One Weekend -- Two Great Runs

Those of you on the East Coast know we had one more taste of winter on Friday when NYC and the rest of the Northeast were hit with several inches of snow. This necessitated a quick re-think of the route I'd planned for Saturday's long run since I knew part of the route would covered in slush. The easy thing to have done would have been to have headed to Central Park or the West Side Highway, either of which would have been cleared, but after weeks of being confined to the same stretches of pavement because because of the weather, I wanted something different.

Saturday's route

Before heading out the door Saturday to meet the two teammates I had talked into a 7a.m. long run, I checked my favorite winter resource: PlowNYC. This site shows how recently each street in the city has been plowed. Since I knew we'd be doing most of our run on city streets, I wanted to make sure they'd been serviced in the last several hours.


Thankfully, it didn't end up being that bad out and we got in a great 18 mile run. We started at the Manhattan Side of the Queensboro Bridge, ran across it and then north to Astoria Park, before heading south through Woodside, Maspeth, and Blissville. Then it was over the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge into Brooklyn, where we ran through Greenpoint and Williamsburg before taking the Williamsburg Bridge back to Manhattan.


By the end of the run my legs felt pretty shot, but it was great to get out and see some different areas of the city. I also managed to get my weekly Trader Joe's shopping trip out of the way early which was great since it saved me from having to battle the epic Saturday afternoon lines. I spent the rest of the day doing chores around the house and running errands in the neighborhood so I was happy that I'd covered some different territory during the long run.


On Sunday I joined my wife on her long run. She's training for Ironman Lake Placid in July so her long runs aren't in the double digits yet which meant I could still tag along with her the day after my 18 miler. We ran west along 59th Street and took the West Side Highway down to Chambers Street, right at the top of Battery Park City, before heading inland.


I loved the second part of our run, taking various city streets up through TriBeCa and the Village, scoping out new or unfamiliar restaurants and bars to try now that it's actually warm enough to go outside. We ended the run at a gym on 14th Street so we could shower and change rather than head all the way home since we had errands to run around Union Square. These are the best kinds of runs, the ones where you get to kill two birds with one stone. Hopefully spring will stick around so we can do more of these runs in the coming weeks!

Friday Haikus: 2013 NYCM Edition

It's been a few weeks since I posted haikus, I know, but what better excuse to bring back the beloved tolerable tradition than the New York City Marathon? No matter what the race, if you're a runner and your city hosts a marathon it's hard not to get excited about it, but for those of us in New York there's something really special about marathon week.

I'm so happy to share my city with folks from all over the US and across the globe. On Sunday, no matter what our differences in training, speed, or shoe choice, we'll be coming together to do something much bigger than ourselves. During this whole runup to race week I've been chuckling at this year's slogan "26.2 MILES MAKE IT A RACE, YOU MAKE IT THE MARATHON." It's defnitely more than a little hokie but when you think about it, it is the runners that make the New York City Marathon what it is, a celebration of diversity and the community building power of running. Maybe WE do MAKE IT THE NEW YORK CITY MARATHON.

From my instagram

And now, some haikus!


The Expo
Sampled powerbars
Tried new electrolyte drinks
Maxed out credit card


Athletes Village as POW Camp
Bodies all around
Lines for bathrooms, lines for food
Trying to stay warm


The Queensboro Bridge
Silent climb farewell
Crested now downhill you sense
Manhattan-sized crowds

You're Halfway There: Queens and the NYCM

The New York City Marathon may run through all five boroughs, but it doesn't give them equal facetime. In fact, the majority of the race is run in just two boroughs, Brooklyn, with roughly 11 miles, and Manhattan, with roughly 8.5. Staten Island gets next to nothing--runners leave Richmond County as soon as the race begins--and the Bronx gets barely over a mile of love. While the Queens section may be short, it comes at an important point in the race.

*  *  *
Just before the halfway point, runners begin crossing the Pulaski Bridge which links Greenpoint in Brooklyn to Long Island City, Queens.  Named after Kazimierz Pułaski, a Polish commander who fought in the American revolution, the bridge spans Newton Creek, one of New York City's two Superfund sites. Though the bridge is an uphill, it's not terrible and runners can distract themselves with the sweeping views of the Midtown Manhattan skyline to the left. There are few spectators, however--they're not allowed on the bridge.

Once across the bridge runners make two quick rights, one onto 48th Ave, and then another onto Vernon Boulevard, the heart of the Hunters Point neighborhood of Long Island City. The area, which takes its name from British sea captain George Hunter, is dominated by low-rise brick and clapboard buildings, many over a century old.

This portion is largely flat and as runners make their way south towards the looming Queensboro Bridge, the bars, restaurants, and bodegas that line the street give way to industrial buildings. At Mile 14 it's time for another turn, this one right onto 44th Drive just after passing the tiny Gordan Triangle Park, named in honor of an LIC local who was killed in World War I.

One Court Square, better known as the Citibank Building, dominates the horizen and pulls runners along. The 50 story tower, completed in 1990, is the tallest building in New York State outside of Manhattan and it serves as an excellent visual marker. As runners move towards it, the street's character changes from industrial to commercial and soon the course passes under the elevated tracks of the IRT Flushing Line.

By the time runners reach the towering Citibank Building, it's time for another turn, this one onto the two-named 25th St/Crescent Street. It's now a short three block trek to Queens Plaza South  where runners are greeted by a mass of humanity, many of whom have taken the subway to the Queensboro Plaza Station to cheer. It's a good time for runners to soak in the enthusiasm because the next portion of the course may seem rather desolate.

Runners now make a left onto the Queensboro Bridge, arguably the toughest portion of the course. Starting just before Mile 15 runners begin a more than half-a-mile climb, reaching the crest of the bridge just before it passes over Roosevelt Island. Now it's on to Manhattan.

A Runner's Guide to the Bridges of the New York City Marathon

Since the New York City Marathon is just over a week away, I figured I would take a break from Friday poetry to post something that could potentially be useful to runners. For those readers not running New York, I'm sorry, but poetry will make a triumphant return in the near future.

 

During the course of the New York City Marathon, runners visit three different islands (Staten Island, Long Island, and Manhattan Island) with only the briefest of visits to Mainland, U.S.A. In order to get from island to island, runners pass over 5 different bridges, two that are somewhat well-known and three that get short shrift. Because I like to mentally divide the course using the bridges, I present to you my runner's guide to the bridges of the New York City Marathon.

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

Length: 13,700 ft

Type: Double-decked suspension bridge.

Year Opened: 1964

The Verrazano Bridge marks the start of the marathon, carrying runners nearly two miles from Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. For blue and orange runners on the top, it provides sweeping views of New York Harbor; for runners on the bottom…forget the views and stay in the middle. The bridge also forms the biggest hill of the race, something to remember when you encounter the Queensboro

Pulaski Bridge

Length: 2,810 ft

Type: Bascule bridge (a.k.a., drawbridge)

Year Opened: 1954

The Pulaski Bridge, named after a Polish general in the American Revolutionary War, connects Greenpoint, Brooklyn to Hunters Point in Long Island City, Queens. It crosses Newton Creek, one of the most polluted bodies of water in America. But you don’t care about that. You care about that fact that the Pulaski Bridge comes at the halfway point in the race. Congrats! Only 13.1 more miles to go.

                                                 Queensboro (59^th Street) Bridge

Length: 3,724 ft

Type: Cantilever truss bridge

Year Opened: 1909

While the Pulaski Bridge marks the halfway point in the marathon, for many runners the race truly begins on the Queensboro Bridge. That's because runner's must climb roughly 130 ft as they cross the East River before beginning their descent to Manhattan's 1st Avenue. As you get closer to Mile 16 and Manhattan you begin to hear the crowd. The trick is in enjoying the crowd's energy without speeding up and wasting too much of your own.

Willis Avenue Bridge

Length: 3,212 ft

Type: Swing bridge

Year Opened: 2010

After 109 years of service, the Willis Avenue Bridge was replaced in 2010. The roadbed of the old bridge was made of open steel grating prompting marathon officials to cover it in orange carpeting for the race. With solid deck that no longer requires carpeting, the new bridge may no longer stand out for its odd appearance but it’s still notable to runners because it comes at Mile 20, the point when many runners hit “the wall.” It also carries runners out of Manhattan and into their final borough, the Bronx.*

Photo credit: Steve Boyle Photo

Madison Avenue Bridge

Length: 2,893 ft

Type: Swing bridge

Year Opened: 1910

The shortest and second-oldest bridge on the course, the Madison Avenue Bridge carries runners out of the Bronx, depositing them on 5th Avenue in Manhattan at Mile 21. Yes, the Madison Avenue Bridge connects to Madison Avenue too, but since that’s not part of the marathon, who cares? If you make it over this bridge you know you're going to finish the race!


_______________
* After the Bronx, runners return to Manhattan, but by that point they have already run through all five boroughs.

The Return of the MWMLR!

[Note: For those of you who don't care about training principles and just want to hear about why my run was awesome, skip the first three paragraphs]

If any of you read the title to today's post and are scratching your head, it may be because you're not familiar with marathon training guru Pete Pfitzinger. He literally wrote the book on marathon training, okay, he wrote a book on marathon training, Advanced Marathoning.

While I'm not using his plan this training cycle, I have taken elements of it and incorporated them into the plan my team is using. One big part of Pfitz' weekly schedule is a mid-week medium long run (I'm just abbreviating it as MWMLR to save some keystrokes). I found this to be a particularly beneficial component.

Marathon runners often obsess over the importance the weekend long run. There's evidence that a single weekly long run might not be enough to bring your aerobic capacity to a new level, but in my opinion, the true benefit of the mid-week long run is psychological. If you run 12 to 15 miles in the middle of the week, that weekend long run doesn't seem so intimidating, and if that weekend 22 miler doesn't seem so bad, then it follows that maybe even 26.2 miles sounds a little more doable.

Photo from Flickr use: Norikuroda

Anyway, that was plenty of introduction to bring me to the part where I say that I finally got in a true MWMLR this week after a long time off. While I've been doing mid-week runs of 9 to 10 miles, there's today was the first time in at least 6 weeks.

I did my favorite standby route: over the 59th Street Bridge into Queens, along Vernon Blvd, over the Pulaski Bridge into Brooklyn, along the Greenpoint and Williamsburg water fronts, around the Navy Yard, and over the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall Park.

Today's iteration was particularly awesome because it was extremely foggy this morning. Running through Central Park to get to the Queensboro, I couldn't see or even really hear any cars. It truly did not feel like I was running in the middle of the city. Then, going running into Queens, I could see the lights of some of the taller buildings cutting through the fog, but since it was still dark, I couldn't make out the buildings themselves. It was as though the lights were simply suspended in the clouds.

By the time I arrived in Downtown Brooklyn it was light out, but the fog was just as thick. Running under the Manhattan Bridge (so I guess that means I was in DUMBO) I couldn't see the top of its towers. The Brooklyn Bridge looked ethereal, quite a feat for such an imposing masonry structure. I didn't get to see the sunrise, which is usually my favorite part of an early morning run, but I experienced the city in a new light--a wonderful start to the day.

The Two Legged Commute

Today my schedule called for a 14 miler which meant getting up really early and struggling to stay awake at work--at least, that's what it usually would have meant. For the first time since this summer, I decided to make my run my commute. We have showers and a locker room at work which turns out to be a huge plus. Yesterday, I brought an extra set of work clothes and a towel with me and left it at the office overnight. That meant this morning all I really had to carry was my ID badge. The best part of this strategy is that it let me sleep in a full 45 minutes later! I felt almost guilty when my alarm finally went off: Am I cheating the system?

Photo Credit: Jessica Krause Smith

If I were to run the most direct route to my work it would only be about 9 miles so I had to be creative. to get those extra miles. I ran through Central Park (have you notice a lot of my runs involve Olmsted and Vaux?) and over 60th to the Queensboro Bridge and into Queens. By the time I got to the bridge, I could see the sun rising over Long Island City. I made my way to Vernon Blvd which runs along the East River and was amazed at how many people were out and about. There's a ConEd plant here and many taxi garages so it makes sense there was so much activity, but on weekends when I usually here this stretch is often deserted.

I crossed into Brooklyn over the Pulaski Bridge (the halfway point in the New York City Marathon) and turned onto Eagle and then Franklin. I don't usually run on Franklin so it was a nice change of scenery to pass all the cafes and shops that line the rapidly changing street. I continued onto Kent, this whole time running along the East River, watching the Williamsburg Bridge get closer and closer, passing new condo after new condo. By now it was actually light outside! Who knew you could run in the sunlight on a weekday? When I made the turn onto the Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian path I could feel the 9+ miles I'd already run in my legs. Still, seeing lower Manhattan in the early morning sun was more than enough to make up for any minor soreness.

The rest of my run took me along the East River and underneath the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges before turning into the Financial District and ending at work. It was a perfect day for a run and I plan on doing the whole commute-on-foot thing again soon!

Do any of you ever run to or from work? Let me know in the comments.

Below the jump there's a map of my route.