Driving back from Florida

 I left Florida at 415am on Thursday with the plan to finish the drive by noon on Friday.  I was kind of rushing it a bit as I wanted to be back with enough time to stretch my legs and get some sleep before the USATF 15k championship on Saturday.  I'd end up making the 1,400 miles in almost exactly 30 hours.  I only stopped 3 times on Thursday to run and then got to NJ by 11:30 pm.  I slept for a little less than 4 hours and was on the road again on Friday at 3:15 am and stopped another 3 times for runs.

I'd planned out a couple of runs but kept the planning a little looser as I wasn't sure exactly where I would sleep (or how long).  I wanted the first stopped to be after Jacksonville with my hope being I'd be early enough to miss any commuter traffic (I was).  I rolled into Crooked River State Park at 8am and was reluctant to get out of the car as it was pouring rain and 59 degrees.  I had hoped to check out a "tower" but had some trouble finding the correct path and ended up mostly doing a 4 mile run on the road.

Next up was a quick ride to Richmond Hill GA for a run in Fort McAllister state park.  Again my quest was a tower.  It turned out to be a nice trail, but quite muddy.  The tower was just a small observation tower overlooking the marsh.  After the trail I also continued on the road (scenic) out/back to the camp ground.  Nice park!

Now I had a LONG nearly 300 mile drive to Lumberton NC and Britt Park/Lumberton Greenway.  It was quite windy on the raised path along the Lumber River.  My legs were stiff from the driving and my ankle has been giving me grief for a few weeks and has really ratcheted up the pain.

I was thinking I'd run again on the Mount Vernon Trail near Washington DC but it'd be dark by the time I got there and I decided I was done running for the day.  I took a quick gallon jug shower in the park and hit the road.  I cranked up the music and slurped from my 2 liter of Mountain Dew to stay awake as I'd already been going for 12 hours and had another 8 or so to go.  I kept waffling on whether I wanted to stop at the Fennimore rest area in NJ or push on past NYC.  Again, traffic was my concern.  I decided that it'd be pushing things if I went past 11:30 so I ended up setting up shop at Fennimore.  I made a nice nest in the rear seat/trunk and sort of drifted off until 3:15 am.  After chugging more Dew I was on the road.  Three hours later I arrived in Hamden CT for a running on the Farmington Heritage Canal Trail.  I'd parked at this spot last year but this'd be a new run as I was headed north on the trail this time rather than south.  I was greeted with a chilly 40 degrees and a blustery wind.  It really took most of the run to warm-up and get to feeling something like real running. Part of that was probably running in the dark and part from the driving and lack of sleep.

Now with day dawning and me yawning I made my way back to Massachusetts with a stop in Marlborough for a run on the Assabet River Rail Trail.  I'd run on some sections of this trail but not this one, where I did a nice out/back run to Hudson MA.

I continued on to Plaistow NH to finish this 1,400 miles at Jiffy Lube for an overdue oil change.  I got in my final 3 mile run of the day while they worked on the car and had a quick stop at Pinnacle Physical Therapy to say "hi" to the gang.