If New Jersey is the ugly stepsibling of New York City (see Half-marathon #19…these are not my words), then upstate New York is like the middle child – commonly forgotten and often ignored.

But as a middle child myself, I am well aware that middle children are definitely the best. And what better way to give glory to all that is the middle child then to write it up in my blog? That’s right, time to stand on the mountain top and shout it all to all 4 of my subscribers: UPSTATE NEW YORK IS AWESOME!**

(**Depending on the month of the year you are visiting)

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Many, many moons ago, I visited the Adirondacks with my mom, grandma and my grandma’s cousins.

Fast forward 20+ years and I went back to the Adirondacks again with my mom. I don’t remember much from our previous trip except the water was freezing, we went on a never ending kayak trip (I swore my arms were going to fall off) and “traffic” was three calls all pulling up to a stop sign at the same time.

Okay, not going to lie, pretty sure most of these things are still true about the Adirondacks. 😂😂😂

True story of what happened to me upon arrival in the Adirondacks this go around: I walked into the grocery store and within five minutes someone stopped me and asked if I was here to run the half marathon.

Ummm what? Do the residents literally recognize everyone in the town?!? I mean I’m super friendly and I don’t even know everyone that lives on my street!

Except as we come to find out, I think everyone really does know everyone. Mom looked up the number of full time residents: 898 (according to Census Reporter so don’t quote me on this…)

I think Jenna has more kids than that in her elementary school!

This half marathon trip was decidedly more chill than other trips. At first, I thought it was because I was traveling with my mom and we just collectively moved at a slower speed. But nope, that wasn’t the case with Half Marathon #23 – Oregon (which I also traveled with my mom). Instead, I think Lake Schroon is just meant to be relaxing and enjoyable with plenty of outdoor activities.

1. Hiking:

I spent more time than I would like to admit finding the “perfect” hike. Not too long, not too difficult, but not a walk in the park, not too far of a drive and one with great views. You see, my mom said that her kids keep trying to kill her on hikes (cough Mara cough) and I did not want to fall into that bucket.

We ended up hiking Moxham Mountain and let me just take a second to pat myself on the back. It was exactly what we were looking for – about four miles round trip and a BEAUTIFUL view at the top.

What I wouldn’t recommend is forgetting your hiking boots and socks…not that it was a super strenuous hike but I certainly could have used a different pair of shoes with grips and not the same shoes I was planning to wear on race day. Alas, I survived and we enjoyed lunch on top of the mountain with the great fall views.

The two things I found interesting about the hike:

• They had a “visitor book” that you were supposed to check-in and out of before hiking. I guess this is so the park rangers can determine if anyone is missing. Not a bad idea but I’ve just never seen it before.

• Throughout the town they continually used the word “foot” in ways that I don’t typically see. For example, the hiking trail was a “foot trail” and the half-marathon was a “foot race.”

2. Beach/Swimming:

Obviously, the focal point of Schroon Lake is…you guessed it…the lake!

The water looked beautiful while we were visiting. Not beautiful enough that I actually wanted to go swimming (although I did get in briefly after the race and it was basically equivalent to sticking my feet in an ice bath) but it was nice to chill alongside the water.

There are many beaches around the lake but in the actual town they have a tiny public beach area with Adirondack chairs (how fitting), a lackluster playground and public restrooms. Mom and I walked to the beach a few times to enjoy the sunset, walk in the sand and do some reading.

3. Kayaking:

In an effort to enjoy all the lake-related activities, after the race we went kayaking which I will fully admit for me was more like “paddle, paddle, chill for a bit.” And repeat.

It was so peaceful out on the water and I just wanted to soak it all up. Okay, also, I was super tired and I kind of forgot how kayaking is just another workout and my body was screaming at me “noooooo! Stop! You are not fit enough for this!” haha

Things I learned while kayaking:

• My mother has a death wish. No really, my mom – the uber safe, worry-wart – does not have a healthy respect for cars!! To get to the kayaking rental, we had to walk 15ish minutes and most of the route was on a very busy road with no sidewalk (cars going 50+ mph). Because I understand that the car is the giant and I am the ant, I am legit walking in the ditch because hello, I value my life. Meanwhile my mom is just walking on the side of the road with ZERO cares in the world. Who is this woman and what did you do with my mom?!?! (Although, I will said this led us to have a very interesting discussion about what life would be like if we died haha)
• Beware of sand bars. Y’all, sand bars are a real thing and you know what’s really, really hard? Trying to kayak yourself out of a sand bar. Although, admittedly it was also hysterical trying to watch us escape from the sand bar and we definitely looked like idiots🤣🤣🤣

4. Relaxing:

This was a kid-free trip in a slower-paced town which meant lots of chilling and relaxing – aka my mom and I did a lot of reading.

Normally, I am all about the reading and can demolish some good beach reads. This trip was a bit of an outlier for me because I had brought the book my book club was reading that month and holy moly it was SUCH A BAD BOOK (see my unfiltered thoughts on this below). I am proud to announce that I did, somehow, make it through this book even if it did feel like I was purposely choosing to slam my head in a door every time I turned the page.

5. Eating:

Okay, I will be the first to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the food in Schroon Lake. I am not a picky eater and don’t have high food standards, so I don’t usually hate my meals. However, it’s rare that I genuinely enjoyed every meal that I had (and I swear that we actually visited every available restaurant in Schroon Lake…although given the size of the town this is not a crazy feat haha)

Some ones to note:

• Sticks and Stones https://www.adirondacksticksandstones.com/
  • Okay in a wild turn of events, apparently there was a HUGE fire about a month after we visited and the entire restaurant was burned down. Accordingly to their website they are rebuilding so sending all the positive vibes their way
• 9 Mile Coffee https://www.9milecoffee.com/
  •  Coffee + fresh sandwiches (which we took on our hike)
• Cupola Crepes (no website, I’m not being discriminatory)
• Pitkins https://pitkinsschroonlake.com/
• Schroon Lake Lodge www.lodgeatschroonlake.com
  • The night before the race, there was a pasta dinner hosted at the Schroon Lake Lodge. Was the food amazing? Meh. But it was great to see the lodge, walk around and it would be an awesome place to come back to with the family.We also had a lively discussion in our family group chat about this “activity” at the lodge.

And of course, we wouldn’t even be here without THE RACE.

I will start this section off to say that, start-to-finish, this was the most organized, well put together race that I have ever been part of (and remember that I’ve done 21 other half marathons).

It felt like the entire community banded together to put on race weekend and that the entire town was supportive of the race and excited to have us there.

Want some proof?

Guess how many runners they had? 1008.

And the number of volunteers? 466.

Yes please re-read that again. There was almost a 1:2 ratio of volunteers to runners!! And the number of volunteers represented half of the entire population of full time residents!

As Andy would say, Lake Schroon was fully leaning into the “go big or go home” mindset.

All runners had to be dropped off at the start line and run back in town for the finish line. Since the town was so small, I could easily walk to the bus stop from our Airbnb. The buses were incredibly organized and zero issues onboarding or departing. Upon arrival at the race state, there was food, coffee and lots of bathrooms.

I will say that we did wait for a while before starting (the race started at 10 AM and the bus dropped us off at 9:20 AM). The later races are nice that you have time for a full breakfast before running. But just sitting there and waiting for the race to start also sucks.

The course was 5 miles of flat, shade and beautiful views and then 8 miles of rolling hills that were deceptively killer 🤣

Unfortunately, I went WAY too fast for the first five miles so the last couple of miles (especially mile 12 with that horrible hill) were rough. But I persevered and finished with 2:08:53 which is an AMAZING time for me.

For race in a small town with not a lot of runners (under 1,000), I was amazed at the support from the crowd. They had people cheering even on the most desolate street. We ran through a school campus (Word of Life) and the students were organized into groups singing songs and motivational changes. There were even people on boats in the lake cheering!!

The only thing I didn’t like about the course was the lack of bathrooms throughout. But honestly such a minor complaint (especially since I didn’t even need to use a bathroom).

Mom was waiting for me at the finish line. I kept her updated via text and was laughing so hard when I made it and she was casually crying. (No one believes me but exercise, especially these races, are 100% emotional!!)  

At the finish line there was SO MUCH FOOD. No really. Yogurt, ice cream, fresh fruit, bagels, sweets, an entire gluten free table, a kids table, free beer, etc.

10/10 recommend this race for anyone looking to head to upstate New York. And while I certainly didn’t win the race, I did appreciate how they had the podium out for the whole weekend…letting peons like me finally get a chance to stand on one!

Who knows…maybe I’ll actually win a race one of these days….