Beach Combing Blues

As noted in the previous post, the past 2 weeks were spent standing on the sands of the Jersey shore. Ocean City is a quaint little kinda place when you are there off season, and a busy buzzing beehive of beach combers during the peak holiday weeks, like this past memorial day. Many a summer day were spent here in my younger years, but it wasn't until this past year or so that going there was rewarded with the benefit of a built in 2.5 mile running route: the boardwalk. With every quarter mile from either direction clearly marked off along the way, runners can delight in being treated to their own running lane, right down the slightly crooked spine of this slumbering wooden beast*. 

The weather shifted drastically while I was there, going from needing chilly gear for early morning runs to not needing any gear at all per se, but wearing it anyway, just to be part of decent society, and to conserve sunblock as often as possible; that stuff is expensive! So, in the beginning it was iffy, rain, chills, and abundance of fog...

A Foggy Day in London Town
(Or, Ocean City)

More beach chronicles await...

While it might sound, on the surface, nightmarish, it was actually far from it. I revelled in the cool temperatures, and the solitude the poor weather provides on the beachfronts. It was when it got hotter, and thus more crowded, that the boardwalk runs became far less appealing. Despite the Galaga-like onslaught of aimlessly wondering pedestrians, baby strollers, and cyclists (though I'm not sure it's considered cycling if you're barely even peddling and runners pass you without panting), that fall into formation in front of you, and therefore have to be dodged & dismissed, this is a great place to put in some distance. 


It was actually this time last year, at this exact spot, that I first started incorporating the longer runs (5 miles or more) into my base running routine. Indeed, it was along these planks that I once again started building distance back into my long runs this year. My staple run is 5 miles nowadays, but down at the shore, the occasional 7 miles slowly crept to a comfortable 10 miles, and I finally broke into the double digits for the first time since finishing the marathon. It feels good to get the distance back. I haven't really been too motivated to push myself beyond the comfort zone I mapped out before, because I'm not really training for anything on the horizon. Mainly because, I'm not sure what my country of residence is going to be by the end of June. Time will tell soon, because it's already the beginning of June. 

Rainbow Brite

The transition between potentially depressing dreary beach weather to sunshine & lollipops was as sharply defined as the line a Ginsu knife slicing through tin can as if they were mere tomatos makes. It was 5 days of clouds and rain, then, a rainbow crept from behind the grey spattered shroud of sky to acknowledge better times ahead: the remaining time there was fine weather and wonderfully comfortable temperatures, truly, blue skies on mars affair, therefore, highly conducive to running. 


The only thing of notable bother (besides the over-population, and inflation, and starvation, and the crazy politicians...I am an Apeman!), if I had to say anything at all, would be the stiff-armed wind that swipes your breath away and holds fast to your shoulders while trying to run full force itno it, slightly elevated, on a long wooden walkway along the beachfront, but does that really sound like a complaint? Strong wind is surely a tough element to come up against on a run, but by the time I got to the end of the 2.5 mile boardwalk, and it was time to turn around and head back the other end, the wind was now nice and breezy on my back gently nudging me along. Not a bad spot to be in on an otherwise beautiful day. 

Is there anything fluffier than a cloud?
If there is, I don't want to know about it.

This year, unlike the past, when the boardwalk grew too crowded with too many tourists meandering the woodwork walkway, I hit the streets. I found that, going by the distance marked on the boards, every 9-10 blocks is about 1 mile. So with that as my rough guide, I put in some unfamiliar miles off the beaten path. It was an interesting variation on the glitz & glam of the shopfront serenade that lines the shore. The farthest I went on a street run was to 44th and back down to 14th (where we were staying). I found out later that the island of Ocean City only goes to 59th street, so now I have a new goal for next time I'm down there: a full island tour on foot! Which would put me at about 13.5 miles: (just a bit over) my own personal half marathon.   

My ipod nano died on me while on one of my longer runs. It's so sad that it lived such a short sweet life before descending into silence. I've only had it for about 6 months. It went, literally, around the world and back with me. With its passing, I've lost not only a running buddy (technically the second, since my Nike+ conked out on me in February), but also my carefully crafted vegan marathon runner playlist, and the sweet-sweet Nippon music playlist I spent many a run in Japan listening to. I'm hoping, with some confidence, that Apple does the right thing by fixing it for me, but getting out to the Apple store is no easy chore. Until then, it's back to nature, with the blanket of the great outdoors, breathing, and my feet, draped across the speakers providing the random soundtrack to my runs.   

If, by chance, you find yourself in Ocean City, and you're either vegan, vegetarian, or just health conscious in the least, The Bashful Banana is a must! They have an array of vegan (and clearly marked non-vegan) sweets ready to go in a bakery bin right at the end of their counter. Or, you can grab a banana whip, which consists of sending a frozen banana through a Champion juicer, right before your very eyes, like an edible strand of delicious pale yellow play-doh, that has no other additives, unless you choose a topping ranging from fresh berries to nuts or even flax seeds. The result is the olympic gold medalist of soft serve textures; something that takes the idea of eating a banana and turns it on its head. The best possible way to experience the whip in all its glory is to grab a whipolope, which cuts a cantaloupe in half, uses the sleepy hollow center as nature's best cup to contain the whip itself in, and then sprinkles tons of fruits on top. Best enjoyed with a friend, or by the ravenous, because this is a monster undertaking; a tiny mountain of delectable goodness. 

They're not just a sweet shop though, they're a bakery & café, so there's a full menu to match any meal of the day. My favorite, a homemade vegan veggie burger with hummus and red peppers on white ciabatta bread.

Vegan Hummus Burger

Now I know it sounds like I'm gushing, but it's not without merit. If you're a vegan in Ocean City, your other choices aren't that great. There's an Chinese restaurant on 14th street that has a killer General Tso's tofu, and one of the nicest owners around (Sandy!), there's also a Mexican place on 6th with a 1lb veggie burrito that is amazingly awesome, if you skip the cheese & sour cream, you're sitting cozy like the Buddha under the Bodhi tree. But that's about it. So to have something that not only caters to vegans right smack dab in the middle of the boardwalk (it's on 9th street), which is not only delicious but easily accesible, is a real Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It's not exclusively vegan, they do serve turkey burgers and such, but they're aware, and friendly towards, the latchkey vegan kids that come to play stickball in their neighborhood, so it's a fortunate place to have around an otherwise desolate vegan vista. Luckily, with sites like Happy Cow, you're never really stranded. I used this while plotting out reconnaissance for vegan spots in Tokyo too. 


So now it's back to the Philly 'burbs once again. 

Footnotes:
*I was tempted to dub this behemoth the boardello, but felt that would misrepresent its true purpose as a platform for a family friendly resort town.