So this past monday 2/15 a group of 14 runners gathered at the Croton Harmon train station to run the OCA. (The OCA is a 160 year old trail that was New York City’s major source of clean drinking waterr. It was built between 1839 and 1842 and was used until 1959. It follows the path of the original Croton Aqueduct where it traveled through the Bronx and Manhattan). Tony and I had talked about running the entire OCA while he was training for the Brazil 135. We spent every sat and sun in dec doing long runs in the Rockies and came up with the idea then. That is where my participation ended. Tony took over the operation, gathering maps, turn by turn thru every neighborhood where the trail was on pavement. Posted on Facebook and here we were, all 14 of us.

We first decided to run up to the croton dam for a gorgeous view before starting our trail run. This added about 3 or so miles onto what lay ahead. The trail was covered in snow and thankfully pretty packed down but it definitely slowed things down. Plus, anytime you run with such a large group you only run as fast as the slowest person. I was just happy to not be the slowest person. One brave soul went ahead of the group as he was probably the slowest and didn’t want to hold anyone back. So Steve skipped the view of the dam and immediately went right to the trail. A group of 3 went out ahead with the remaining 10 sticking together.

As we ran thru the rockies we lost one person who was only there to run a small portion with us. A bit further down the road another dropped at a gas station due to a sore back. Down to 8 in our pack. A bit further down 2 girls from nyc told us to go ahead as they were slowing down and didnt want to hold us back and that they would be pulling out at yonkers. We lost 1 more in yonkers and were quickly down to 5 in our group. Of the 3 in the lead pack, we knew that at least 1 was stopping at yonkers b/c he needed to get home for his son’s birthday. But we later learned the other 2 also stopped at yonkers at took the train into the city. 14 starters and only 6 left on the trail.

We finally caught up to Steve somewhere in yonkers. He led us to the bronx/westchester border and hopped on a subway to meet us at the nyc public library, which was the finish. He didn’t want to slow us down and said he had run enough. Down to 5. We continued on the rest of the way on pavement. Running along the Harlem River Drive and eventually making our way to Central Park. Our spirits lifted with the familiar sights and we each found some renewed energy.  We made our way thru the park, exited onto 5th ave and made our way to the finish. Tired but extremely happy to have finished we sat in the cold with huge smiles on our faces at what we just accomplished. We grabbed a beer and burger and hopped on the train heading back home. A great way to spend a day, a long run with some amazing people.

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