Hamburg, NY, along Lake Erie...

I sent my mom a text after my run this morning/early afternoon along Lake Erie, and she made the comment that with all the locations that I run, it might be super interesting to read about my runs in various places. I do tend to travel a fair amount, and in every place I go, I make a point to go on a run in the locality I am in. This particular trip has seen me running in Fruitland, WA; Dupont, WA; and now in Hamburg, NY. And this is one trip.

I think she has a point. I have been rather bad about actually keeping up with this blog. And besides... who really wants to read a long blog? ;)

So... I think that I shall not be overly ambitious and attempt to write about all the runs that I have had thus far in various areas of the country and world, but start from this point on, and see how it goes. In addition, I shall attempt to be brief in thoughts of running.

So. Today's run. :)

Frankly, coming from WA before this has me more than a bit spoiled, and also most recently hailing from the Midwest where there are tons and tons of trails.

I went for a short run in the neighborhood yesterday morning. Most of it consisted of on the street. But upon looking at a map, the friend I am staying with is about 6 miles inland of Lake Erie. So, in my looking upon a map last night and this morning, I found a place where I could park the car and attempt to find places to run up and down the shore.

Now, let me explain something about this particular city. It doesn't seem to be much of a running city. Very few sidewalks, and I have yet to find an actual trail in the nearby region, but the roads are wide enough to include an occasional pedestrian. Water sports seem to be a bit more popular, obviously, I suppose... I have been able to squeeze out a few miles, but running along highways is less than ideal, and so would my route take me if I had ran to and from Lake Erie... I may indeed love my long distances, but I do need to know the area before I set out to attempt much more than 5 miles.

And besides. I REALLY wanted to run along Erie... not just to and from it. ;)

So... my run along the beach. I went along the road for a bit, found a steep path down to the beach... ran until I came to some piled up rocks and slabs of cement... and traversed my way over those (kind of a fun interruption)... started running again as soon as I got to the beach... which was a combination of pebbles and sand, makes for some good ankle strengthening... and ran as far as the water and cliffs allowed... and turned around again... traversed a few more things on the way back... added in more beach as I could, but eventually had to go back up to the road.... added another beach... traversed a small stream and more rocks and logs... and eventually ran out of running space...

My total amount of running time amounted to about 30 minutes. So... less than I prefer, but I got it in.
Lake Erie is beautiful and in my run I saw some shiny shells and smoothed glass...

(a picture of the cliffs taken from my phone.)

A lot of the cliffs were this sort of packed shale, so unclimbable for the most part. I got in the couple of hills going up and down to the beach, but not a lot of hills. Today's run gets 3 stars. 3 stars out of 5 because it was pretty, but in some ways, less than I had hoped for. Interesting, but I like more mileage. :)

The general atmosphere around here is rather interesting. People are pretty friendly, but it doesn't always feel safe. The houses are gorgeous, and there really aren't so many hills I have come across, but there is a pleasant livable-ness about this place... A farmer's market is down the street from my friend's house, and her neighbors are super friendly and helpful... like neighbors should be. The area is saturated with a sort of quiet historical awareness... pictures of older times in a Walgreen's window, and the houses having an incredible classic feel. But the area is quickly losing population, according to the last census in the area... thus this odd feeling of ghost town at times... and at times a run down appearance from the outside, and a good thing on the inside of stores.

Lots of gardens, and a warm summer, but more temperate than how it has been this summer in MN.

Overall, it is nice being here, but my sights are still set West Coast in the next few years, I hope and pray. But for now, Tuesday will send me home to MN and trails and smaller lakes in the Twin Cities area. The beaches are quite nice here along Lake Erie and only lack the salty ocean smell to fool a person for a moment of a calm bay by the sea.

It was tank top and running shorts weather... I work my Nike running shorts, my Asics top, Mizuno running shoes and Smartwool running socks. (Links are to a newer version in some cases of my current attire. The running shoes are current, as of the date of the posting of this blog.)