a run in Saratoga

I had a haircut appointment in Saratoga this morning, and then headed out from there for my 8 mile run.

Normally I run the two loops at the park, but the big loop was not plowed, and the small paths were very bumpy and hard to even walk on.  So, I started out on the small loop, which is just under three miles.  I wasn’t looking forward to multiple loops in the flat park.

Usually on Sunday, I see the high school track team running in the park.  They seemed to run one loop and then go home afterward, which always struck me as a short workout.  Well, today I was running near Rt. 9 and saw the kids coming from the sidewalk and entering the park.  I decided to see how far the sidewalk was cleared, so I took a shortcut through a well-cleared walking path in the woods, and eventually made it to the Rt. 9 sidewalk.

It turned out that the sidewalk was cleared from the park, all the way through downtown Saratoga and off into the neighborhoods.   Sunday morning traffic was pretty light and there very few people on the sidewalk.  I only had to wait for lights a couple times.

The very cool part was that there is a long gradually hill down into downtown Saratoga and then a long gradual hill going up the other side. I liked have some elevation to my run, instead of the flat park.  I need the hills for Vermont.

On the way back, I saw all the high school kids coming up the hill, so apparently they run an 8-mile loop from Skidmore College (guessing) to the park and back.  Not such a short workout after all.  :)

So my 8 miles was very enjoyable and not so boring.  I kept about a 9:30 pace, which is right on target where I want to be for my long runs.  I think I ran my long runs too fast last fall, and didn’t recover fully during training.  I’m an old guy, I need time to heal.  :)