My work sent me on another week long trip to New Jersey in July. Since I'm several weeks into my 20 week
15K training plan I brought my running shoes along with my Garmin watch, and a water bottle belt. I was unable to get a hotel room close to "the shore" or "the beach" as the locals call it.
I flew into Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) picked up my rental car and drove east to Millville, New Jersey. My hotel, the Fairfield Inn and Suites was located just off New Jersey Route 55. I would be working near the Atlantic City International Airport which was about a 50 minute drive from my hotel.
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| The view from my hotel room - NJ-55 is in the distance |
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| My room |
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| Another view of my room |
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| My bathroom |
The hotel was nice. The room was quiet and the staff was very friendly. My only criticism would be that the room didn't seem as clean as maybe it could have been. There was a dried coffee cup ring on the nightstand that was there all week from a previous occupant. A second criticism is that the in-room coffee maker leaked like a sieve. I only used it once and then decided to use the complimentary and always available coffee in the lobby.
My only outside run was on Monday. I exited the hotel parking lot on a nice wide road with few vehicles.
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| The hotel parking lot exit |
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| The road was flanked by tall pine trees |
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| The road turned at "turkey corner" before entering dumpster alley |
My route turned into the back of a strip mall as I wound my way south toward some neighborhoods I had seen on Google maps. I searched on-line at Garmin Connect and Map My Run before arriving in NJ but I've found that finding usable routes on both sites is next to impossible. In the future I plan to use realtor.com to find a nice neighborhood to run in. I'll enter the city and jack up the list price until I'm happy. Why run in the hood when you can run in the up-scale part of town? Had I done better checking before-hand I would have turned right onto Glenside Road and headed into the Woodland Shore community along Union Lake instead of going straight on Sunset Drive and into the hood. It looks like it might be pretty nice.
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| Behind the Shop Rite |
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| Dumpster Alley |
I thought about calling this the "dumpster run" but decided not to after some soul searching. I will say though that the people of Millville should do something about the inordinate amount of trash which has accumulated on Sharp Street near the dam. I suspect that much of it was deposited there during Hurricane Sandy in October of 2012. There are two (2) things that chap my butt 1) trash in the street, and 2) flies in a restaurant (dead or alive - though dead is preferred).
My run now over it was time to focus on work, and the critters that abound nearby.
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| One of two deer in the woods next to the parking lot |
After leaving work I saw two (2) large deer in the woods beside the airport parking lot.
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| Turkeys in the parking lot |
The next day I saw two (2) huge turkeys walk up to the building and sit down. Someone must have been feeding them. It was around noon and there were people all over going to and coming from lunch but the turkeys showed little sign of caution.
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| Millville NJ turkeys |
I had already seen four (4) big turkeys cross the road earlier that morning when I left the hotel.
On my final evening in New Jersey me and three (3) of my coworkers met for dinner at
Jo Jo's Italian Grille near Hamilton Mall in Pleasantville, NJ. I had the lasagna. I couldn't eat it all, nor did I try. The food was good but oddly enough they don't serve alcohol. You can Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) but...
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| Lasagna at Jo Jo's Italian Grille |
I finally made it home to Atlanta that Friday. Now I'll try to focus more on my running as speed work gets introduced to my training plan.
I finished the week with just over 20 miles run - 14 miles on the street and 6 miles on the hotel treadmill. My end of trip weight was +2 lbs. I don't know how this is possible since I ate salads for lunch all week. BIG salads I know but salads just the same.
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| Salads for lunch |
Thanks for reading.
