I’m a god. I’m not *the* God… I don’t think.
Well at least google & Wireless Run Tracker think I am. (see map). This Wednesday I headed out for the first midweek double digit run this year. With the sun going down so early, I tried to rush home, but got stuck dealing with some issues at work and didn’t get out as early as I’d like.On my previous 18 mile, I ran a bit of the Erie Basin Marina and wanted to try a little bit more along the water, so I used mapmyrun.com to plot a course along the break wall between the Niagara River and the Black Rock canal. The break wall starts on Squaw Island, which I drive past both to and on the way home from work nearly every day, yet knew very little about.The northern part of the island is occupied by a park and connects to the break wall which passes under the Peace Bridge. Lake Erie had 3-5 foot waves and the wind that produced these was very difficult to run into when I headed upstream. The break wall extends around the LaSalle Park, but was disappointingly only runnable just upstream of the Peace Bridge. The run back along the break wall (downstream) was much more pleasant than the way out - a relief as this is the direction the Niagara Falls Marathon heads. I did get to see another running first while running under the Peace Bridge - _half_ of a dead rat (the tail end for those who are curious).While I was disappointed about the length of the break wall I was able to run, I was pleasantly surprised by the length of the trail that extended do the far side of the island and continued right up to the locks at the Black Rock canal. This buffalorising.com story gives some more detail:
http://www.buffalorising.com/story/a_connection_will_soon_be_madeWhen I came back from the canal, I passed two border patrol vehicles by the International Railroad Bridge. Seeing the bridge helped me get my bearings a little and makes me suspect the northern end of the island lets out to where the 190 and Squajecuada meet - the endpoint of a run I made for the first time the just night before.The amount of park space & water frontage on the island really surprised me. I know there’s a couple geocaches on the island, but other than that knew very little about it and suspect it’s a relatively unknown location within Buffalo.
Overall it was a pretty nice run. I love being near the water and while the pink and blue/cotton candy-colored sunset along the river wasn’t as spectacular as it probably was along the lake, it was still quite breathtaking. The route down West Ferry street took me through some areas I wouldn’t particularly recommend running through and the whole run was pretty isolated, but if I can figure out how to enter the island on the northern end, I’ll definitely go back.
The following are some stats about the run generated by http://runtracker.runnersworld.com:
Elevation (ft.)
Pace (min/mile)
Splits
| Mile |
Pace (min/mile) |
Speed (mph) |
Elevation
Gain |
| actual |
+/- avg |
actual |
+/- avg |
| 1 |
7′ 51 |
-0′ 41 |
7.6 |
+0.6 |
+6 ft |
| 2 |
8′ 00 |
-0′ 32 |
7.5 |
+0.5 |
-62 ft |
| 3 |
8′ 29 |
-0′ 03 |
7.1 |
+0.0 |
+3 ft |
| 4 |
8′ 41 |
+0′ 09 |
6.9 |
-0.1 |
0 ft |
| 5 |
8′ 35 |
+0′ 03 |
7.0 |
-0.0 |
-3 ft |
| 6 |
8′ 31 |
-0′ 01 |
7.0 |
+0.0 |
0 ft |
| 7 |
8′ 56 |
+0′ 24 |
6.7 |
-0.3 |
0 ft |
| 8 |
8′ 29 |
-0′ 03 |
7.1 |
+0.0 |
+3 ft |
| 9 |
10′ 02 |
+1′ 30 |
6.0 |
-1.1 |
+60 ft |
| end |
7′ 45 |
-0′ 47 |
7.7 |
+0.7 |
-3 ft |
| Versus average of 8′ 32 min/mi |
|
| |
This entry was posted
on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 12:36 pm and is filed under running.
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