Run The Island

I am training for a half marathon. Its the 3rd year my roommate and I have decided to run the 13.1 World Vision Half in Queens.  This year, our church has also decided to run.  We have probably 100 people from all 5 parishes running.  We are actually competing with each other for who can raise the most money.  If you are interested, visit our TEAM PAGE.  I still have over $500 to raise.



Due to the amount of people from Trinity Grace Church running, I am hearing about all of the training runs.  Each week, we are encouraged to run 2-4 times during the week and one long run during the weekend, increasing approximately 1 mile each week.  Many people live near Central Park.  For those who don't live in NYC or know much about it, its a pretty great park that takes up a good chunk of our 13mile by 3 mile Island.  Its a great place to spend your afternoons regardless of the season.  In the summer you'll see hundreds, if not thousands, of people taking over the various lawns in the park.  It also has a loop drive around the park where many long distance runners will run.  I'm not confident but I believe its a 6 mile loop.  Several races I have been in the last 2 years have been on that same road. Its a great run, though challenging. It has several hills to conquer. Hills are great for training as it builds up stamina and muscle (and I am sure more more then that).

Central Park is a little out of the way for my roommate and I.  But we have something equally as awesome called the Hudson River Greenway.  Its actually a 256 mile greenway that runs along the Hudson River, beginning in the city.  It spans the 13 miles, North to South, of the Island of Manhattan.  We live towards the top of Manhattan.  We typical run down to the river, running from the George Washington Bridge down.  Depending on the length of our run, we'll run a loop or one long stretch and take the subway back. This weekend we had a 10 mile training run and decided to run down for about 9 miles to West 12th and then back up 1 mile to 23rd Street where we bought new running shoes. To translate by city blocks thats about 150-160 blocks. Pretty much the length of the island.

As I was running I found myself super grateful for the gift of being able to run the island. Its such a gorgeous run.  I get to see things like this:

It's runs like these and places like this that make me love my City!  I know for many running is off the list, as is New York but for me, they are at the top of my list.  And the fact that i get to combine them like this makes it even easier to love both.