Running in Mt. Hope Cemetery

I started out my day by taking Fargo on a brief jog in the neighborhood. It's been ages since I took him on a run and I wasn't sure how he'd behave. He was fantastic, sticking by my side, heeling at all the corners, and getting excited but resisting the urge to pull when we encountered two squirrels and one cat. Very nice. I'll have to start running with him again as I suspect it will help build strength in his one leg, which seems to be giving him more trouble these days, though only after he goes on a crazy long run in the park.

I then went to one of Rochester's most well-known landmarks, Mount Hope Cemetery, to complete my workout. Opened in 1836. Mt. Hope is famous for several reasons: its the oldest municipal Victorian cemetery in America, the last resting place for both Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglas, and it was a product of the ice age, which left it with a truly unique landscape. The oldest part of the cemetery is composed of a series of interconnected hills, some nearly 300 feet high, which pass through the cemetery and continue almost three miles to the east. This collection of oddly shaped hills is what makes this cemetery so spectacular to look at, and challenging for runners. As you run up, down and around the wooded, rolling hills you constantly see new shapes and formations, amazing foliage and flowers, and spectacular trees. The cemetery's Victorian designers were insistent about leaving the terrain in this natural state and landscaped everything accordingly. At a party I attended on Saturday, one of my friends, who's an expert horticulturalist, informed me that during the Victorian period, Rochester had more flower and tree nurseries than the rest of the United States combined, and the largest of these nurseries was located across Mt. Hope Avenue. Dozens of completely unique specimens of trees were planted in the cemetery, and now some of those trees are over 150 years old. It is truly an amazing place to run. In the summer, it's lush and green; in the fall, it bursts into a million colours.

My running log is a very imprecise approximation today as I forgot my watch and don't have a really accurate measurement of the route I took. I wandered through various paths based almost entirely on visual appeal. My logic went something like this: Mmm, there are some pretty flowers down there so I think I'll head that way.

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 35 minutes
Location: Mt. Hope Cemetery
Terrain: gravel, asphalt, some cobble stones, and grass
Weather: clear, crisp, dry
Comments: This one felt really good! Though I didn't exactly run very fast, I felt strong and like I was enjoying running again! There's hope for me yet! Perhaps I'll tackle the canal path this weekend.