Well folks, the boyfriend is out of town, and you know what my first thought was? Now I can get up early on the weekend and do stuff instead of sleeping in and cuddling! Sick, I know. So with the BF gone, I got up early on Saturday to partake in more Summer Streets goodness. I met with my DetermiNation team at our usual spot and joined them for a run. They were all running much longer, so the plan was to run about 4 miles, then rent a bike from Summer Streets so I could enjoy the course without having to run the whole thing. A genius idea!
My run was ok. I’ve been really stiff lately so I was looking forward to getting on a bike and using some different muscles for a change. Good news is I did get to use some different muscles: my standing around and waiting muscles. Many of you may not know that there are all sorts of free things at Summer Streets, including free bike rentals, so I expected there to be a line. When I got in the line, the guy told us it would be about a 30 minute wait. I was fine with that, since MiMi was with me and we had PLENTY to talk about ;) But over an hour later, we were still waiting. Now it was the principle of the thing. After an hour and a half of waiting, we finally had our bikes. (Word to the wise, if you want to rent a bike, get there at 7am when they open. Or rent rollerblades. There was no line for that.)
Yea, I look pretty awesome.
We only had the bikes for an hour, so we didn’t get as far as I wanted, but it was still pretty fun. It was a beautiful day, Park Ave is pretty, and MiMi and I sampled lots of free food and goodies along the way. The rest of my day consisted of playing with puppies (!!!), reading the New Yorker by the pool, and eating almost anything with a peanut in it. Why peanuts? Josh is allergic and I'm not allowed to eat them around him, so I’m trying to get my fill while he's away. He’ll be gone for over a week. I think that’s enough time to get all peanutted out.
This weekend’s run sucked and was awesome at the same time. I took the week off after the Queens Half (I figured I had the right to!) and Saturday was my first day back. I met up with my DetermiNation teammates for an injury prevention clinic, a fundraising clinic, and a run. But this wasn’t just any run. This was the first Summer Streets of the year. So what’s Summer Streets? It’s one of those things that only New Yorkers would think is an excellent idea. For 3 Saturdays in August, the city shuts down Park Ave from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge for runners, bikers, roller bladers, or anyone that wants to get out there and enjoy the traffic-free streets. It’s surprisingly pretty exciting to run down the middle of the street, so I started my run feeling pretty great. I got about 20 minutes into the run when my stomach started doing all sorts of flips. I would normally run through it, but this was almost unbearable, so I started to head back early. And I walked. Walking on my runs makes me feel like a failure. But walking gave me a chance to better check out what Summer Streets has to offer.
I knew most of my teammates would be running for another 40 minutes or so, so I took my time getting back to Hope Lodge and I’m glad I did. Summer Streets has more to offer than I thought. Free bike or skate repair, water and aid stations for anyone that needs it, free bike and skate rentals, and a ton of free food and coupons. I could have had a whole meal if I wanted. They had juices, smoothies, sorbet, fiber bars, cheeses, even a farmer that showed everyone how to milk a cow and make butter, something us New Yorkers rarely see. So I took my time and took in all there was to see and it was pretty fun. I did manage to squeeze in a little more running, but it still wasn’t pleasant. I’ve decided that next week I’m going to go back and rent a bike. My DetermiNation teammates are scheduled to run the Brooklyn Bridge next week, which is a much longer run than I want to do. So I think I might rent a bike and ride along with them. Who’s with me?
