Running on the East Coast: DC, MD, NY, CT

These past 3 weeks have seen me visiting the East Coast twice: the first time for a business trip in DC, the second to visit Alex in DC (Georgetown) and Max in New Haven, CT (Yale). Both weeks had an unusual good weather for the winter season, just one rainy day during the first week and one snowy day in Connecticut the second week. Therefore perfect conditions to log a few miles while being on the go...

I didn't run with my camera though, so I'll let my Garmin recordings tell you about my runs. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a 3-hour GPS track worth...? ;-) In DC, I ran 5 times through Rock Creek Park for a total of 92 miles. Some people might have thought that I moved in the area... Rock Creek Park connects with the trails on the Mall and along the Potomac so, where every you are staying in DC, either in Georgetown or near West End, the bike path is easy to find and get on. It goes all the way to the North corner of the District of Columbia and the border with Maryland, and keeps going through Maryland outside the Capital Beltway.

After a few miles of bike path, you can get on very nice trails or stay on Beach Drive. Below is the SportTracks static view of my longest run in DC last week (25.3 miles), with more details in Garmin Connect.

A few days later, I was working from our Somers office and a colleague indicated a few trails behind the nearby Catholic High School. Again, great trails in the forest although these ones are better suited for cross-country and not recommended in the dark. For the benefit of other colleagues visiting this site, here is the Garmin trace of my run. Note that I ran at the end of the day and, unable to run more on the trails, I did a few laps around the campus, almost a 2-mile loop of nice road! Until the safety patrol injucted me to stop because they considered it wasn't safe to run in the dark on that busy road as employees leave work... Again, for IBM colleagues looking at an opportunity to run a few miles from our Somers campus: take the exit in front of the main building, toward Route 138; turn left on 138 (be careful of the traffic), down to the J F Kennedy High School. Between the track and the football field is the start of a cross country course with a few loops. Once in the woods, go right along the football field and the trail goes on for a few miles.

As I was staying with my friends in Ridgefield, I also ran 8 miles there yesterday, on the winding and rolling roads of New England. I was amazed at how good the road conditions were just a few hours after the 5-inch snow fall, yet I prefer my local Californian trails as these roads are quite busy and the cars not slowing down much for runners. I have a lot of respect for the local runners who have to train in this region and these conditions, either the cold winters or the hot summers... We are so blessed, or spoiled, in California...