Blue Line Run

This is a training run that I did last year which was a lot of fun. It's sponsored this year by Team Brickwell, but it's really run by Dominic, someone whom I've known for five years already. He sold me my first pair of running sneakers back in 2004 when he managed the Quantuum Feet Runners Shop on Union Turnpike in Queens.

The run is the last 10 miles of the NYC Marathon, beginning at 1st Ave. & 59th Street in Manhattan. Last year the sun was out. This year it was a nasty, driving rain. Hopefully not a preview of the Marathon.

I drove Karen and I and parked right on First Avenue. As she went into Starbucks and into the bathroom, the runners took off. She came out, and we started running, but it was evidently clear that we would never catch up, so we did the unimaginable....We hailed a cab to have us caught up to the pack. LOL. Hey, it isn't a race after all, plus we were going to jog from the finish at Tavern back to the east side. And as it was, we only drove about 15 blocks or so ( 3/4 of a mile).

The run went well, except I left my gloves at home. It was very wet outside, as Karen and I ran together north on 1st, over the bridge, and into the Bronx. Ugh. There were some road closings to the bridge approach and we actually had to run up a metal staircase in the rain.

We left the Bronx *yeah* and headed back into Manhattan, through the classic areas of the now newly renovated Harlem, and Marcus Garvey Park. We turned down 5th Avenue and 125th street and into a slew of brand new luxury high rise buildings of glass and steel. We kept going down until Central Park North (110th & 5th), it was there where Karen told me to go ahead and to meet her at the finish line. I did just that, and I took off after the pack ahead of me. I finally reached them just as I passed Fred Lebow's statue enroute to entering the park on 89th.

It felt great to finish and finish strong. I must have passed everyone on the way to Dominic's van by the finish line. It was full of drinks and eats.

Two weeks to go.