#Favorite Run

Amanda...aka Miss Zippy posted last week about her #FavoriteRun.  It was an awesome loop around lakes and through the woods.  Well luck you all that I was visiting the place that holds home to one of my favorite runs!!  Let me take you on my 10 mile loop in Middletown/Newport, RI!

First I head down the huge hill at my parents' house and about a mile and a half I come onto one of my favorite views of the run...

One side of the street is houses and the other are these cliffs!  Growing up I had a friend who lived on this street...I think I would just sit on my porch all day long taking in the view!  After a quick loop around I turn to run past one of the beaches (which is home to the starting line of the Amica Marathon and Half Marathon) and up the steep hill that leads into Newport.

 A turn at the top has me heading down one of my favorite streets....Bellevue Ave.  A street now lined with the Tennis Hall of Fame and stores, was once the same street that housed the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers as they summered here...

They've left their "summer homes" behind!  I head then to the end of this street which pours into another beach.  I loop around the beach and head back down Bellevue (a part of this loop is part of the Newport 10 miler course that you should check out!).  My return trip would be just the same views if I didn't make sure to turn down Ruggles Ave...through part of the Salve Regina campus and onto the famed Cliff Walk!

You used to be able to go past this gate and even farther along the Walk but Hurricane Sandy has taken out a lot of the rock making it unsafe.  Around this corner boasted some of the best surfing spots on the island and a lot of local surfers have started the "Save Ruggies" campaign to help raise attention to this part being fixed.

The Walk takes me behind more of Salve and back to the beach...along the way there are mile markers every time you cross a street....like 3/4 mile to Narragansett Ave and so on.  It is a hilly and sometimes narrow path but to have mansions on one side and cliffs and ocean on the other I'll take it!  My "local" advice would be to hit this early if you are here in the summer or better yet go in the Fall or Spring when the daffodils have bloomed!  A right turn has me headed back to my parents as I sprint back up the hill to their house!!!

Looking back as I write this post it is pretty clear what I love....the ocean!!  Born and bread beach girl I can't get enough of it!  It calms me...centers me...quiets me...I love it!  Ever in RI let me know...I'll head down and we can run!!