Me and Dave on the Bethpage trail

Start of the Bethpage bike path and its first big hill

Today's run (Bethpage bike path): 6.3 miles

This morning I finally caught up with my running buddy Dave, who I haven't seen since the winter. He'd just come back from a long vacation in Greece with his family where he had many opportunities to run. We had decided to cover about six miles today, the first time I've done a run over 6 miles since mid-June.

We started at 7:20 AM while it was still fairly cool. The humidity hadn't risen much and we were sheltered by the bike path's tree cover that starts about a mile into the route. We maintained an easy pace and, before I knew it, we'd passed the 30 minute mark. We then turned around to complete the second half of the run.

Along the way we saw a number of people running in groups, perhaps in training for an upcoming race. There were the usual cyclists, most of them polite, but one rider overtook us on the final hill and screamed "Move over!" before he passed. Not too cool since there was plenty of room for him already.

Between the relaxed pace and the interesting conversation the hour-plus run went by very quickly. I had brought my Amphipod hand bottle, filled it with crushed ice, for hydration. The contents stayed cold as the ice melted and it provided a cool supply of water throughout the route. We finished the run feeling like we'd had a good workout and had the sweat to prove that. I was really pleased to break the 6 mile barrier after many days, along with great company, a nice course and near perfect weather.