RUNNING - WESTCHESTER CO. NY STYLE

- Rockefeller Park, the trails up on the Eastview side, the adjoining bridal paths, Rockwood, and the OCA. Nothing is better than a moonlit night by the old cemetery, where is that horseman anyway?

- The North County Trailway & the South County Trailway

- Running home from Van Cortlandt Park via The Putnam Trail and the Bronx river trail.

- Blue Mountain and the Briarcliff Peekskill Trailway.

- The Colonial loop and adjacent trails.

- Run around a reservoir, Croton, Titicus, Amawalk, Byram Lake, Kensico all are cool runs.

- The roads in Purchase and Rye (like Mill Pond or Milton Pt.) and the Colleges too.

- Park Lane, West Harrison and North St, White Plains, why I'll never know. Maybe they're just close by.

- Cherry St and Croton Lake Rd in Katonah. Fox lane, Rt 22, Succabone, and Guard Hill in Bedford.

- Rt 128 in Armonk and Bedford road in Greenwich.

- Ward Pound Ridge

- CROTON DAM

- And the Bear Mountain Bridge, the Goat trail, and the Annsville trail. Be careful there that's where the reaper made his move.

I wonder how many times I've almost been run over on Anderson Hill Rd.

1/18/10 - DUCK HUNT

What makes a good duck hunt? Droves of mallards diving into the spread? Lots of action? Good people and dogs? Well they all help, but today was one of those really good days because with 3 grown men and a big lab in a 13' duck boat and a north wind ready to push us 12 miles or more across L.I. sound, the engine quit. Ahh, but it quit in the right place (a 200 yard row to a spot we could hunt and still get home) not far from the ramp at the beginning of an afternoon hunt. It could have been a dark morning, it could have been much colder, the wind could have been stronger and we could have been at a point where we could not row to safety.

But it wasn't any of that stuff, instead we paddled to safety, threw out some decoys, shot a couple of geese, and walked and paddled the boat back to the launch at low tide right after sunset.

It is always better to be lucky than good. Oh yeah, there was a banded bird in there too!!!

BOSTON BULDUP 15K

Well, that's out of the way. Pretty much a rehash of the 10K. I felt better after a rough time on the hill up to the turn, except my right knee still is popping on downhills so I really laid back on them. That pretty much turned this into a workout not a race, but it was fun anyway and the weather was good (cloudy, mid 30's and no wind).

The 20K is basically 10K up and 10K down, while I have made some progress in the knee dept. if it does not continue to improve I may pass it up.

BOSTON BUILDUP 10K

They say fighters can get old between rounds, for me it's between races. Nov 16, 2008 I ran the Swamp Devil 15K in 1:19 and change which for me was a good effort. That was it, downhill ever since. Today was windy and cold and I felt real good for 5k (26.54) but at 7K my knee did some funny stuff and next thing I know I can't get out of oxygen debt on the hills. Walked a 150m or so and got running again but there was no fire, just a meltdown in progress.

Now like any runner (or reasonable imitation) you need an excuse, or something or someone to blame. So who or what's it gonna be? The cardiologist!!! How dare he give me large doses of Beta blockers or statins knowing they could interfere with my ever running a PR again. Doesn't he hear my pleas for a higher max heart rate or less big muscle cramps on long endurance runs?

Or maybe I'm forgetting how these guys saved my life, fixed me up and sent me back out again with re-engineered coronary highways and a fresh lease on life. And oh yeah, his job is to keep me out of a box, not pushing negative splits in the dead of winter. Bring on the 15K in 2 weeks, make it colder, hillier (it is), and slower (probably - so what).