Bright Lights, Big City

Although I'm almost always a morning runner, sometimes I switch things up and run at night. Tonight was one of those times.

After yesterday's 20 miler, I had planned to take today off altogether. I spent the afternoon at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria (they've got a great exhibit on Jim Henson going on until March 4 which I highly recommend!). For some reason, though, when I got home around 6, I had an overwhelming desire to go for a run.

I figured I would do one easy loop of Central Park and call it a night but somewhere along Park Drive I found myself transfixed by the Midtown skyline. I've been reading a book on the history of Rockafeller Center--which is really more of a history of early 20th century urban architecture--and I thought, why not go see Rockafeller Center right now?


As I approached Central Park South, I could see that the sidewalk wasn't super crowded--it was 7 o'clock on a Sunday, after all--so I left the park. I turned onto 7th Ave and headed towards the lights of Time Square, running in the street, hugging the parked cars. This is proof that you don't have to give NYRR $90 bucks to run through the Theater District!

At 50th I turned east and ran past Radio City Music Hall and the RCA Building to 5th before looping back to 6th along 51st. There were plenty of people out, but the traffic in the streets was relatively light so I stayed in the road the whole time. Finally I was back at 59th and I reentered the park.

The rest of my run was nice and quiet. I saw perhaps three other runners on my way home. It was a wonderful contrast to my brief foray into Midtown. The whole run was a wonderful experience, the kind you can only have in New York. Without even realizing it, my easy 6 turned into 9 but I felt emotionally refreshed by the whole experience.

Alright, now I have to go watch the season finale of Dowton Abbey!