Over the river and through the...um...buildings?

Bridges. I love them. They are one of my favorite things about running in NYC. I did a little over 15 miles tonight after rock climbing today (more on climbing later). On the vast majority of my runs I will get in at least one bridge. I'm lucky to be in close proximity to 3 bridges (Williamsburg, Manhattan, Brooklyn) and the Queensboro is within reach as well. The bridges are NYC's version of hill workouts. I think I really became addicted to them when my friend Jene and I did a 25 mile run last year that incorporated 9 bridges. Once I actually moved to Brooklyn earlier this year, I really became infatuated with running the bridges.

The best time to run the bridges is at night, although I will run them at any time. Running them at night has some sort of lure for me. As you start reaching the apex and look out over the city, it looks so calm, so beautiful. The lights are hypnotizing. The city looks relaxed. If you look down at the black sheet of water several hundred feet below you see tranquility. Headphones on, the music drowns out most of the ambient noise except the faint sound of the traffic going by below. The traffic noise becomes rhythmic and turns into a sound almost like waves crashing on the beach.

Then entire experience is quite relaxing.

No Sleep till Brook...er Manhattan

Thanks to my horribly inconsiderate roommate, I got very little sleep last night. He knows I have to get up early every saturday morning to go work Run Club, yet he always comes back late with a group of friends at night intoxicated and loud. No matter how many times I make my point, he continues the pattern. Last night, every time I'd be ready to get out of bed and yell, he would leave. Finally at a little before 5 am I gave up. I got up, put on my running gear and headed out into the early dawn hours. I got in a nice 6 mile run over the Williamsburg Bridge and back before heading to the McCarren Park Track. I saw hardly anyone on the bridge and got to watch the sun come up.

At the track, I joined the geriatric crowd as I ran a couple miles to calibrate my Nike SportBand. After the track, I came back home to take in some calories, get some water, and get my stuff for work. When I got back the roommate was still up with friends playing music quite loud. I yelled a few things grabbed the backpack stuffed with a laptop, scanner gun, sportbands, paperwork, and various other stuff and strapped it on my back and started running. The bag probably weighs 20 lbs, but I just kept running.

I went back over the Williamsburg Bridge and up First Ave. before heading over to work on 57th. I took it slow, but did 7 miles with the backpack on. Once I got to work, I set up, checked people in and then went out running with the group. I ran for 31 minutes...16 out and 15 back. A nice little tempo run. While running, I got to cheer on several of our pacers who were taking part in the Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park.

After finishing up work, I sent the backpack down to the Runner's Station on the West Side Highway and went out for my last hour of running. The last hour was pretty slow, only logging about 6.75 miles, but I ended up doing a total of about 27 miles for the day.

I'm happy to have the day free, but I'm going to kill my roommate if he pulls the same stuff tonight. He's moving out in 2 weeks. Good riddance.