As you might recall, I recently mentioned that I was in need of a change of scenery to keep my long runs interesting. Unless I’m in a hurry to get on with the rest of my day, I prefer not to run out-and-backs—especially if I’ve crossed a bridge. I get bored quickly if my surroundings don’t change (sensing a theme here, anyone?). Anyway, I have a summer roommate who is new to New York and training for her first half marathon, so whenever she feels like tagging along for part of my long run I’ll try to come up with a route she hasn’t taken yet. We’ve already run over the Williamsburg and Brooklyn bridges, so last Sunday seemed like a good opportunity to venture to Queens. We started at our apartment in Park Slope, made our way through Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint, crossed over the Pulaski Bridge, and quickly coasted through Long Island City and up onto the Queensboro Bridge to head across to the Upper East Side. After 10 miles, I dropped Liz off at the train and continued across Central Park via 72nd Street and headed across the Upper West Side to Riverside Park and then ran downtown along the Hudson to to finish off my last 8 miles in Tribeca. I thought my finish time would be around 3 hours, so I was more than happy to be done in 2:47.
In addition to changing up the course, I took it upon myself to try a few new things in an effort to be more of a minimalist on the run since I’m hoping to travel as light as possible on race day. Said new things included:
  • Storing my keys. Most of my running shorts have a little inner key pocket, but it’s not always comfortable to have all four (yes, four) apartment keys in there digging into my skin. This time I decided to try looping the key ring through my shoelaces, which worked surprisingly well. I didn’t notice them at all! (Except, you know, every couple of miles when I’d look down to make sure they were still there.)
  • Fuel and fuel storage. I’ve been running with Honey Stinger Chews lately because Gu is gross, Gu Chomps are weird, and while Clif Shot Blocks taste great, they’re a bit too hard to chew on the run. I’m loving the pink lemonade and limeade Honey Stinger flavors (not surprising, since I’m always craving lemonade at the end of a run). For my first few long runs, I stored a pack in a fuel belt, but I hated the bouncing and when it came time to eat them I would be too sweaty to get the packet open, so I’d be  forced to rip it apart with my teeth. (I never said running was glamorous.) On this run, I combined two packages in a ziplock baggie, rolled it up, and tucked it into my sports bra. Like the keys, I didn’t notice them at all. Success!
  • Trusting my sense of direction. I hate running with my iPhone. If I cram it into a fuel belt, it contributes to the aforementioned bouncing, but I’m paranoid about accidentally chucking it into the East River from one of the bridges if I’m clutching it in my hand during a run. I really didn’t want to bring it on this 18-miler, but I was admittedly nervous about getting lost between Williamsburg and the Queensboro. To be on the safe side, I listed all the turns on a Post-It and put it in my pocket, but I didn’t have to look at it once!

This run went by so fast. Playing tour guide made the first 10 miles fly by, and then it was easy to pick it up to marathon goal pace when I was on my own for the last 8. I also loved how much of the city I covered along this route. I plan to extend it in a few weeks by continuing from Tribeca to the Brooklyn Bridge and running all the way back home. You know you want to join me.

What’s next? 20 miles of mixing the old with the new: I’ll be repeating my 10-mile route from my apartment up to Riverside Park to meet Abby at 72nd for the second half. Neither one of us has ever run up to the George Washington Bridge before, so we plan to keep going uptown until we reach it. If we still have a few miles to cover, we might run over it as well. I’m not-so-secretly hoping I won’t have hit 20 miles yet when we get to the bridge—I’d love to say I crossed state lines during this round of marathon training!

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