My visit to New York City, or What I did over summer vacation

1. There is a $350 fine for honking in New York City. We rode in a Prius cab; the quiet was deafening.  

Quiet ride over some bridge into Queens.

2.  No right-on-red anywhere in New York City.

3.  When there is a culture of walking, few cars enter the crosswalk at a red light. They’d probably get pounded verbally and physically.

4.  Walking through Grand Central at rush hour, few people bump into each other. Walking through Times Square anytime there’s lots of bumping. Tourists.

Grand Central Station, 3:30 pm

Times Square, 3 pm, with Sweet Child.

5.  Nothing like a subway station when it’s 96 degrees out.

Hot, but entertaining.

6.  Yankee Stadium is awesome, but $11 for a beer?

Bleacher creatures.

7.  There is an amazingly efficient use of space in New York City.

Upper West Side

Flea market in Greenwich Village

Near NYU.

8.  I don’t care what you say, folks in New York City are friendly.

Naked Cowboy, friendly for tips.

Crazy, but friendly.

9.  I thought I’d see more bikes than I did. The protected bike lanes are pretty cool.

The cars beside the lane are parked, and
buffer bikes from traffic.

10.  Talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device is illegal in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Why not here?

11. Fruit carts!

Why not here?

12. Street music!

Washington Square Park.

Weeks 7, 8, 9: Urban training and valuable rest

Tue 7/10 3 miles

Thu 7/12 L and I flew to New York to start the college visiting. We had a wonderful trip, visiting NYU, Mannes Conservatory in New York City, and BU, Boston Conservatory and New England Conservatory in Boston, and UMass in Amherst. We walked, and walked and walked. Remember, walking is great training for ultras. 

New York City, just like I pictured it.

The view from the NYU library.

L on the train, with local fauna--hipster in cool black,
Orthodox Jew with tallits hanging from his shirt.

Can you say Yankee Stadium?

Pho in Boston--awesome. L was a little nervous
about not having any forks on the table.

Street for people in Boston near our hotel.

The kind of place we look for: L and I met some
cool folks in this guitar shop in Amherst, MA.

Sun 7/15 10 miles at Rockefeller State Park with Kevin and Felipe. Like most things in the New York metropolitan area, there were a bunch of folks out. This is a neat area, with wide smooth carriage roads. Kevin promised that lots of local elites (Khalid Khannouchi, especially) train there. We saw some fast looking folks, but recognized none of them. 

Total  13 miles in two runs

I ran a big fat zero miles in the week of July 23. These days have been great, allowing me to recharge, spend time with my family, and generally bank some rest for the hard training that will take me to Ice Age.

Q performing at dance camp. 

Mon 7/24  3 miles

Sat 7/28  12 miles at Croft. I ran half of the Camp Croft Challenge. I knew when I got up that I wasn’t going to finish. I had a nice, relaxed run, chatting with interesting people. On a hot day, lots of folks performed admirably. I felt good about not hurting myself, and about getting back to running.

Helping out at the aid station after my run finished.
The watermelon I brought went over really well,
too, at this low-key event held in my home training grounds.

Sun 7/29 4 miles, including 2 miles barefoot. It’s been a while since I’ve done this run, and it felt good.

Total: 19 miles in 3 runs

Again, this rest has been great. I’m starting to feel like running again, and I’ll take it easy getting back in. Bristol hasn’t run at all in June and July, so he too will need to ease back into it. It’s time to get started. I’m super-excited for this run on August 18 with the wnctrailrunner folks.