Continuing a theme of turning the back or front end of work trips into productive exercise time, and with a week in NYC coinciding with the weekend for the Gorges Half Marathon in Ithaca, it was time for another very busy weekend. The fact that Ithaca is the home of Cornell University, of which at least one family member is an alumni, just added context. Running a half marathon for which we were minimally prepared was less a concern than seeing upstate New York – it’s on.

Friday 2016 06 17

This trip started one evening in Newark.  In case you’re wondering, there’s nothing truly edible in a 10-mile radius around EWR.  Oh, and sports bars with no windows are generally strip clubs.  Nothing like a short evening commute after a crowded flight for one party, and an exciting cruise through Newark for the other:

Despite being tired and hungry, we immediately made it our mission to exit the loud, crowded noisy streets of Newark as soon as possible.  Once on the highway, we were able to focus on our Google Maps and search for food. First stop was a local bar strategically placed in the middle of a neighborhood, where we tried some roasted cauliflower, half of it covered in garlic sauce, and the other half in a local concoction involving Sriracha, buffalo sauce, and deliciousness.  One of our party was unable to resist adding local beers to his Untapp’d list.  The calorie conscious member of the party voted for beverages based on clear liquor.  Despite the loud patrons occupying the bar, NJ’s had a great laid back atmosphere, only interrupted by the dining room being filled with smoke from the kitchen once.

Onto Scranton, where we hoped to discover Steve Carell sitting behind a desk offering words of wisdom.  Instead, we found Jack’s Draft House, another middle-of-the-neighborhood location.  Perfect spot for a bar – very quiet and peaceful little residential areas.  Neighbors most likely did not appreciate out-of-towners accidentally setting off car alarm and taking ten minutes (it was probably 30 seconds, but it felt like 10 minutes) to figure out how to turn it off.  Damn rental cars.  Fortunately, the neighbors didn’t complain.  Jack’s atmosphere was not quiet, but not intolerably loud either.  Bartender impressed us with his knowledge of local beers/breweries and also informed us of the annual Scranton marathon, which, according to the bartender, is a course that runs 100% on a downward slope.  We’ve always thought a marathon would be a bit too much running.  Four hours of pounding pavement just sounds like a lot of work with little payoff.  However, the concept of a course which is not a loop and veers downhill the whole way, running through small towns in Pennsylvania…. we both thought at the same time, “maybe we can”.  Thanks, knowledgeable bartender for the inspiration.  We might be back.

Saturday 2016 06 18

As always, we failed to estimate our travel time correctly and ended up arriving in Ithaca after midnight. Late arrival resulted in a chaotic morning: we slept a bit too late, threw on running clothes and found our way to the race start spot while finishing getting dressed and eating breakfast.  Registration paperwork being left in the car resulted in a warm-up sprint for one of our party.  Multi-tasking skills are good.  We were the last race participants to pick our tags and passed under the start sign just as the volunteers were taking it down.  Fortunately, we were able to catch up to the other runners by the end of the first mile. The Texas runners were happy with this scenery. Anything other than brown dirt and prickly brush is an improvement.

Suicide nets which might also be useful should an exhausted half marathoner decide to bail out of the race:

This was a great course.  The elevation part was a bit challenging – N Sunset Dr / Cuyoga Heights Dr area was completely uphill.  Although several runners walked during this part, we continued to run… slowly. Inspiration was provided by a grade schooler playing “Taps” to remind us we were probably going to die during this ascent.

As we worked our way towards the last miles, we were joined by a runner we’d not seen at any point prior, and considering we were the last people out of the gate, our exhausted brains wondered if we had a sandbagger cutting in at mile 9 to run the last 4 miles for some reason (money, fame, boredom?). Trying to keep up with or ahead of this person got one of us across the finish line faster, while the other one conceded a victory to everyone else.  We had to make up some time on the downhill portion, part of which took us through a really awesome graveyard.  We were too tired at that point to take pictures, but agreed to come back.

Elevation:

Motivation acquired.

We shared a food table with a local Ithacan with a British accent who was a little surprised to be interacting with runners from the land of the south.

We spent some time watching the crowd, enjoying the fact that we were sitting and not running.

After the race was finished and beer/food consumed, it was time for a nap.  We crashed at our rental for the afternoon.

When sufficient sleep requirement was met, it was time for a quick tour of Ithaca, starting with the Cornell campus.

We parked illegally after spotting an old stone bridge through the trees and wandered down a wooded trail to find it.

Found it!

View from the bridge:

This weird tree appears as if it will disintegrate at any second.

We were hungry after our quick tour, and headed back to downtown Ithaca, where we finished the race earlier.  Marathoners had returned home and the city streets were peaceful.  IPhone modified photos capture something of the relaxed mood:

We decided on Ithaca Ale House for food and ended up splitting a mediocre burger, drinking some weak beer, and attempting to have a conversation over loud music.  We were disappointed; a local beer house with the name “Ale” in the title should offer a larger beer selection and background music at a tolerable volume.

We wandered next door to Red’s Place and discovered a much more pleasant atmosphere.  The bartender’s day job was a high school track coach, and we discussed with him the challenges of motivating high school athletes.  The track coach served drinks which were made with the proper amounts of alcohol and provided information on local athletic events.   Dining is always a better experience when the employees enjoy what they do.  After dinner, we stopped by this place to acquire caffeine.  We were pleasantly surprised when we found a bar in the back of the coffee shop surrounded by shelves of local beer.  Next time in Ithaca, if there ever is one, we’ll be skipping the Ithaca Ale House and going straight to the coffee bar.  We didn’t stay for drinks because we wanted the option to function normally while visiting the graveyard.

We weren’t in the market for live bait, but were intrigued by the fact that egg sacks are available for purchase.

Of course we had to return to the graveyard that we ran through earlier.  The Ithaca City Cemetery is the final resting place for quite a few souls (we didn’t count the headstones), with the oldest grave dating back to 1790. It’s also allegedly a cemetery which attracts local vandals and/teenagers.  According to one website, “some monuments have been pushed over the gorge where they cannot be retrieved”.  We didn’t witness any scandalous activity during our visit, but we did notice several overturned headstones.  Fortunately, it didn’t appear as if any of the souls had escaped their resting place during alleged vandalism.

The deceased Ithacans enjoy a great view of western New York.

Some interesting names in the 1800’s. If only Wealthy had married Wafer.

We were confused by the inscription on a Mr. Edgar Apgar’s stone.

The sun started to go down as we departed the graveyard, so we headed downhill to Sunset Park.  A nice view unfortunately shared with about 40 people.   It was not our intention to capture the glowing green light in the bushes.  Possibly an escaped soul?

After the graveyard, we traveled back to the bridge we ran over earlier in the morning.  We wanted an opportunity to capture some pictures without the obstacle of sweaty hands and armbands.  After illegally parking our car in yet another random parking lot (somebody’s fraternity house with a really awesome view over the river), we looked for places to take pictures.

It didn’t look like any persons had taken advantage of the suicide nets on this day.  We followed some stairs and a short trail down to the water, where we found a pretty intense warning sign.  We followed most of the instructions. We decided not to swim as it would be inconvenient for the city of Ithaca to update the sign from Four to Six.  You’re welcome, sign maker.

We did, however access beyond the “forbidden” point.  In between picture taking, we focused on keeping our feet on the dry spots to avoid a slip into the deadly whirlpool:

After watching the sun go down, we found our way to Moosewood Café, which had been recommended by a family member.  We didn’t have high expectations, but it turned out to be a nice little place.  It would have been a great place to eat, but we’d already had enough food.  So, we enjoyed drinks with Jabba the Hut and some small ducks.  Actually, there was an army of small, medium, and large rubber ducks lining the entire top and sides of the bar area, including Ninjas, Pirates, plain old yellow rubber, and others.  Jabba’s detachable upper torso made a perfect stopper for a beer glass.  Note the duck observing his behavior from the bar:

Sunday 2016 06 19

Evidently we broke a rule at our rental house by washing our half-marathon gear in the basement laundry room.  I’m going to blame Jabba for inspiring us to have too many beverages to recall that we were supposed to use the laundromat down the hill at the local grocery store.  We’ll do better next time.

Leaving Ithaca was difficult.  We wanted to stay, but forced ourselves to get in the car and drive north to Syracuse to fly home.

Typical New York: In order to go north on 81, traveler must first go south, then around a loop which is not clearly marked, then north.

Syracuse regional airport was so empty on an early Sunday morning that the TSA army of 8 bored employees had us remove all of our bathroom items for individual inspection.  Once we passed that gauntlet, we found a weird Arthurian-themed greasy spoon breakfast place that served beverages with big piles of fried eggs, bacon, and other health food.

Skies were clear on the way to our connecting flight in Washington DC.

Ronald Reagan International Airport, in sharp contrast to the Syracuse regional one, is a) a scary place to land, b) a horribly disorganized set of disconnected terminals traversed by scary bus drivers, and c) the crappiest place we’ve eaten since Nachitoches.  Fortunately beverages were available (make them double) to get us through the thankfully very short stay before winging back to DFW.  I think visiting DC again would best be done in late October, via car, with a house well out in the suburbs and bicycling into the city center.

This picture sums up the trip, the run, and the beauty of Ithaca pretty well – looking forward to getting back to upstate New York soon: