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| Hot to Trot |
This year, things are very different. Hope for Warriors was moved back to October for reasons that I don't quite understand. It usually coincides with Veteran's Day but not this year. I was unable to make the new date this year because of a conflict in my schedule. That's unfortunate because I really like that race.
Long Beach, New York, took a beating during Hurricane Sandy. The boardwalk and the beaches were destroyed and the storm left thousands of people homeless. It's a tragic situation and the race has (of course) been cancelled.
So this leaves the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day and I'm happy to be running with my family. My kids are excited about it and even bought turkey hats to wear when they run. The Nissequogue course runs through the old former Kings Park Psychiatric Hospital that is being torn down. I'm curious to see if they'll change the route this year.
Since I wasn't able to run the Hope for Warriors 10K race today, I decided to do a symbolic run of the same distance. I first planned to run at Bethpage, but I saw on the website that the park is closed until further notice. I imagine that Sandy brought widespread destruction to the trees, paths and golf courses. I was left with little choice but to run locally and set off in my neighborhood to complete my run.
I didn't run very well yesterday, but I managed to stay within my normal pace range. I felt much stronger today, but the numbers showed that my average pace was 15 seconds slower than yesterday's outing. The reason for that isn't obvious. While I wished I'd run faster, I was pleased to have covered my intended distance feeling great throughout my run.
I spent the first half of my run on the familiar roads of my main neighborhood before heading south to neighborhood #2 where I surveyed the damage from the storm. The LIPA trucks were scattered about, attempting to get the last 7% of homes back on the grid. I feel great sympathy for Sandy's victims, including those who remain without power two weeks after the storm. I'm hoping they'll get it back soon. Personally, I'm still excited when I walk into a room, flip on a switch and see something besides the dark.
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I live in South Huntington and I have been having a hard time running on the streets because of all the debris on the sides of the roads I have almost been hit a few times so I don't think I can run these roads for awhile, any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteI understand your concern about the dangers of running on busy, debris strewn streets. My policy is to avoid main roads and do most of my running in parks, on trails or within local neighborhoods. In neighborhoods, I ALWAYS run on the left side facing traffic and assume that every driver is either on their phone, texting or drunk.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't run in a nearby park you might want to consider scoping out a neighborhood near your home and plan a run using Google Earth or GMAPS to familiarize yourself with the various roads. You can even drive to a further neighborhood that has more streets. You can park, run and then drive home. It's fun to look at different scenery every once in a a while.
There's also the track at local high schools. Safe, but dull unless you are running intervals.
Please be careful when you are out on a busy street. I worry about every runner I see when I'm driving along main roads.