Sunday, October 23rd in the iconic Hudson Valley town of Rhinebeck, NY.

Be a part of this beautiful day as participants run through historic downtown Rhinebeck and journey to the shores of the Hudson River in neighboring Rhinecliff.

With the New York City Marathon just two weeks away, this is the perfect opportunity to do a final training run or spend a weekend in the country running in this gorgeous setting.

A portion of the proceeds from the race will be donated to support Riverkeeper, a New York-based organization dedicated to defending the Hudson River and its tributaries and protecting the drinking water supply of nine million New York City and Hudson Valley residents.

Race Highlights:

• Certified Half Marathon Course with B-Tag Chip Timing
• Former NY Ranger Goalie and Olympian Mike Richter to run on behalf of Riverkeeper.org
• Late 10 AM start to allow travel time for people from NYC, Westchester, Albany, etc.
• Tech shirts for all runners

 Sounds pretty good, right?

Looks like a pretty course.

Hills!!!!!!!!!!! Yikes!!

So I guess I should have looked at the elevation chart before I signed up for this race!! (Look how the race ends!!!)

I thought my friend Mary who is training for the Philly Marathon would run this with me but she decided to do her 20 miler on Sat instead.  Then I thought my hubby would come and hang out at the Aerodrome because he loves planes but he played tennis instead.

I was solo.

According the Google, it was going to take 1hr 17 min to get there so I got up nice & early and prepared to leave at 7:30 am so I would be there by 9am (for the 10 am start). However, my GPS said it would only take 1 hour and it did! The ride was nice…the foliage was awesome!

I had plenty of time to kill before the race.  There were real bathrooms in addition to porta potties.  That’s always a plus.

The weather would be perfect…a little chilly at the start but warm when the sun would come out.  I walked around & took some pics.

Mike Richter, former NY Rangers goalie

I decided to leave my jacket behind (actually near a tree by the start) and I was glad I did.  There were about 400 running the Half Marathon & about 100 running the 5K. The weather was perfect for a race and the scenery was beautiful. I also bumped into local blogger, Jen at the start.

That’s the good part.

As I said before, I wasn’t going to race this race just use it as a training run.  Famous last words.

I started out too fast.  My 1st 2 miles were in the 9s and in fact, the 1st 6.5 miles were all under 11.  I felt good and of course, I started thinking PR.

I was on course with covering the 1st half in just over 1 hour.  (My fastest half was 2:22)

Then came the hills!! I means steep hills — after hill after hill after hill.  The total ascent for the race was 2099 ft (that’s 300 ft more than Schroon HM).

My pace slowed.  I NEVER TRAIN ON HILLS!  I probably should but I hate them. As my hopes of a PR vanished, I walked and took some pics.

along the Hudson R.

The race of course, ended with huge hills.  I walked until I got to the finish line and forced myself to sprint across it.

Official time: 2:32:50
Garmin time: 2:31:49   13.20 miles!

Here are some more pics from Jen‘s blog: THANKS JEN!

The refreshments were lacking: half bagels (no cream cheese or butter), bags of chips, water.  The medal wasn’t metal – engraved (etched) plastic.  There were no awards or results printed.  No photographers.  Hardly any spectators along the course.  I guess that’s what you get for an Inaugural race.

So I headed home.  The ride again was pleasant due to the beautiful scenery.

So there you have it…Half Marathon #4 is in the books. (Half Marathon #5 is 2 weeks away!!!!!!!!)

Not sure if it was a good decision to do it (training runs are free!!) but you never know until you try. It certainly was a challenge.

I did achieve all my goals:

• Finish. Yes I did!
• Do not get injured. I don’t think so…we’ll see the next time I try to run!
• Beat my last (untrained one) time of 2:45. (by 14 minutes!)
• ENJOY it.  In a strange way…I always enjoy competing!

Happy Running! Any advice for running on hills or staying with it when your race starts to suck?

My hosts were great.  Linda had to go to work but her husband Chris made me oatmeal (with raisins) and a Cafe Latte.

Yes, that’s my pre-running breakfast!!! And with a view!!

So I said my good-byes and headed for the beach.

This is where I grew up.  Jones Beach is where we went all the time during the summer.  During college, I even worked there as a usherette at the theatre.

This time of year, there was NO TOLL! ($10 saved).

It was also pretty deserted.  There are many parking lots and almost all were closed.  I finally found one and parked my car.

ready to run

It was a gorgeous day – high 60’s & sunny (with a breeze). I headed for the boardwalk and found that they had set up a 4 mile run.

So I did it.  I started in the middle so I actually wound up running 5 miles!!!

There weren’t many people around. So I walked around on the sand for awhile.

I even put my feet in the water. BRRRRR!

There were quite a few large shells so I kept a few as a souvenir.

Reluctantly I headed back to my car.  As I was leaving, I noticed another parking lot open and there were cars parked there. 

I found out why.  There was a restaurant open and people were eating at picnic tables. 

I ordered a Nathan’s hotdog with sauerkraut & fries and ate it on the beach!  I just had too!

Then I headed back up north (with a detour past the house I grew up in). 

Happy Running!  Where is your favorite place to run? (I just discovered that mine is the boardwalk along the ocean.)

This past weekend I went to my high school Reunion.  We had a 20 yr reunion and now 20 years later, we have our 2nd reunion (thanks to Facebook).

I went to East Meadow HS on Long Island, NY. There were 960 people in my graduating class – yes, it was HUGE!  I knew probably 60 and was close friends with probably 10 of them.

At this Facebook-organized reunion, there were about 70 plus a few spouses in attendance.  Believe it or not, I knew quite a few people. There were mmy close friends, those in some of my classes, some that I rode the bus with, etc.

It was held at Borellis, our favorite pizza hangout back then, from 11-4 pm on Sunday. 

It wasn’t a fancy Sat nite shindig like the last one.

me, Linda, Don, Nancy, Sue & Joyce at our 20 yr reunion

It was casual.  Everyone chatted and chatted and reminisced. There was a buffet of Italian food and an open bar.

me, Linda, Don, Sue, Joyce & Nancy 20 years later

 Do you think we’ve aged?

I got to see my close friends which was great but I also got to see friends that I hadn’t seen since high school.

Gail (on the right) lives in Vancouver

Lots of picture taking. Cake for dessert.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went back to Linda & Chris’ house (where I would be spending the night). We had dinner and chatted some more.

Linda, Joyce, Gail, Sue & me

 After everyone left, Linda, Chris & I hung out in their hot tub, glasses of wine, looking at the water (Their house is on the water in LI.) and the stars.

What the life!!

Stayed tuned. 

Monday was an even better day because….. (I’ll let you guess!)

Happy Running!

Today was my long run and I had 11 miles on my schedule. It was an almost perfect day – cool (in the 50’s), a little breezy & sun mixed with clouds.

I parked my car at the  Rail Trail and planned to finish my last 4 miles there.

Ready to run

I am always looking for new scenic places to run nearby.  So I thought why not run around a local golf course.

There was one about 1 1/2 miles away. Yes, it was very scenic.

 and at first I thought that no one was playing golf there.

It was very HILLY.  I guess that’s why they use golf carts. There was also lots of  mud puddles from yesterday’s rain. I ran around for a while until I came up 2 guys playing golf.  I’m not sure what they said since I had headphones on but they pointed & I’m sure it was something like “Don’t run HERE!!!!”

I quickly ran in the other direction and then went in the Pro Shop and asked if there were any water fountains.  The guy there said NO! (I wished I had brought some water at this point.)

I passed a sign that said “Closed.”  I figured that it was a safe bet that no one would be playing golf on these holes so off I ran.

posing on the golf course

I continued running around the course making sure that no one was playing golf nearby.  But I made an interesting discovery at each hole.

WATER

So either that guy who said that there were no water fountains was joking OR he meant “Only for Golfers (not for you).”

Finally I headed back towards the Rail Trail.  I wanted to have run 7 miles before the trail so I had to continue into town.  And I had to stop for a cupcake & some water, of course, before turning around.

 
 The trail was quiet today — NO DEER!

My pace was quite slow… lots of stops. As a punishment, I forced myself to run an extra mile!

So 12 miles completed!

Early tomorrow morning, I’m driving to Long Island to go to my High School Reunion.  I’m staying with a friend until Monday!

Happy Running!  Enjoy the weekend!

On Tuesday, I ran 4 miles after work on the Rail Trail.  This has recently become my favorite route since you don’t have to deal with traffic and traffic lights.

Wednesday, it was raining and I only had time for 3 miserable miles on the treadmill before yoga.

Yesterday after work, it looked like it might rain but I decided to go back to the Rail Trail.

Almost 2 miles into the run, which is narrow and wooded, there was a huge deer blocking my path.  I stopped, made a lot of noise, yelled at him to leave but he stayed and stared at me.  I was a little scared.  Do deer attack? I was afraid to go around him and he wouldn’t leave.  All of a sudden, he started walking toward me.  What did I do?  I climbed up a hill and over a guard rail and continued my run on the road.

I ran until my Garmin said 2.5 miles and then turned around.  I decided to go back on the trail hoping that the deer had left by now. When I got to the spot where I saw the deer, I looked around and he was gone!  Phew!

I felt myself running faster.  I was trying to finish before another deer encounter.  Everytime I heard a noise, I froze.  Once it was rabbit.  Then it was a squirrel.

So 5 miles in the books.  A decent run it was.  I could do without a deer in my path, though.

 Today is a rest day!! Mah Jongg tonite.

Tomorrow I have 11 miles on my schedule before I leave for Long Island to attend my high school reunion.

Happy Running! TGIF!