Turning Stone Races...

A pretty good inaugural race for the Turning Stone half-marathon/10k/5k. I ran the half-marathon and am nursing some tired legs, so I'll be brief because I am a little cranky and think I'll take a nap. It was a beautiful and pastoral location for a 13.1 except for the few miles where we traversed busy highways. Although there was a very strong police presence and the time of the day we ran traffic was minimal.
All in all I have to give this race a good rating and one which I may run again. There was food(bagels,fruit) but no beer available like advertised, and if you wanted to use the $10 free gaming you had to go into the freezing casino and go to the "Diamond-desk" to claim your freebie. Other than that and the lame expo, I had a pretty good time and experience racing in a 13.1 right here in the Mohawk Valley!

The Erie Canal; The Pathway to The West; Photos of Erie Canal Little Falls Group2

One of the Mohawk Valleys most well known legacies except maybe the movie; "Drums Along the Mohawk", is the Erie Canal and this old classic song; "Low Bridge Everybody Down". most Americans know and can recite at least the first verse. The Erie Canal was an engineering marvel whose opening hyper accelerated the expansion of this country into the west. Little Falls was known for it's amazing set of locks that brought boats and passengers through 3 tiers of locks up the edge of the valley and down into the village.The 3 locks until recent years was the highest lift lock in the world at 40.5 feet

Low Bridge, Everybody Down
(Written by: Thomas Allen in 1905)

I've got a mule, and her name is Sal,
Fif-teen miles on the Er-ie canal,
She's a good ol' worker and a good ol' pal,
Fifteen miles on the Er-ie can-al,
We've hauled some barges in our day,
Filled with lum-ber coal and hay,
And ev'ry inch of the way we know
From Al-ba-ny to Buff-a-lo

Low bridge ev'-ry bod-y down,
Low bridge for we're com-in to a town,
And you al-ways know your neighbor,
You'll always know your pal,
If you've ev-er navigated on the Er-ie can-al

A Visit to the Past... visiting Little Falls photo group 1

I'll share some interesting views from a visit to the Little Falls Canal Days celebration on Saturday. Although the event turned out to be a yawner, I enjoyed walking along the canal and seeing a bit of Little Falls heritage-legacy as a canal port and mill town on the Mohawk River. Unfortunately, much of the canal park area has been neglected. A motorcyle even pushed us along and off the walking path. What started out as a great idea, seems to be badly neglected now. The vendor tents seemed to be the major attraction as a handful of shoppers milled around the tents, and very few people took the mile or so hike out to the lock on Moss Island. Surely having the information booth manned, during the event would have helped greatly, but the booth along the canal was closed when we attended. Little Falls suffers from a similar problem found in towns like Herkimer and cities like Utica. The problem is that at some point, they allowed the DOT to put major arteries across their urban landscape, with no regard to maintaining the character and allowing easy access, much less building with historical character and accuracy, as well as exploiting interesting views.

If you like running hills and beautiful mountain vistas.....

Thought I would take in an easy 10K run this weekend and found myself challenged by a most difficult run. The Lane 10K in Speculator was pockmarked with at least a dozen hills including several that could be described as cavernous. Combine that with humidity of nearly a 100% and you've got one challenging course.

At the start


You're treated to occasional beautiful vistas and views


huff-puff at the finish 49:30 place 18/87


All and all it was a great race-run albeit a very challenging one. Once underway, it was just you against the course with the occasional challenge from competitve runners. For you non-runners out there Speculator is a great place to visit; there is a beach with parking. So, swim and take in the view of the mountain vistas, kayak on the Kunjumuk or on Lake Pleasant. And you're able to walk a short distance (1/8th-1/4 mile) down the street to get some lunch or dinner after.

Sunset over the Mohawk Valley

A moment, and its glory was no more. The sun went down beneath the long dark lines of hill and cloud which piled up in the west an airy city, wall heaped on wall, and battlement on battlement; the light was all withdrawn; the shining church turned cold and dark; the stream forgot to smile; the birds were silent ...~C. Dickens