Over the River

The East River, to be more specific. I may have mentioned this before, but my streak has caused me to take a more pragmatic approach to running. Rather than set aside time for a run, I'd rather run from one place to the other. I've called this a "functional commute" in the past. More and more, I'm finding this to be the ideal way to maintain my streak. The last two days have been good examples. I recently started a sketch comedy troupe with a group of friends with whom I also take improv classes. Our weekly meetings have turned into twice weekly meetings because we have a show coming up. Sometimes these meetings take place at my apartment, but the last couple of weeks they've been at my friend Tom's place in Queens. This is less convenient for me in terms of arriving on time after work, but it provides a unique opportunity for a change of scenery on the running front.

Running from here to there or vice versa is a challenge because it involves crossing the Queensborough Bridge. The bridge itself is 1.5 miles long and, as you might imagine, is half monstrous uphill and half monstrous downhill. This bridge is also featured in the New York City marathon (at mile 16, if memory serves). People often cite it as one of the most difficult parts of the race because of how late it comes as well as the fact that it is, in fact, a huge hill. Between the marathon in 2009 and 2010, another 18 mile long run route I've done four or five times, and the last few days, I'm no stranger to the Queensborough Bridge, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a challenge every time! Not to mention the temperature has been in the mid to high 80's over the past couple of days.

Despite my complaining about its difficulty, I've enjoyed the opportunity to run a different route than usual. Tomorrow I'll be doing a morning run with Jared. Have a good Friday!