Huntington Bay

Finally got to see the East side of Huntington Bay this morning, and it's really beautiful. I've been wanting to go for a run for a few weeks now. The last time I ran was on the 10th when I passed my Extra exam. That run was out of necessity, but this one was just for fun. Although I was concerned about my chronic foot pain, I hardly noticed any change after the last run, so I decided to go ahead and run the next time I got the chance.

The weather this summer has been awful, but the last couple of days have been relatively cooler, and this morning was really nice. I ended up getting a later start than I wanted when I couldn't find my light running shorts and had to climb back on the boat to replace the battery in my foot pod. I didn't start running until after 1130, but it was still relatively cool. However, it's starting to heat up now and should make it into the low 90's this afternoon.

I took East Shore Road North out of Halesite all the way up to the private Wincoma community, then turned right on Harbor Hill and took Bay Drive back down to Kanes Lane which took me back to East Shore right below the entrance to the Huntington Yacht Club. Harbor Hill road is well named; I went from sea level to over 100' in about a 1/2 mile, then back down to sea level as I approached the yacht club. After I made the turn onto Shore, my watch indicated the 3-mile split, so I paused it and stopped for water. The sprinklers were running, so I used my hands to scoop up some water and cool off in the shade. I didn't drink any, but did rinse out my mouth. After about a minute, I resumed both my watch and the run and continued back down toward Halesite and the boatyard. That section also has a hill, but it was only about 60' over about a mile.

According to my watch, I ran 4 miles in 32:30, but gmaps put the mileage at only 3.6. I'm not sure which is correct, but the hills seem to have confused one or both of them. The foot pod had me at an 8 minute pace, while gmaps had me at a 9 minute pace. Since I had a really good, and fast, run, I think it's closer to 8, but could be somewhere in between. If my legs hold up, I'll look for a nice flat path and try it again. The hills slowed me down a bit, but I'm in good enough shape that it shouldn't be that big a difference. If I run a sub 8 minute pace, that would indicate my watch/foot pod was closer, but if it 8 or above, them gmap is probably more trustworthy when hills are involved.

I've run hundreds of miles in Nashville on pretty flat terrain, and found the watch/foot pod to be very accurate. I even used it in races in Central Park and found it was really close, e.g., within several yards for a 5 or 10k. Central Park has some hills too, but not quite as big as the ones today. However, my watch did loose the signal for a few steps on the descent to the yacht club on Kanes Lane when I put my hands over my head, but the error from lost data should have had the opposite effect, i.e., it would have thought I'd run less, not more, so who knows. I think the gmap algorithm is faulty, but it's still good for planning.

Zoe watch:

Zoe didn't make the run. She hung out under the bow and guarded the boat.

Fireworks watch:

The jerks who live behind me fired off a bunch of fireworks again last night, so I immediately called 911. I have 3 burn holes in the cloth cover on my boat, as well as dozens of burn streaks where cinders hit the cover and slid down a few feet and scorched a nice little trail. The 3 burn holes are actually holes that you can stick your finger through. Originally, they just looked like a cigarette burn, but they're all the way through now. I have zero tolerance for that sort of stuff.