Running in Ohio: short run and hike in Cuyahoga Valley National Park

We mapped our cross-country road trip with two criteria: visit new states and new National Parks, ideally one a day. Of course, that's way too rushed to really appreciate the different people and landscapes across the US, yet, well enough in a time of a major pandemic. What have we seen in terms of safety measures after driving through parts of DC, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin in 3 days? I'd say, mostly an acknowledgement that mask is required, but that's it's an awful constraints. Most employees in service areas and restaurants wear a mask, but not all, and few pay attention of what people touch or pass to them, like items at a cash register. As for the patrons, it's a tale of two countries, like on social media. For instance, at gas stations, some would wear a mask when getting to the service area, but not when they exit, go figure! And I could fill a long post with so many anecdotes, would be so chilling. Overall, we often look like pariahs when we go out of our way to maintain #PhysicalDistance or stop when someone is going to cut us off. We are clearly on the right track to remain the worst country in the world with regard to containing this pandemic!

Back to the subject, after the National Mall and Memorial Parks administered by the National Park Service, our second park was the Cuyahoga Valley one. This is an urban one stretching between Cleveland and Akron, within the Ohio & Erie canal way and along the Cuyahoga River. And, with a canal typically goes a towpath with gradual slope, perfect for running. In April, I had offered Mark Godale a guided tour of Silicon Valley during his 5,000-mile loop of the West of the US from Cleveland. I pinged him as we were on our way to Richfield, OH, and he offered to return the favor for the 2 hours we could spend in the park. Mark is a star in our ultra running sport, having run several world championships with Team USA in the 90s and 2000s. I first met him at my first Western States in 2007, then the next two in 2009 and 2010, plus a few other races.

Our rendezvous was set for 10 am this Saturday, at Lock 29 that is in the small village of Peninsula. We drove there with Agnès at 9 am only to find the parking lot full, and several dozens of runners! And, no, it wasn't a race, just several groups of runners of all ages gathering to train together. I have to say that it has been a long time since I've seen so many runners at once. Needless to say, all looking super fit but not exercising any physical distance whatsoever.

I had just enough time for a 10K, or 3 miles each way. I decided to go South first, toward Akron, that is against the river flow and slightly uphill. With my ongoing lung warm-up issue, the first mile was slow at 7:30 but I was able to pick up the pace nicely and especially on the way back, getting below 6:30. I also stopped my watch several times to take pictures.

As I was passing a few runners, I actually didn't notice when my GPS buzzed at 3 miles and went 3.5 mile out instead, oops! With that, I was a few minutes late for our appointment and found Agnès and Mark waiting for me at the parking lot.

We promptly left for our first stop at the Oak Hill parking lot, near the Environmental Education Center. That was a flat easy hike to see a the Pine Lane on the Buckeye Trail, famous area for its local cross-country races.

We drove back to and through Peninsula to go on the other side of the valley, to the Octagon. This hike was more arduous for Mark's injured knees, we are super grateful to him for showing us this other gem of this park, the super cool (as in low temperature!) Ice Box Cave and Richie Ledges. I have to say that the experience of this chilly mist can't be rendered in pictures, you have to visit yourself to fill it (the closest to describe it would be to walk in a fridge or, more easily, spray your face and arms with a thermal water aerosol). We explored a maze of narrow paths between huge blocks of rocks.

Frugal tree leaving off a rock!

 The Ice Box Cave, closed to protect resident bats.

 The rocky maze...

 Reconnecting!

 Carvings in the rock maze.

 With that, we didn't have time to see one of the famous falls, a bit of a bummer as it had rain heavily in the night, but the price to pay for being so rushed. Still a wonderful experience to get a feel of this area, and how green it is in particular. So different from our yellow hills in California!

In the afternoon, I found out on Facebook that Emily Collins spotted me on the towpath but I was gone before she realized. And I was myself too absorbed in my pace to see her. This is so crazy, what were the odds, we are living in such a connected world! (No wonder the pandemic has it easy...). I also met Emily at several Nationals, that creates some links and connections! :-) (Emily also ran on Team USA, and you can read her short bio here.)

Here is a 3D flyover of my 7-mile run in which you can see a couple of locks and how green and dense the forest is!

Overall, a super nice discovery of one of the most visited National Parks in the country (there is actually no entrance, so it's not listed in these official rankings, but according to Mark and it makes sense in this urban setting). And already time to move to the next one, Indiana Dunes National Park this Sunday!

PS: Short of hugging friends and running buddies, we can still hug trees! :-)

Touring DC with a Grandmaster: thank you Michael Wardian!

I love this title of Grandmaster or Grand Master, it denotes so much wisdom and skills! And I find it's a perfect fit for Mike. Not only does he excel at both classic and ultra running, collecting podiums from 5Ks to 100-miles or longer events, he also has a unique mix of professionalism with multiple notable sponsorships but also the boldness for attempting all sorts of challenges such as FKTs (Fastest Known Times) while remaining super cool and humble about his running. Then his age makes him a Master and he blows his age group, another objective reason for a Grand Master title! ;-)

I first met Mike in December 2018 at the North Face 50-mile in San Francisco where Mark Gilligan and I paced him to the finish and actually helped save his day. Mike had missed a turnaround and lost quite a few spots in the mishap, still finishing in 9th (no, I don't have such a great memory at all, but that's the cool thing about having more than 600 posts to find these details back. Like the fact I started using Vespa Power in races 12 years ago already!).

Then we met again at quite a few other events, from Marathons (Marine Corps which he has run 17 times as far as he recalls, Boston 2017, Big Sur 2019) or USATF Nationals (e.g. several Caumsett 50K) and other ultras (e.g. Miwok 100K in 2010, Western States 2009,

In 2015, Ian Torrence, another ultra runner stud, interviewed both of us on the topic of high volume racing and recovery for iRunFar (Post-Ultra Downtime: How Much is Enough?). While Mike associated me with such heavy racing, his level of consistency can't be matched. For instance, in 2014, he ran 54 races while I only did 20 (18 ultra races). Granted, I'm 10 years older, but still.

Anyway, all this to introduce Mike in case you hadn't heard about him and aren't one of his 14K followers on Facebook!

I was in town (Arlington, VA) for less than 2 days and decided to ping Mike to see if he'd have time for a run. We met at 6 am this Friday at the Iwo Jima Memorial. With the sun rise and a nice breeze making our American flag float, an opportunity for a few special shots of such a symbol of the heroism of our soldiers, and the Marine Corps in particular, in World War II against Japan.

From there we ran across the Potomac on Key Bridge, through Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, then toured the entire Mall, around the White House in the North, passed the Capitol on the East Side, the Washington Monument in the center and the Jefferson Memorial on the South. Unfortunately the Ohio Drive bridge was closed so we weren't able to come back through the Rock Creek Trail but had to cross the Potomac again on the busy and aerial 14th Street bridge, then the Mt Vernon Trail (18-mile long which, of course, Mike owns the FKT for the 36-mile out and back).

I had run similar loops before, not to mention quite a few sections with the Marine Corps Marathon, but Mike made it super special by including a detour through the Black Lives Matter Plaza, just behind the White House (writing this I realize about the irony of using these two colors next to each other...). While the area was desert at this early time of the day, but for a video filming set and crew, it was moving to see all the signs and murals around the many surrounding blocks. We also passed in front of St John's church, behind the White House, the place of Trump's very controversial visit.

A new series of road warning signs, so appropriate, with the White House in the background...

This sign in particular stroke a special chord: 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Think about it, how much oxygen we get while running one mile or more... And which suffering it would be to be chocked and gasping for air for this entire mile... I can't breathe is such an obvious slogan and insane cry for social justice. So terrible our country is still so divided on such a basic right for all, and in particular with those fighting the movement claiming they own or better understand the Constitution. Appalling!

Between photo stops, we talked about our jobs, our kids, the impact of the pandemic on our respective lives, schooling, travel and race plans and, of course, we talked running shop (equipment, shoes, sponsors, running buddies, races or lack thereof, FKTs, virtual races). Speaking of virtual races, Mike shared something new for him: to stop his watch when stopping for traffic at road crossings. For the sake of logging distance and times in such virtual races (like SingleTrack Running's 100 Miles to Auburn which I'm participating to and first ran over three days). With that, I have to apologize to Mike's teammates for slowing him down. We ran at a 7:20 min/mile average, which is definitely on the slow side for Mike... He is going to soon run across Delaware, to set yet another FKT on 135-mile distance in one shot, he can make it up then! ;-)

And the weather was ideal, below 70F and a nice breeze, perfect for this early bird/matinal half marathon around the famous Washington D.C. Mall. Here is the 3D aerial view of our run (click on the picture or this Relive.cc link):

What a cool opportunity to run with such a celebrity in our sport, thank you Mike! After giving a tour of Silicon Valley to Mark Godale back in May, maybe we can call this... running buddy tourism? 6-feet apart that is...