Running in New York

 

Of course the highlight of this week's business trip to New York is the opportunity to run in Central Park where I joined my friends Robin and Subash for a 10k jog with the Reservoir Dogs, a group of friendly and  relatively casual runners.  

It was the club's Recovery Run which was good for me since I was recovering from jet lag (OK, I tend to always be recovering from jet lag - being jet-lagged is my natural state) 

 
The 10 block run from the Waldorf Hotel to the Park up Lexington and Park Avenue at evening rush hour is not a smooth cruise, but a combination of walking combined with brief bursts of running in the bus lane allows me to cover the distance in less than 10 minutes.

The river of runners and cyclists circling the Park was remarkable on this summer evening - a steady stream  of twenty-something Wall Street types, many of them racing past us.  As intense as these runners appeared, Central Park did not seem nearly as high-caliber as Sydney's Harbor, or even Tokyo's Imperial Palace, perhaps because there were enough extremely slow joggers to bring the average speed down. 

Both the number and speed of the runners were even greater this morning when I ran with Jim Weissman at 6:30am.   What really impresses me is the packs of cyclists circumnavigating the Park at high speeds.  Next time I need to bring my bike.