it's been toooo long since i posted last. but then it's been quite a few miles since i posted last too.
this weekend was somewhat... epic.
since my stupid foot injury has healed, i'm just playing catch-up to my team which has separated me from the pack, so i run more alone these days. it isn't as fun but i do get to explore more instead of doing loops in central park. on sunday i did a short run with my friend karen who just ran in rome two weeks ago and it was AWESOME of her to be so supportive and help me kick-start my saturday morning. she's not even a morning person but she got up and got me going. her IT band was giving her trouble (during her marathon and on saturday some) so she didn't get to run the whole distance with me because she was smart about listening to her body. that's a common place for runners (especially ladies) to get injured and we like our bodies to last our whole lives thank-you-very-much.
but meeting up with karen was nice because she lives in the east village so the route went from the park along the FDR, under the williamsburg bridge, the manhattan bridge, the brooklyn bridge then down around the southern tip of manhattan (wave hi to the statue of liberty), up through battery park and past chelsea piers on the west side highway and then back home to my neighborhood of hell's kitchen where some of my neighborhood looks like a shiny knew stainless steel kitchen and some of it looks like that greasy dust back behind the refrigerator coils. [it was amazingly windy but that's good for me right? i felt like i was running backwards by the time i got to the staten island ferry terminal.] all told, almost 9 miles (thank you google maps!). then i took a nap even though there was construction next door. i slept gooood.
sunday i needed to do some real distance so i geared up, but started late in the day but it was a purrrfect day. the west side greenway is a thing of beauty and there were people everywhere... for the first 8 or so miles were full of people having picnics, playing basketball and volleye ball under the hudson river drive in harlem, fishing at the foot of the george washington bridge and when i hit the cloisters/fort tryon park it was practically silent save for the sound of traffic. i was on a path below the glorious view of the cloisters with the heather gardens but i was on the riverfront where you can actually see the waterfowl. all six of 'em. as a bone fide new yorker, i have found holding my nose is a habit (read: commute through times square and riding subways) but somewhere along that route there stopped being restaurant garbage and i saw flowers: forsythia, tulips, crocusses (croci?), bluebonnets (none of which are noted for their perfume) but THEN i smelled lilacs! ...i couldn't find the lilacs but i smelled them... they are one of my favorite parts of spring. it's a little early for them, but perhaps there's a magical mystical lilac impersonator out there. (or a scientific and realistic one which i'm sure my botanist friends will explain to me later.)
did i mention this trip was WORK? it may sound all pretty and fun but there was the whole distance part. my friend shawn told me once of going great distances: you just go til you think you can't go any further... then you turn around and go home. so i went to the bronx, or rather the foot of the bronx. i mean, the only path from inwood hill park to the bronx is the henry hudson parkway (a toll road, no thanks) and some train tracks (also, no thanks). but it was nice getting to the tip of the island and seeing all there was so see. the very tip of manhattan is about ten miles from my apt as best as i can tell. google maps doesn't calculate running through parks really.
and then i went back home, through the baseballs fields with the churro vendors and mangoes on a stick to the silent dirt path next to the train tracks where i could sing (when i could sing/pant) harmonies along with my ipod without bothering anyone. i have a guilty pleasure of certain musics when i run. note: that path does some funky stuff. it's hard to figure out what the sign means when it says "park closes at 10pm) but the park ends before you can get off of the path. next thing i knew i had two options: a hole in the fence to the railroad tracks, or scrambling rocks until i could climb my way back to the upper trail when it swung to the foot of the george washington bridge. call it an adventure.
going back home seemed shorter than going up but from the greenway i could see the signs on the parkway-- "next right, 125th st" which was a cruel deception to a person on foot. you're not really all that near to 125th street if you're not going 45 mph. i'm just sayin'. even though i left for my trip late, i stuck the landing perfectly, just as the sun was going down and turning back away from the river to the city as the evening lights came up and just like flowers face the sun, people face up to the lights of times square, collecting some of their energy for the next few hours.
me, i was wiped. i didn't run enough of the trip (sorry but i walked too much) but i did the mileage (approx 20) which isn't nothing, but isn't enough. i have a marathon to run in a few weeks. people keep asking "are you ready"? to them i say: "i don't have to run 26.2 miles until the first weekend of may, so i'll be ready when the time comes." the time is nearing...
oh, and my feet. OWWWW. i mean i can still use them and my legs are sore but i kicked off my shoes at the door and headed to an epsome salt soak immediately. perhaps a little too immediately. never, never walk barefoot on a very practical front door rug when your feet are sore. those are made for traction and dirt-trapping, not cushioning and happy-making.
so that's how training is going. as far as fundraising-- that's another story. i definitely owe some shout-outs (the blog to immediately follow this one!) and am planning a dinner party and a show in the near future.
but as always, life is good.
love,
chel
ps i need to research greenways on the east side. this weekend i think i made it about 2/3 of the way around manhattan, maybe next i need to close the loop entirely...
