The summer's final weekend felt suspiciously like "October's second or third weekend" at our little Paradise by the Sea. Daytime temperatures on Saturday and Sunday topped out in the low to mid 60s and both days a steady, 10-15 mile per hour wind blew from the north/northeast. It was far too easy to envision the arrival of autumn's ever-shortening days and, behind them, the inevitable onslaught of winter.
Still, on Sunday, I did what it was I had promised myself I was going to do before I read the weather forecast, which was have my final run of Summer 2020 on the beach at sunrise, down at the waterline at low tide, and barefoot. Sunday morning, I threw on a long-sleeved t-shirt, a baseball cap, and my flip-flops and ran up 17th Avenue towards the boardwalk.
I audibled as I reached Ocean Avenue. Rather than go straight across onto the sand, I turned right. I ran south down Ocean Avenue into Spring Lake. I would love to fib about how much running in flip-flops as opposed to running shoes slowed me down. While once upon a lifetime ago that might have been true, it is no longer the case.
My path took me past one of the most beautiful places I pass on my running route, which is the September 11 Memorial in Spring Lake, which I saw on Sunday morning perhaps 10-15 minutes before sunrise.
I continued south on Ocean Avenue for only a couple of blocks before I hopped up onto the boards in Spring Lake, and then down onto the beach. Other than a few hardy souls who were sitting on the sand at scattered locations - all bundled up awaiting the sun's rise and the folks whose dogs were out and about early - the gulls, the pipers, and I had the beach to ourselves. I hugged the waterline on my trip north (into a "refreshing" (sure, let us go with 'refreshing') north wind into Belmar and my destination, which was the 17th Avenue Beach...
...at which I arrived just in time to see the sunrise.
-AK
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