Long run fun!

(Before and after a super early-morning run)

I think it's been a while since I could describe my long run as fun.  I had two excellent 9 mile runs on Saturday the 19th.  Because of Easter and house guests I performed my long run on Saturday (instead of Sunday or Monday) and broke it up into two runs.  The first run I started at 6 AM so that I could be back for breakfast.  The second 9 I ran on the treadmill while Darren napped, Tom and Jer were at the mall and my house guests were out for lunch with my parents.  (Splitting the run in half was MUCH easier than doing it all at once.  When I run my 20 I will do it all at once)  While my treadmill run was uneventful, and went really well despite being pretty gassed, it is my early morning run that I will focus on.  

The week prior to Easter weekend our snow melted.  We went from several feet everywhere to nothing over the course of about 7 days.  The dramatic melt caused equally dramatic flooding around the region.  I was amazed at the amount of flooding I saw while out on my run.  

Below is the view of the Oswegatchi River just before it meets the mighty St. Lawrence.  I could not believe the rapids on the otherwise very still waterway.  In the summer the river is lined with pleasure boats ready to take on the cool St. Lawrence at a couple of marinas.  Good thing they take in the slips in the Fall or they would be halfway to the Atlantic by now!

My destination was the jog trail that runs along the Oswegatchi, but as you can see below it was closed due to flooding.

Not to be deterred, I ran the upper ridge along the river to see the extent of the flooding that was keeping me off the trail.  It was flooded all right!  Looking below you can see the light posts that illuminate the trail are surrounded by swirling water.  Typically the trail is at least 10 feet or more from the edge of the river.  There is a retaining wall and the water is at least 5 feet below the height of the wall.

At a dam barrels were caught in the swirl of water cascading over the berm (below).  I don't think anyone will be sitting leisurely watching from the benches anytime soon...

I continued on to where the trail is situated on top of an old railroad bed and gladly this was (barely) above the water line (below).  

Evidently some of it was below or too close to the water line because I eventually came up to this barrier (below).  Thankfully I was at almost exactly 4.5 miles and I turned around and continued to enjoy the views on my way back home. 

What a fun run!  :)  Thanks for reading and have a great week.