Lots of miles this week

Ran about 18 miles since my last post on Saturday, continuing to focus on the Hill and Harbor area in the northeast section of the town.

April 24 and 25 - finished the couple outstanding roads inside the Rt4 - Division - 1st Ave - Middle/Kenyon area. Also tried to knock off the 2nd - 6th Ave and Post - 5th St area but missed a "plus sign" in there. Unfair in my opinion because those "roads" are really parking lots or part of the OLM school property.

April 27 - longest run of the year at about 6.6 miles. Only about 30 ft of road plus a dangerous portion of Division left in the Kenyon / Middle - Division - Rt 4 triangle. Finished the "plus sign" near OLM that frustrated me earlier in the week. Also ran a long portion of road down near Blu, Finn's, and the town dump. Missed a couple side roads between London St and the train tracks, but luckily there's an access tunnel for pedestrians so I shouldn't have to take the longer route to get back to it.

Maybe 3-4 more runs until I've completed that entire section, assuming I don't inadvertently miss something - I'll admit that my best laid plans as I leave the house are sometimes a muddled mess by the time I've run the several miles to get to the roads and turns that I planned on making, so I'm sure I'll miss something somewhere.

I'm getting closer and closer to altering my approach - I'm SO SICK of running the same 2 mile stretch of Division and 1st Avenue (4 miles in total, 2 out and 2 back) in order to run a mile or 2 of new roads. However, if I give in now and allow myself to drive or bike to a closer starting point, I'll be eliminating a lot of the challenge, and the "stretch" portion of this goal will be moot. Still holding strong for now, though.

Still plugging along...

Been awhile since I posted... only gotten out 3 times in EG since my last entry, mainly due to school vacation week and a trip down to Pittsburgh. Progress continues even with the lost week while out of town.

April 11 - knocked off Main St and a couple other side streets on the return home. It's exactly 2 miles from my house to the corner of Division and Main St, for what it's worth...

April 14 - knocked off Division to the east and weaved a bit through the Hill and Harbor area. Still dreading the back-and-forth that will be required to hit all the little nooks and crannies down there, but it'll build up my endurance for the future ventures west of Rt 2.

April 23 - more progress in the Hill area, weaving back and forth from Friendship to 1st Ave. Accidentally ran up a school access road which threw off my pattern - I was hoping to hit Proctor but will have to loop back and get some dead ends and finish off Proctor in a future effort.

Broke the 5 mile barrier!

Longest run of the year so far - 5.21 miles - and knocked out some new territory. Toughest part of the run was definitely running up Division St from the First Ave split - quite a hill that I've run down before, but never up. Knocked out First Ave to Post to Cedar, then trickled through Dale Hill to close out a good portion. My tactics so far have been to make loops to stretch out my endurance, then circle back through the "back roads" as I return home. And I've been preferring my trail to get to Division over the long Cindy Ann exit to save mileage.

The northeast will fall soon!

Snow is a running bummer

Progress was limited this week due to some weekend work commitments, a Spring snow storm, and some really cold temperatures. I was able to get out the past 2 Fridays and made some progress to the east and also crossed Rt 4 to knock off a little neighborhood off of Middle Rd. Hoping to get out later today and tomorrow to make some more eastward progress, but we'll see... My new mapping approach is to highlight the new roads for easier recognition - still a work in progress, so who knows what will change.

This would be a great activity for someone living outside of EG but looking to relocate here in the future - I'm obviously getting exposure to some areas and houses that I've never encountered before, so a future resident could gain some valuable information from doing what I'm doing (though it could be done much more quickly in a car!).

Black shapes around the new roads covered this week