Training Update: The Back Hills

There's a saying among runners in the New York area that you haven't lived until you've died in the Back Hills. I put that theory to the test on Sunday, and though I'm paying for it today, it was certainly an enjoyable run.

The Back Hills is the northern part of Van Cortlandt Park. It's hilly and covered with trees, shrubs, and boulders. I shied away from it last week because I couldn't find a good trail map. This week, though, I decided to just go for it--that's what my GPS watch is for after all--and run around until I either made my goal mileage or got sick of it and decided to move on. The area is only about 1 square kilometer, but I put in more than five miles following the circuitous trails. At first, I stuck to the widest, most established trails. As I got more comfortable, I chose narrower and narrower trails, finding that the less established they were, the more adventurous they felt. Even though the area isn't very large and I explored it thoroughly, I still can't navigate reliably and will be just as lost next time as I was this time. Still, no matter which direction I choose to go, I'm bound to end up near the trailhead that leads back to the main part of Van Cortlandt every 15 or 20 minutes, so I'm not too worried about where I am. On Sunday, I enjoyed simply taking appealing-looking trails on whims and exploring them until they looped back on themselves.

Just like last week, I was smitten with the area yesterday. It didn't look or feel like fall, but it smelled like it. The path was well shaded and I was surrounded by green and dappled sunlight. Some of the trails were paved and some were not, but the asphalt on the paved parts was so cracked, mossy, and leaf-strewn that I still felt as though I was miles away from civilization. I passed another runner every few minutes (unless I was on a really narrow trail; I had those all to myself), but for the most part I got long periods of solitude. The runners I did pass were of a different caliber than the type that inhabit Central Park. They looked fitter and ran faster, and none of them wore headphones.

My route, captured by my GPS watch. The blue in the top left corner is the Hudson River. The skewed pear shape near the bottom is the track around the parade ground, and the twisting-turning squiggles above that is my route through the Back Hills. It's not visible in this image, but I went over many of those trails more than once. The line that goes straight up the right shows where I ran towards Tibbetts Park, then turned around and came back. I started and finished at the green arrow near the bottom, which is right next to the 238th Street subway stop. 

I loved my time in the Back Hills, but it was hilly enough that I had to leave eventually to make sure I had enough left to finish the 15 miles I was supposed to do that day. I did a few laps around the parade ground, where I enjoyed watching the soccer, baseball, and cricket games that livened up the large grassy space as I jogged by. There was another meet this week, too, but this one was for young kids instead of high school teams. I paused in my running to watch a group of what looked like first graders start a mile. A teenage girl was introduced to them as the "rabbit" and they children were instructed to try to catch her, and then the gun went off and they sprinted down the trail in hot pursuit.

I'm not sure how many more runs I'll get to do in the Back Hills before the marathon. A 15-mile long run is a fairly short one for me these days, but I'm scheduled to do 18 and then 20 on the next two weekends, and starting off with a series of steep hills may not be the best idea (though I'm going to have to at least poke my head in for a lap or two to admire the fall foliage as it starts to spread through the trees). I'm looking forward to trying the Back Hills in winter, though. I imagine they'll be even more deserted and will look lovely in the snow. I'll probably invest in some Yak Trax to strap onto my shoes for traction, and look forward to more exploring.