age-related creakiness.  I have a feeling that I'm not going to have a lot more marathons up my sleeve in the future.  The number 3 sounds good.  I will continue to run as long as my legs allow, but this long distance business?  As the sage Detective Murtaugh said once or twice or four times, "I'm too old for this shit!"

My oldest daughter had her last track meet this afternoon.  I wanted her to run the 800, but she's as lazy as her mother.  Instead, she ran 5 relay races.  Unlike her mother, she's damn fast.  She was always able to pull ahead once the baton was passed to her and as the anchor, she easily finished first.  She's a natural athlete.  I keep wondering how far she would go if she actually put some effort into it.  Yes, I'm a proud mama.

The Stratton Faxon Fairfield Half Marathon is two weeks away!

Postscript:  Noomi Rapace is a great actress (with a rockin' body, might I add).  I thought The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was good and suspenseful (although, the American version is much easier to watch with Daniel Craig in the lead).  The Girl Who Played With Fire was good until the hokey twist at the end (I won't give it away).  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest had potential, but I felt like there was a lot of build up that went flat fast.  The acting all around was solid.  There were a lot of different characters.  It was hard to keep track of them with their similar sounding foreign names while reading the subtitles.   I am not a xenophobe, by any means.  I usually love foreign films.  My brain might be getting too old to process them correctly.  Murtaugh.

Be Cool, Subscribe!

I didn't realize how long of a "hiatus" I took since my last post until my freighbor (that would be "friend" and "neighbor" melted together) mentioned it to me.  I highly recommend subscribing to my blog so you don't have to manually and daily check in on me.  Just point your little arrow to the right hand side of the screen and you will see a "Subscribe!" option appear.  Type in your email address and voilå (Pardon the "å".  I was looking for the accent a grave, but this Scandinavian looking circle took it's place.  I'm not sure what it is, but there you have it.)    You will now receive automatic email updates!

Yesterday we had some serious rain all freakin' day.  I guess I could have gone out to do my scheduled 55 minute tempo, but I really think I would have looked like a Crazy Person instead of the Dedicated Runner.  Today I did a 7 mile run at my projected half marathon pace.  It took me 56:22, an 8:03 pace.  Tomorrow I'm due for a two hour run.  If I get up early enough, I will either go up to the north shore (Manhasset/Port Washington) or try the Massapequa/Bethpage trail.  If I don't get up early, I will do a boring, flat run around the neighborhood (Shoot me).

Tune in tomorrow for my two hour run recap (or a review of the Swedish version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" film trilogy that I TiVo'd last night).  

Happy National Running Day!

In honor of National Running Day I ate homemade macaroni salad and chocolate cake!  Mmm...starchy carbs!  I also ran 5 miles in the morning, like yesterday and like I will do again tomorrow.  Today was a 4 X 1600 day again.  One mile run at half marathon pace 4 times with a 2:30 jog in between each.  My Higdon half marathon plan ends on Sunday.  I start the Pfitzinger Advanced Marathon training program on Monday, which happens to be a rest day. There are actually more rest days on the Pfitz schedule than Higdon.  The daily miles are longer, but there are many weeks with two days off and a couple with possibly three!  Whoo hoo!  I'm soooo tired of my boring routes.  I'm looking forward to switching it up.

I can't wait for National Lie In Bed Watching Uninterrupted Lifetime Movies All Day Day!  Unfortunately, I think it falls on the same day as Never Gonna Happen or My 65th Birthday (sigh).

Massapequa/Bethpage Trail

Yesterday afternoon I took the two little ones out in the double jogger stroller for a five mile run in 82 degrees.  They both fell asleep after the first mile (Score!).  It's nice to be out running with them once in a while, but the strollers are cumbersome, especially ones that are garbage picked by Hoarder Husband.  Both the double and single joggers that we have veer to the right, so it can be annoying when I'm already hugging the curbs.  I usually take the least trafficked roads when I have the kids, so it's not that big of an issue, but not one that I would enjoy dealing with daily.

Today was my 1:45 run.  I decided to finally explore the Massapequa/Bethpage bike trail.  The Emerging Runner, a fellow local blogger, posts regularly about this park.  It seemed like the perfect venue for a long run.  I parked right off of Merrick Road at the foot of the Massapequa Preserve.  I got on the paved bike path and headed north for six miles.  I t was a little after 2pm and most of the path was shaded.  There were a lot of people out, either walking or on their bikes.  Only a handful of runners.  

I had to cross five roads (both ways), the busiest being Sunrise Highway at Mile 1.  The last three were exit ramps from Bethpage State Parkway, but I didn't even have to stop since it's a pretty quiet roadway.  Thankfully, these roads barely interrupted the run.  The path isn't as hilly as I expected.  I think if I ran farther north, I would have hit the hillier terrain.   The highlights of the outing were the goose and swan families waddling and swimming around.  I can't get enough of those fuzzy babies.  Overall, it is a scenic, peaceful route that I'm looking forward to running again very soon.

Swan family in the distance.