Broad street

I feel like an experienced Broad Street runner.  But I see my tee shirt says 16 years ago.  Doesn't count for much.    The shirt held up well.

Color Me RAD

Color Me RAD.  Before the color.

Stairs are bad after a Marathon

Mars

This is an interactive 360 panorama.

I wonder if anyone will ever run on Mars.


Mars Panorama - Curiosity rover: Martian solar day 613 in Out of this World

From here.

All time favorite running videos

Here are my all time favorite running videos, tonight.  The first two are long, like movies.

Badwater.  Two hours of shaky cam  but a good running film despite irritating characters.  Worth the two hours.
The Spirit of the Marathon.  Find this on Netfix or somewhere.  Very motivational.
1972 5000KM Pre finishes 4th in the Olympics but it was an awesome run
2008 big 10 800.  Inspirational and fast.
2008 Olympic trials for steeplechase.  Just a good race.  A front runner, chasers, etc.  The Steeplechase is a train wreck race.
Sidney 10k -this video is just the finish
Watch the last 5 minutes of this crazy race.
Cram and Ovett 1983 best 1500 ever

And I think watching Kipchoge Kieno when I was seven years old is why I started running in the first place.

Ridge Run From Hempfield Rec Center

This is a pleasant little run with some nice scenery and a challenging hill at the beginning.  It's also possible to extend or reduce the mileage in many ways.  The one I show is about 4.7 miles.

Park at the Hempfield Rec Center.  Head left out of the parking lot and then right on to Corporate Blvd.

Continue to Marietta Ave, where you dogleg to the left, then cross Marietta Ave and begin climbing the hill. It's possible to stay on the grass in this area.

Halfway up the hill there is a sidewalk to the right.  Take that till it ends, then continue up the hill.

At the top of the ridge, turn right on Horizon and follow that all the way to Summit Drive.  

Vista from the top.

Turn right on Summit and follow to Marietta Ave.  This road has poor shoulders, so be wary of traffic.

During the winter and spring it's sometimes possible to take the abandoned rail track as shown in red, below. I wish someone would drive a bush hog through here occasionally.  In summer it is not navigable because it gets overgrown with brambles.

The old train track trail in the early spring.

Off of Marietta Ave, turn left between the junk yard and the Fire station, and get on Ivy Drive.

Along Ivy Drive, I recommend crossing to the right side and running between the evergreen trees and the farm field.

Between the junk yard and the Fire House.

Cross Ivy Drive here and run between the hedgerow and the fields.

The home stretch

Here's a link to the route on Endomondo.

Bucks County Half

My youngest son and I did the Bucks County Half Marathon this morning.  He is 25 and I am 54, and we each finished 9th in our age groups!  I highly recommend this race.  Lots of water stops.  Great food after the race.  Nice IT by Mid Atlantic Timing.

The start was crowded for the first mile, with a narrow path and hedgerows of brambles right up against the sides, so you were sort of stuck in the position you started.  Once the pack started to thin, there was plenty of space, and tons to see in the state park.  It was a small road or trail paved with asphalt most of the way.

Starting at mile 5, there was a vertical ascent of 300 feet in about 2.5 miles.  Then we looped around and did the exact same climb again, this time starting at mile 10.  Whew!

On the map below, I circled the climb on the elevation section of this map just so you can see when the beast will bite you if you decide to do this half.

Night headgear

At night I run with a headlight up front and a flashing red light in the back.

The Milk Route

This is a nice country route near Landisville.  Not extremely hilly, but it does dip steeply in to some creek bottoms.

Get to it by parking at the Hempfield Rec Center.  I don't know if the rec center's bathrooms are available, but it would be worth a try.

Out of the parking lot, take a right, staying on the grass, and then the first right on Snapper Dam road.  Then follow the map.

The first half mile is through suburbs, but the rest is through farm country.  You'll see many idyllic rural scenes along the way.  I mapped a 6.7 mile route, but there are lots of optons to make this course shorter or longer.

There are no restrooms or water along the way.  The roads don't have much shoulder, but cars are infrequent enough that they can give you wide berth.

My mom used to buy raw milk from one of the farmers along this route, so hence the name "The Milk Route."

This is one of my favorites.

http://www.endomondo.com/routes/315327283

Rainy Day Running

Runger

Here's a new concept in a friendly little article from Kelly Leighton about runger.

Pretzel City Sports

If you are looking for races in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, you should sign up for the newsletter at Pretzel City Sports.  They keep a good calender.

Lancaster Junction Trail and Auction Road

This is one of my favorite runs these days:  Lancaster Junction Trail and Auction Road.

Start from the trail head, which is the Salunga Park and Ride, near Spooky Nook Sports.  There is a public restroom there, but only open during the summer.

Head down the trail, and at the first road crossing, turn left off the trail and get on Shenck Road.  Follow that to the covered Bridge.  Go through the covered bridge, then turn right onto Auction Road.  Follow this the whole way around (slight jog at Colebrook, just keep going the same direction) until the railroad tracks, which is the other end of the trail.  Get back on the trail and bring it home.

The route has all kinds of nice attributes:

1.  Convenient parking and restroom.

2.  Scenery includes a creek, covered bridge, Amish farms.

3.  In Strawberry season there is a pick-your-own strawberry farm.

Today I saw spring flowers in the woods!  Yay!

The run has a couple of negatives:

1.  Many people walking dogs on the trail.
2.  Shoulders on the roads are not always great, but cars are infrequent.
3.  The route is difficult to shorten or lengthen.

But all things considered, this is my go-to run these days.  If you're in Lancaster, you should give it a try.

Enola Low Grade Trail - Western Trail Head

I went jogging on the Enola Low Grade Trail today.  It's a 30 mile long trail that have never explored.  I was on the western most end under the Turkey Hill Windmills.  I started at the Orange arrow and went out about two and a half miles, then back.  I kept thinking I would run to the end and than back - I had no idea the trail is 30 miles long!

I recommend this out and back run with 5 stars out of 5.

There's a nice row of parking at the trail head, but I'm sure it gets full on nice warm days.  Best of all, there are porta potties.

The surface is very smooth and level cinders.

There are historical marker and stuff like that along the way.  Including everyone's favorite: a caboose!

Little creeks come down through the cliffs, go under the trail, and then over top the real railroad tracks below, in big metal sluices.

There were old and new mile markers, but I didn't run far enough to get my bearings about which way the numbers were going, and so forth.

I saw a "2", but didn't see a "1" or "3".

Yay!  Even more porta johns!

This part of the trail I ran today gave me the feeling of being in some sort of rough and tumble Industrial wasteland, despite the wonderful vistas of the rivers, and turkey vultures and hawks circling overhead.

I liked the parts where I was wondering what might be up around the next bend.

Some of the overhanging cliffs are quite spectacular.

The bridges over the Susquehanna for Rt 30 and Rt 462 are visible from near the trail head, but my phone battery died before I was able to take those shots.

I'm interested to run the rest of the trail, now.  Evidently it gets rather full of bikers and families with little kids and strollers.  Need to watch that.

13 degrees F

Winter Running

I think I broke my YakTrax today.  20 degrees F.  Snowing.

Running in the Rain

 We had a polar vortex here in the East, and now the thaw has begun.  Yesterday brought cold constant rain.  But it was a welcome distraction.

Drying the shoes.