MARINE PARK WEST TRAIL COMPLETION, AGAIN

It's funny how sometimes you have a lot of something while at other times you don't.  Take, for example, the Marine Park West Trail.  I recently learned about it but never had the time to explore its entire length in one run.  Instead, I had to explore it one section at a time.  Recently, I finally discovered enough of it that the rest could be done in one visit.  Today, mere days later, I was back at the trail with a friend from PPTC to run the entire length, from the entrance on Avenue U to the beach at is southern end.  J.C. accompanied me on a run for the East Trail some time ago but we couldn't get together again until today.

The West Trail is only about 2 km in length and it shouldn't take that long to run the entire length.  However, since I explored it in sections by looking for entrances along Gerritsen Avenue it seemed to take longer.  With J.C. and just going straight from the Avenue U entrance it took almost no time.  It also helped that just last week I learned that immediately upon entering the trail there was no inland path but that you have to go along the water a while before finding an inland path.  Just a short distance into the trail we ran across a dead white rabbit.  Now that I think about it, why was the rabbit right in the middle of the path?  Anyway, we just kept going along the roller-coaster path.  Soon I noticed the school then the wide area where I last saw the two dirt bikers.  At a fork in the road, we took the left road toward the beach.  I thought it would lead to the beach where I saw the group of galloping dogs but I already passed it.  I didn't pause to take photos.  Funny how the second time around it was not a novelty any more.  Back to Gerritsen Avenue J.C. and I went.  J.C. likes the quiet streets of the Gerritsen Peninsula so we veered off Gerritsen Avenue and meandered wherever the road took us, proceeded north whenever we encountered dead-ends.  Eventually we got off the peninsula and headed east back to our respective homes.  It was a good 14 km total for me in the end.

A view of the model airplane field from the trail.

In other news, my latest gwriting work, from yesterday morning, is a salute to George Takei, REO Speedwagon, and all runners.  While not as trailblazing as iTrespass, with this gwriting task, I confirmed that it's possible to take a long break and resume writing exactly where you left it.  I wrote the phrase backward, i.e. started with n, then u, then r etc. and was called by a Freecycler when I just finished the i in Takei.  This is the person who helped me re-purpose the leftover bagels from a foot race last week.  I had to run home to meet her at my subway station to give her the last bag of bagels.  I then ran back to Bath Avenue and 21st Avenue and resumed writing the rest of the phrase.  As you can see, the transition is smooth, there is no breaks in the writing.  The only drawback is that between the pause and resuming I could not run or use the watch to time anything else, as such action would require resetting the clock.

By the way, admit it that now you want to listen to REO Speedwagon's Take It On The Run.  Or maybe cannot get it out of your head.

See how it's traced out at

http://connect.garmin.com/player/307455695