In the Misty Morning

Today was one of those days (one of many, actually) where my run makes me think about just how luck I am to live in New York. I have a half-marathon this weekend and while it's not a goal race, I am planning on racing it. That means I've given myself a slight break on this week's mileage so today I had 9 miles on tap.

Usually, 9 miles is short enough that I'll do a run around home before heading for work, but it also happens to be exactly 9.1 from my apartment to my office--you see where this is going. I ran to work again today. The funny thing is, when I lived in DC I never ran to work, and there, given the lumbering bus I had to take, running would have been faster! Anyway, running to work is now something I'm trying to do at least once or twice a week as I've said in earlier posts.

Today's run, though, was special. Did I run a new route? No. Almost every inch I covered today I also ran on Tuesday. Did my legs feel refreshed and ready to run to the ends of the earth at whatever pace I told them to? No. Then why was this run special? Because of the mist.

You might call the mist fog and it did make me think of the almost-magic fog that shrouds New York Harbor in Mark Helprin's 1983 ode to New York, Winter's Tale. I'm sticking with mist, though, because that's what it felt like.

Parts of downtown faded into nothing and the Statue of Liberty looked like an unkowable Oceanid from Greek mythology. Okay, now I sound like I'm on something. The point is, New York City is always changing. Usually when people say this they're referring to the cycle of demolition and construction or the ebb and flow of immigrants. Today, I realized that it's much more basic than that. No two days offer the same city so you have to enjoy each one as it's presented to you.

A Rest Day Trek Across the Harbor

Because I've switched this week's training schedule around for next week's race, I had a rest day yesterday. It's very rare for me to take a rest day on the weekend so I figured I would take advantage of the extra time by heading someplace distant--STATEN ISLAND!

Yes, you read correctly. I actually chose to go to Staten Island. This is hardly the first time I've visited the forgotten borough (I had my birthday dinner at Denino's Pizzeria and Tavern, an island institution), but I haven't been in several months. Since the last several weekends I have visited all four other boroughs, I figured it was time to mix things up.

I picked my destination (more on that soon) and headed to South Ferry. Just to give you an idea of how distant Staten Island is, it takes roughly 30 minutes on the express train to get to the Whitehall Ferry Terminal from Harlem. Then you have to take a 25 minute ferry ride.

Assuming everything runs smoothly and you have no waiting time, you're looking at an hour to get to St George. Taking into account that this is the real world and things never run smoothly, you're looking at 75 to 90 minutes.

The Staten Island Ferry trip is always relatively pleasant. Because the boat passes the Statue of Liberty and offers great views of New York Harbor and the downtown skyline, it's usually pretty packed with tourists looking for free photo ops. I snapped a couple photos but mostly contented myself with the book I had brought.

If only you could run over this bridge year-round...

When I arrived in St George I had no problem finding the bus I wanted. The great thing about the DOT-MTA relationship is that they have the Staten Island buses timed to the ferry schedule so you usually wait no more than 5 minutes. Even better, this was a brand new bus, much fancier than anything I ever ride in Manhattan.

My destination was less than two miles from the ferry so in a matter of minutes I was back off the bus. Time from my door to my destination? 1 hour, 45 minutes. I can visit all four other boroughs in the same amount of time--now you see why I don't get to Staten Island all that often.

Anyway, now that you are about to pee yourself wondering about my secret destination, it's after the jump.