Boardwalk run at Sunken Meadow



An unexpected boardwalk run

Yesterday's run (Sunken Meadow State Park boardwalk): 1.5 miles Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

I was recently on Google maps looking at a few of the parks on Long Island that have trails that I want to run. Over the past few years I've made many trips to Stillwell Woods, Trailview and Bethpage State Parks and to the Muttontown Mystery Trail. I've run and raced a number of times at Eisenhower Park and hiked in places like Caumsett and Caleb Smith. An interesting park that I hadn't yet visited is Sunken Meadow State Park, located in King's Park, on Long Island Sound.

Our plan on Monday was to hike Caleb Smith in the morning, before the weather got too hot, We headed over early but when we arrived, we saw that the gates were closed. We then decided to get back on the Sunken Meadow Parkway and go north to Sunken Meadow State Park. It took us less than ten minutes to get there and we headed immediately to the boardwalk that runs 3/4 of a mile along the beach.

This park is large and impressive and we only scratched the surface in our exploration. The boardwalk looked inviting so while my wife and kids made their way down to the water, I did a very easy run along the walkway. I was wearing my Helly Hansen trail shoes because I'd expected to be hiking, but the forgiving wooden surface felt fine. The picture above was taken by my wife, who was sitting on a jetty with the kids, as I ran by.

We're looking forward to a return trip to Sunken Meadow and I'm especially interested to try the trails with their famously difficult hills. This morning I opted for an indoor run out of concern for rainy weather. I used my HRM to guide my pace and did half the run in zone 3 before bumping up the speed in increments to get  me to zone 4. I found it much easier to push my pace when I saw that my HR was still fairly low.

If the rainy weather continues I'll probably find myself on the treadmill again tomorrow. Now that I know how fast I need to run to get into zone 4 (about an 8:50 pace), I may get up to speed a little quicker.

Will there be snow at the Snowflake race?

They are now predicting that we'll see snowflakes at the Snowflake race in Long Beach this Saturday. I have no issues running with a little snow, my biggest concern is that they'll yank us off the boardwalk again because of slippery conditions.

I'm enjoying day one of my two-day rest period prior to Saturday's event. Not counting the New Year Hangover 5 mile (fun) run, this will be my first race of 2012. I'm hoping that I've trained correctly for this race.

Four mile races are similar to 5K's, except that they require a little more strategy in terms of parceling out speed. Where 5K's are basically fast runs that get faster at the end, a 4 mile race requires a little more pacing.. I'm looking to make my first mile my slowest, and pick up speed as I go. The condition of the course will factor in as well. I'm still hoping for the boardwalk, but you never know.

Hey, what do you mean no boardwalk?!



No-flakes only on the boardwalk

Yesterday afternoon I received an email from the Snowflake Run race organizers that said "Due to weather conditions, the race has been moved off the Boardwalk." I'm sure they did that for good reasons but I'd signed up for this race mostly to run along the water. I guess running on the wooden boardwalk with ice and snow could get slippery and dangerous. But after all, it's called the Snowflake Run for a reason! The new course will be routed through the town streets and that will be fine, but I'll miss those views.

I enjoyed my guilt-free rest day this morning and I'm hoping that I'm not over confident about my readiness for Saturday. In the past I've made the mistake of assuming that a shorter race like this one should be an easy distance to cover. That would be true if I was planning to run it like a typical weekend training run but, in competition, any distance requires proper training. I hope I've done enough to prepare for this race. If it's snowing, sleeting or raining tomorrow it will impact how I run. I'll bring along my trail shoes just in case.