These are exciting times to be in Utica, New York. We spent a rest day there yesterday and the entire city is in the midst of preparations for the Boilermaker 15K running race on July 9. At over 10,000 participants, it’s the largest 15K race in the nation. It’s also said to be the most competitive 15K race in the world. Cash prizes are awarded down to tenth place ($500) and the overall winner pockets $6000 for their efforts.

With all that running coming up and all those people coming to town, it was a good time for me to hop on my bicycle and leave! We continued west today on New York state bicycle route 5. Today’s segment of the route took us 60 miles west to a little town named Liverpool, just north of Syracuse.

On the way, I passed by the Oriskany Battlefield State Historic Site (see also this site). The battle at Oriskany has been described as one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution. Eight hundred militiamen and sixty allied Oneida indian warriers were ambushed by British troops as they were crossing the swampy bottoms surrounding Oriskany Creek on August 6, 1777. Nearly 500 soldiers were killed or wounded.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 7th, 2006 at 2:19 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.