This past weekend I took a trip up to Cherry Springs State Park in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, to do some star gazing. Despite having attended college only sixty miles south of the park, I had never heard of it until recently.

Cherry Springs State Park is known as one of the darkest areas on the eastern seaboard, perfect for astronomers, photographers and anyone else interested in seeing an abundance of stars.

The park is located 2,300 feet above sea level and sits in the middle of almost entirely undeveloped forest, and as such is shielded from the bright lights of local homes and towns which are nested down in valleys.

Because of this, it is not exactly a cake walk to get to, and more so to leave in the dark. The hour and a half drive from Lock Haven was scenic with only two turns. From town, follow PA Route 120 also known as Susquehanna Avenue west for roughly 20 miles until you reach the town of Hyner, Pa. A little local tip, leave a few hours earlier than needed and drive up to Hyner’s View State Park for sweeping views of the Susquehanna River and valley below. If you are lucky, you may even catch some of the hang gliders taking flight off of the ramp next to the overlook.

As mentioned in my Love Run race review, I may have gotten a little over zealous upon completing my first half marathon in 2015, and immediately signed up for ALL the races upon returning home from California.

I still had no clue that a challenge to run a half marathon in every state existed at this point, but knew of the Baltimore Marathon from when my parents lived aboard their sailboat there. 

Many of my weekends were spent visiting them at the marina in Inner Harbor East, which has a running/walking trail that follows the waters edge for miles. I had absolutely no excuses to skip my runs, with it being one step outside the marina gate, and who would want to with the views.

The walk up and down the dock was quite lengthy, so there was no hiding the fact that I was out running from all of our friends along the way. At least one or two people would stop me every run, to ask if I was going to run the Baltimore Marathon that was held in the fall every year. Pft! No, thanks! Running a marathon is crazy talk, and at this point I still hadn’t cracked the 10 mile mark yet. 

Fast forward a year and a half later though and my mindset had changed. I had now run two other half marathons, just started running regularly with a local running club, and made the bold decision to sign up for the Philadelphia Marathon (yes, all 26.2 miles). More about that at a later date.

The training plan I was following from Hal Hidgon, suggested racing a half marathon a couple of months out from your full marathon, just to gauge where you are in your training. I quickly remembered the Baltimore race everyone kept asking me about, and now knowing they had a half marathon distance, it seemed like a fun option, so I signed up. 

The majority of my time spent in Baltimore was in or around the Inner Harbor area. Because of this, I was greatly misinformed or uneducated if you will, about just how hilly the city of Baltimore really is. Don’t mind the fact that I drove through “Brewers Hill” to get in and out every time I visited, or ate in areas called “Federal Hill” or “Mount Vernon”. Seriously, you think I would have caught on to this at some point. But nope.

Note: This is a mishmash of both the 2017 and 2019 races – Yes, it’s that good that we continue to go back every year possible!

With three half marathons behind me, and finding myself in the middle of training for my first marathon, I made the very last minute decision to sign up for the Wineglass Half Marathon with my friend Heather, aka Meatball, and her family. 

It was so last minute in fact, that the race was already sold out and I was put on a wait list.

Their family has been running various distances at this race weekend for years, and assured me most people end up clearing the wait list, so I would likely make it in. 

I knew absolutely nothing about this race other than “it was super fun, and you get glass medals at the end”. Um, okay. Sold!

I feel as though I should mention that I had already signed up for the Baltimore Half Marathon that was only 21 days later. Anyone who knows me now, knows I wouldn’t even bat an eye at this scenario currently, but back then, this might have been one of the dumbest things I have ever done.

Day seven was fairly low key, but came with a big surprise for me! As some of you may know, Philip who I traveled with, was my photography and drawing professor in college. As a studio art major with a concentration in photography, he and I spent a lot of time together working on photo projects and perfecting skills in the wet lab.

I knew he was able to go on this trip with grant money from the university, and had various assignments to photograph the area. His photos would be used in lecture art classes at various universities back home, so I knew he had brought a decent amount of camera gear with him.

What I did not know is that we were going to be having an old school film shooting contest, and that once we returned home, I was going to be allowed to make a trip back to college and use the wet lab to develop my roll of film and print my own photos! 

This was beyond exciting, as it had been a number of years since I had even shot film, let alone had the opportunity to get in the lab and develop it myself.