a run through central park | new york

A few weeks ago I emailed my friend Ellie - one of my closest friends from college and former DC roommate - about visiting her in Brooklyn. Within a few hours, I'd picked out buses and started planning our weekend. What I didn't know is that Melanie and Pam - my two other closest girlfriends - were going to be in town the same weekend from Boston and Kansas City, respectively. The luck! I could hardly contain my excitement.

I rolled into town near Penn Station around 11:00pm on a drizzly, gray Thursday night. Ellie and I devoured slices at a local pizza joint and began the long trek back to Brooklyn.

Let me say that very time I visit New York, I spend the first 24 hours so enchanted by it that I start imagining my soon-to-be life there. When the clock strikes 36 hours, I remember how big it is. The city is ginormous, and it takes approximately forever to get anywhere. That's why bars stay open until 4am - it takes all night to get to a destination and the rest of the day to return home underground. NYC is grooming vampires, is my theory.

But back to the first 24 hours. We crashed around 1:00am, and for the first time in weeks I slept past 8:00am, and it was glorious! Forget the city that never sleeps, New York is the city of soundless sleep! Ellie and I hopped on the subway for a 45 minute trip to the Upper West Side, where I promptly fell head over heels in love with everything, but mostly with Central Park, luring me in for a run.

Since taking nearly a month off of running to recover from a stress reaction in my right tibia, I've been adhering to a vigorous training plan. I work out six days a week, but I only run on three of those and only on tracks and trails to protect that leg. Unfortunately, two weeks into training, the injury is back. I have another ortho appointment next week. I've been battling with myself over whether to keep training until then. I'd decided to stop, but when I knew I'd be near Central Park, I brought my running clothes anyway. 

I hemmed and hawed standing under shaded trees in the Park until I couldn't take it anymore. I'm not in New York very often, and it's Central Park - the world's most famous, beautiful urban park! I ran along a shaded path with rolling hills for about half a mile before cutting over to a track that runs around a reservoir. The track is soft - gravel and worn from the runners before me. I took it easy, stopping twice to snap photos of the incredible Manhattan skyline reflected in the water. The track is 1.58 miles around, bringing my total run to just over 2.5 miles back to where I started.

The weather was a breezy 70 degrees at 10am, my leg felt better than it had in weeks, and I had an entire weekend with friends I don't see often enough in front of me. I got lost in the views of skyscrapers and decided if I lived in New York, I'd run in Central Park every day. Or at least as often as I could commit to the commute.