A awesome run around the park

So I know this blog is supposed to be about local running, but I had to post about my experience today in Central Park, New York; as much to commit it to my own memory as anything else.

I may be stuck here due to cancelled flights, missing my family and all the fun the snow, but this helped go a little way to improving my mood.

Picture this: 6.30am on a cold NY morning and I began my run around Central Park. The sun wasn’t up yet and the running track through the park was lit in a dull glow from the streetlights. Then, in a city of however-many million people, I looked around and saw I was running practically on my own. Wonderful.

As the sun began to rise and I headed down the western edge of the park, I felt like I was in a movie, Calvin Harris was banging away in my ears and life felt very, very good. Then, coming back up the east side of the park, the sky scrapers running the opposite length began to glow a radiant terracotta and seemed to be utterly relishing their own magnificence. You know how Bath looks in the autumn sun? Well, it was something like that. Awesome.

Including the jog from the hotel, my morning’s run took in: The Empire State Building, The Plaza Hotel, The building used in Ghostbusters, The Tavern on the Green (also in Ghostbusters), The Metropolitan Museum, The Guggenheim and finally a glimpse down Broadway to the lights of Times Square.

So the moral of this story? If you’re a runner and you go to NY City, take your running shoes and add a run in Central Park to your ‘to do’ list. It’s a 6.1 mile loop, a little hilly, but you don’t really notice this with all the sights to see. I have to say, though, that I do have half an eye on running a marathon if I can get through the Bath Half intact, but thinking about running a distance equivalent to four and a half times round this loop makes me think twice about the wisdom of such an undertaking. On the plus side, I comfortably managed these 6 miles in 55 minutes, so that equates to me finishing the Half in just under 2 hours… doesn’t it?