During our last run in Rocky Point, Monica mentioned that she wanted to run Fire Island. Since it was quite there in the winter, I thought it was a good idea and sent out an email to the rest of the group.
At Robert Moses Field 5
It was a cold and blustery Sunday. Four runners stepped out of the car at parking lot 5 at Robert Moses State Park. The wind was fierce. Jon was standing by his car, “maybe we should run at Heckscher.”
I thought about it for a moment, but I knew that there would be some runners coming and didn’t want to change it up last minute. I texted Ray, “where are you?” He called me and told me that we called it for 8:15 am. I got out of the car and told the rest of the group that we needed to wait a few minutes.
At 8:15 am, we all got out of our cars yet again, except this time, Jon was wearing his NYC Marathon cape (NY RoadRunners gives these out after you finish the NYC Marathon.). We all looked at him and laughed, yet we knew he would be warmer than the rest of us!
We started to run. (Forget about warm up, it was too cold.) I texted Monica. She was a little out and said she and Jim would meet up. The wind was behind us. As we got going, we warmed up quickly.
On our way to Fire Island
When we passed Robert Moses and headed over to Fire Island, the roads were soft and muddy. There were lots of puddles and the seven of us (at that point there were seven), we carefully went around the puddles and tried to stay on the tracks. It was easier than running in the middle of the road. The ground was soft, very soft.
For about a half mile or so the conditions weren’t great. We grinned and beared it. Soon we were on a road and it was easy to run again. We kept our pace nice and light. (These runs aren’t fast, they are to build endurance.)
Over to the Beach and the Bay
What I love about the Fire Island run is that we get to see the water on both sides of the island. The Atlantic ocean was fierce on this day. It was not happy. The waves were high and the white caps went out almost a half mile back. As we stood on the boardwalk leading down to the beach, I felt as if the wind could sweep us away!
We ran to the middle of the Island and saw some deer. They were brazen and let us walk by. The mother deer looked at us and her expression said, “don’t even think about going near my baby.” The baby was behind the tree. He was so cute but I didn’t want to stop. That mother looked angry!
Then, we took a sharp right and ran to the bay side. The water was much calmer there and you could see all the bridges which were on the mainland. A boardwalk runs along the side of the island and as we ran, we could see the bay. It was simply beautiful.
Heading back to the cars
Heading back was brutal. The wind had picked up and was blowing into our faces. It was if someone was holding us in one place not letting us move. To make matters worse, the mud was think and gooey. It was nearly impossible to run through the mud into the wind.
We finally got to the sign, welcome to Fire Island. Ray, Jon and Grace were so far ahead of us. We yelled out. Grace heard and yelled to the guys. We wanted to stop and take a photo. The guys were not happy that they had to come back. Jon still had the NYC Marathon cape around him and as he ran, it looked as if he were a bird.
When we were all together, Monica took a few shots.
Then, instead of continuing through the mud, we took the boardwalk route to the cars.
Strangest thing was, my clock said 5 miles when everyone else’s said 6. In any event, it was one of those memorable runs that when I started to think back to the day, it just put a big smile on my face.
If it weren’t for my running group, I would have stayed home. But, I wouldn’t have had so much fun!