Running while traveling...and doing other things...

Sunday 8/9/09, 5:15pm Live from New York City, in the Borough of Queens

So I’m sitting here in Laguardia Airport with a flight delay, cuz those are really fun. For some reason I can’t get a decent internet connection, so I’m writing in Word and will paste this up in my blog whenever I get the chance.

The “weekend” was great (Thursday to Sunday.) I tried to do things I don’t normally get to do, but I also wanted to get my 8 mile run in, too. So for list number 1, here are the things I did:
• Saw 4 movies, 1 per day!
-The Hangover (Thursday night): hilarious!
-Perfect Getaway (Friday night): uh, not typically what I’d go see, but since I wanted to go see a movie each day, we rolled with it. It was fun.
-In the Loop (Saturday night): a British satire about the lead up to our most recent war. It was funny, but I was tired and dozed off a few times
-Orphan (Sunday morning): another one of those “this kid living in my house is a stark raving mad, murderous lunatic, please get her out” kinda movies. Again, it filled the requirement of seeing a movie each day, and it wasn’t Harry Potter, which I haven’t started reading and watching now, so why? I mean, if I’m going to embrace it, I’d prefer to start with the books, and in sequential order.

• Did not have one home-cooked meal (AWESOME
-Ate Mexican, Caribbean, Southern BBQ, Italian, Thai and of course a few sugary treats from a few places.

• Ran

• Went to a Russian/Turkish Bath House (kind of like a sauna except WAY hotter), with different rooms that had dry heat and steam heat. Some of the rooms were dark, there was a Eucalyptus room. I went here after my 8 mile run, so I was already beat. I dripped buckets of sweat within 2 minutes. It was interesting. I only stayed inside the super hot rooms for a total of about 20 to 25 minutes. I wanted to avoid passing out. ;)

• Stayed out all day, each day.
I didn’t even go to Brooklyn, which is a first for me. Since I lived there for nearly 2 years before my last little stint up in Harlem, you’d think I would have gotten back there. But I didn’t. Sigh.

But alas, this blog is about running, so let me tell you about my run. I got up a little later than usual on Saturday morning, about 6:20 or so, slowly got ready to go run, I think I was a little nervous about not knowing exactly how to get down to the running path. So I made my way down the street 3 blocks to the entrance of Riverbank State Park, and voila, a guard was on post at the booth, so I asked and he provided excellent directions to get down to the path. So a few minutes later, with my beloved Garmin ready to roll, I was off.

The running path is sandwiched between the Hudson River and the West Side Highway, along the western edge of the island of Manhattan. I was running from the north, heading southward. Just on the other side of the highway is Riverside Park and a steep uphill climb to Broadway and the rest of the city, so the trees along Riverside Drive that are already up higher than the shoreline tend to block that (evil) morning sun that can sometimes be a dealbreaker when running in the morning. Kinda nice! And yes, this would be the same Hudson River where a few hours later a small plane collided with a tour helicopter. Imagine the people running who happened to see THAT. Horrendous.

Anyway, Back to my actual run. The running part. The first thing I noticed is the big yellow boxes marking where you could call for help. I’m not sure if that should make me feel more nervous or more secure, but I thought that was something nice, since I don’t think we have anything like that on the lakefront. Well, I suppose half of us carry our cell phones anyway, but maybe those boxes everywhere serve as much as a deterrent as anything. They were like every couple 100 feet, for the first mile I ran on. Also, this area was kind of under a bridge, so maybe the area is a little more dangerous.

Anyhooooo…my run started out well, I was running a bit fast, but it felt good. I wasn’t sure how far I’d have to run down, so I was glad my Garmin was working so well. The blocks go quickly in Manhattan from street to street going in the north/south direction (and contrary to the east-west avenues), but it was still a bit unnerving when I seemed to reach 125th so quickly, then 96th and so on. (I could see the exit signs from the West Side Highway.) Right around 91st street there was a detour sign, the path was closed off. From 91st to 84th, it read, we’d head up into Riverside Park. Holy Canolli !!! To get into the park, there was a big, gigantic hill. Ok, maybe it wasn’t gigantic, but since Chicago is flat as a pancake, this qualified as a major hill for me. For my fellow Chicagoan runners, it was way steeper than that “hill” at Michigan/Roosevelt just before the marathon finish line, and steeper than that big hill near 47th Street on Lake Shore Drive…

Anyway…I was DETERMINED to run up that hill, even if I had to slow down to a snail’s pace. My breathing was HARD, but I did it, and didn’t walk at the top, either! The way back to the running path was also a hill, but not as steep.
Ok, so another interesting thing about their path, is that they have this whole separation of runners and all-things-on-wheels. In some parts, there is a big line, and on one side of the line there are markings for cyclists and rollerbladers, and on the other side there’d be markings for “pedestrians only.” That was nice, considering the near misses and crashes I’ve seen, not to mention the ones I’ve heard about. Seriously, people, I know of someone who nearly died and was in a coma for awhile, and I’ve read about other horror stories. There were other sections that also separated runners from the rest, but instead of runners on one side of the cyclists, there was a smaller, narrower section for runners on both sides. Either way, it seems a bit safer than ours.

On the down side, there were VERY few water fountains, and only one bathroom that I saw. I also didn’t see many runners, which I find to be odd. Maybe I was too far north in Manhattan from where training groups start. Maybe they train in Central Park. Who knows.

My turnaround was just shy of 69th Street. 145th Street to 69th Street! Wow. Sounds like a lot, no? I’m quite proud of my run, though. I realized during the half marathon that just passed that I’ve gotten way to used to stopping for water and stuff. My priority for this run was to NOT STOP, drink on the run, and walk while taking my Gu. Mission accomplished! Here’s my mileage breakdown, and you can probably tell when I walked and had my Gu.
Mile 1-11:20
Mile 2-11:37
Mile 3-12:10 (must have been where that hill was)
Mile 4-11:46
Mile 5-12:39
Mile 6-11:58
Mile 7-11:44
Mile 8-11:40
My total time was 1:34:57 (actually ran 8.01 miles to be exact!) and the overall pace was 11:52!

Immediately upon returning from my run, I had to stretch, take a quick shower and head out with my friend to the Russian Bath House to sweat some more. Literally, like within 30 minutes from walking in the door, I was on my way back out.

Well that’s all folks, my weekend adventure without kids and stuff is over, pending this wait for the plane. They say we’re leaving an hour late. But them other folks over there say that a big storm is supposedly heading our way. Sigh. And no internet connection, this may get posted tomorrow.

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And so I get our CES team newsletter today and now I read that we shouldn't be taking Gu until we're at around 18 miles. SOmehow I missed that memo, and I've always made it a point to take it if my run was going to last more than 7 miles or so. Ok. Learn something new everyday, eh?