My best friend has a cabin in South Jersey that has become a favorite place to recover after east coast races, or simply a good, low key vacation spot. This time, we traveled to Jersey for my husband’s birthday with very little agenda and a vision to spend as much down time at the cabin as possible. The cabin is in the area known as the Pine Barrens, a lovely and somewhat lonely name derived from the sandy, low nutrient soil. Don’t let that fool you though, as blueberries grow wild and plenty.
A lot of my trips center around marathons, which require a minimum of three days: the day before is usually full with expo and a shakeout run and fueling up, race day is all consuming (with little guarantee there will be energy for anything but eating and lounging), and then usually at least one recovery day before legit travel or walking can resume.
When vacations are free and allow for shorter fun runs, it feels like a special treat. During this visit, our training plan called for two runs: a 13.1 at marathon pace on Sunday and an easy five-miler on Tuesday. Destination runs can be so transporting, especially when you can experience such vastly different terrain within 30 miles. What a joy to explore such very different sides of Jersey through these two runs.
For our longer run, we drove to Stone Harbor so we could do an easy out and back along the shore to Avalon, and end our run at the ocean. The towns are still mostly deserted, it being a bit chilly and early for the beach goers. That meant a peaceful run, very little traffic, and a wide open beach to ourselves at the end.
Side note: If this kind of run sounds appealing to you, check out the Ocean Drive Marathon in the spring. I ran it in 2018, and it is a tiny field (less than 300!) with a very serene and quiet course (not the race for you if you need that spectator magic).
For our five-miler on Tuesday, we chose nearby Bellplain State Forest to seek out a trail loop. We found a nice lake-side loop where the trail was surrounded by soaring pines and carpeted with fallen needles.
After a couple of easy miles, Louie asked if I wanted to up the ante with some sprints. For the next three miles, one of us charged ahead, the other following suit. Then we relaxed and backed off until someone jolted ahead again. It was the first time I’ve done a fartlek in the woods. Forest Fartlek has a nice ring to it, no? This simply must now be in my mix. It was both challenging and joyful.