The trip

We continued up from Ithica to Niagara falls. This was part of a 10 day trip with Ciara and her parents starting in New York City and ending in Manhattan. For the sake of keeping the car rental fee low, we were staying in a hotel on the US side rather than crossing the car into Canada and dealing with the additional insurance costs.

The US side is generally less built up and most of the best views and tourist facilities are on the Canadian side of the river. Therefore, the US side can be quite quiet across the year but the two days we were there it was an absolute ghost town. There was nobody around at all. As we were there in March, it was still very cold and the summer tourists were still several weeks away. We checked into our hotel and went for a walk and very quickly found ourselves crosing the bridge in search for life.

The run

This was my first marathon that asn't an official race. Instead, I just started running and stopped after my watch said 26.2 miles (well, 26.3 for good measure).

We began the day with a walk around Goat Island to get the best of what the US side had to offer. The cold was intense from the start but it was still a very nice place to explore. That being said, the thought of the impending challenge in the back of my head made me want to get across the bridge as soon as possible. However, as the running was only the second element of the trip, I had to stay in line with the other three to minimise the level of inconvenience I'd cause.

It was around midday when we entered Canada and after a few more pictures of the waterfall I got on the move. The challenge here was simple. The temperature was ten degrees below freezing and you could feel it in your bones. I started the run with tracksuit bottoms on, a fleece, hat, gloves and a snude. The accessories would end up coming off and on again throughout the run to balance my body temperature and sweat levels but the tracksuit bottoms and fleece weren't going anywhere.

The route I had planned was very straightforward - Follow the Niagara Parkway up and down until I'm done. This meant I'd have to spend little time trying to navigate and would be less likely to get lost and I would also not have to deal with crossing many roads and waiting at lights. I started by going past the falls and heading south towards the Dufferin islands. Similar to my Pennsylvania run a few days earlier, the river was my anchor and a countinous source of peace and calm. The first thought I had as I crossed one of a few small path bridges on route was that today would be a terrible day for any of them to crumble as a few seconds in that water and I'd be done for.

I carried on up for a few more miles through the Chippawa suburb before turning around. On this run I learnt that black squirrels were a thing. Having grown up in England, I was very familiar with the red and grey squirrel situation and thought they were the only kinds. There were also some swans to keep me company along the way. Outside of that, there weren't many people out and about, except for in the centre of town. I took the turnaround as the opportunity to have an energy gel and one of the nutrigran bars that I'd been holding onto from the breakfast buffet in New York. I had my full ruksack on my back for this one with some food and water and extra layers for this one.

The return to the falls was largely uneventful, just more cold, quiet running, stopping to take the occasional picture here and there. I also took a quick pitstop in the visitors centre, mainly to let my body heat up for a few minutes. I headed back past the other tourists, under the Rainbow Bridge and on my way North. This side of town was much more built up with continous buildings and different types of architecture to keep me entertained. The Ten Thousand Buddhas Sarira Stupa caught my eye in parcticular. I made it to the whirlpool kink in the river and dtopped to take in the views. On the way back down, I stopped at Maple Leaf place to get an extra bottle of water and a fridge magnet.

The lack of shot glasses in the shop meant that I was back in the vistors centre again after a few more miles to heat up and spend a few dollars. The glass in the shape of a maple leaf is one of the more unique ones in the collection. Whilst Ciara and her parents were exploring, up the viewing tower and down behind the falls (as a 'normal' tourist would do), they also picked up some souvenirs so we're doubled up on Canada. At this point I still had quite a few miles to go so just head out back south again but didn't head as far. I turned around again and did the same in the opposite direction.

At this point I actuallly bumped into the other three as they were heading back to the bridge at the end of their look around. We had a quick chat and I said I shouldn't be too far behind them. I'd had enough of the river by then so decided to head around the town centre streets to get the last few miles in. All the classics are there: a slighlt run down fun fair, a Ripleys Believe it or not, a Hardrock Hotel etc. I was absolutely shot by the end of it and ended up effectively walking in circles around Oakes Garden Theatre as I watched my watch go 25.9, 26.0, 26.1. I hit stop just after five hours and got on my way back to the safety of the hotel.

Back in the US ghost town, a homeless man approached me and asked me for help. Charity is great but handouts on the street are often not the best way to help because you don't know what the person is really going to use the money for. But in this case I couldn't walk past and stopped and chatted to him for a few minutes. He had only recently ended up in this situtaion as was trying to get to the shelter for the night. I gave him the rest of the food I had in my bag and wished him good luck. I felt good that I'd done something but bad that I hadn't done more after how much I'd struggled with the outside myself that day. The interaction also made me feel incredibly grateful for the privilege I had being able to take on the challenge that I was