Namaste Run

This weekend I did my long run on Friday since that afternoon my boyfriend (D) and I left for Lake George. My Dad had off from work as well so we drove to a park about 20 minutes from my apartment to start our run. My Dad was told about this route from a coworker of his, who is also an avid runner. We wanted to give it a shot because up until this point we had been doing all our long runs through local towns and have encountered problems with lots of traffic, streets to cross, people, strollers, construction, etc. Sometimes it is nice to run when a lot is going on around you, but many times when you are 18 miles into a run and almost finished it is just too hard to stop at a red light, or your brain is not thinking clear enough to safely cross the street. Is that bad? Does anyone else encounter these problems? NJ needs more runner/biker friendly shoulders and paths! We tried to avoid these problems by going out early in the AM when the roads/towns are quiet but after a 3 hour run, the rest of the world is out and about so we almost always have this problem at the end of a long run.
Anwayyy, we went to this park, map in hand, snacks packed to go, and fuel belts all loaded up. We knew it was fairly quiet and that much of the route was on dirt roads (yay!). So we headed out. As we got going, the road quickly turned to dirt and trails. It was beautiful! We passed farm after farm (my favorite was called Namaste Farm) and saw more wildlife than I ever saw in NJ on a run before. We saw snakes, hawks, dogs, cows, horses, different types of birds, etc. We even passed more runners than cars. I honestly felt like I was in a different state or even a different time. I think we saw 2 traffic lights the entire run. There were beautiful covered bridges and estates with enormous white fences closing them in. We even ran right passed the Forbes Estate. I wish I took pictures but my blackberry does not have a camera (I def need to upgrade). I want to run the route again just to take pictures of the scenery! The course was more challenging than I had expected, having not completed any trail runs before but the beautiful scenery took my mind off of the pain (for the most part). There were many steep hills, but at the top of each one I looked down and it was totally worth it. It was probably the most peaceful long run I’ve ever done. We were going to try to do a little more than 20 miles (the most we had done to date was 23) but we were hurting pretty bad (mostly me) so we decided 20 was enough. It was a beautiful day, a beautiful run and I was able to sleep in the car on the way up to Lake George (some of the ride, anyway).
Philadelphia is approaching and I can’t believe there is only have 1 long run left to do. When I started training for this marathon back in July, I looked at the training schedule and thought how in the world am I going to be able to do 5 20-mile runs?? At that point the most I had ever run was 1- 18 mile run and it was difficult. Now I am 3- 20+ mile runs in (we traded one long run for a half-marathon race) with just 1 long run to go until Philadelphia. I can’t believe it. You hear stories about people feeling sad after the big race they have been training for is over…that is absolutely going to be me. (until I sign up for the next one of course!) Hope you are having a lovely weekend. Happy Running!