Cowboy Hazel

This past weekend was my only weekend in New York this entire month. As such, I figured this would be the one weekend I'd get only pavement running in. Turns out, I was wrong. Sunday morning, Helen said she wanted to run trails so we hopped on the 6 and rode up to the end of the line. I'd been to Pelham Bay Park once before, but it was a long time ago and in the late fall, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It's actually pretty nice this time of year. We ran from the train out to City Island along a bike path before doubling back and finding a trail that led through the forest up to Orchard Beach. The beach itself was super crowded and noisy, but at the end of it, we found another little trail heading into the woods. It was short, but offered beautiful views. We bounced from there to yet another trail which was such a weird mix of natural beauty and city garbage. For a moment, you'd forget that you were still in NYC, but then you'd see a big pile of trash and be reminded. Still, it was a decent loop, and we went back for a second go around. On our way in, we'd spotted a restaurant with a patio overlooking the marina on City Island and decided to head back there for beers. The humidity and running for 10 miles had completely soaked me, so we stopped to buy a cheesy Orchard Beach Bronx t-shirt for me on the way. When we got to the restaurant, we realized it was fancier than we had anticipated, but they seated us despite our less than appropriate dining attire. Of course, after sitting down and seeing all the good food on the menu, we decided to get dinner and our mid-run beer stop transformed into an end-of-run feast. The portions were gigantic and even though neither of us finished our plates, there was no way that we could continue running. So, we walked back to the subway in the lightly falling rain, the end of our pseudo-nature adventure.