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| Entering Central Park |
Before my run in Central Park was over, I was planning my next trip to New York City. My husband accompanied me on his first run since the Tuna Run. I told him that he can no longer say, "I'm not a runner." When he completed his second 200 mile relay in the span of three weeks, he became one of us, and a run through the Park seemed fitting.
It sounds a bit cliche', but we and some friends and fellow University of Kentucky alumni were in the Big Apple to watch a University of Kentucky basketball game on the first night college basketball was played in the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Along with this highlight, our itinerary was filled with activities and time for the art of dining. With staying out late nights to watch basketball and a Broadway show, and fully-planned mornings, rising early to run wasn't at the top of my list. It was in the back of my mind, and when we were in the large atrium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday, I saw runners in the Park as I peered past statues and art students, and I looked forward to joining the runners the next day.
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| Inside the Met watching runners through the glass. |
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| Viewing the outside of the Met on the run. |
We left from the Lucerne Hotel on the Upper West Side at 8:20AM on Sunday morning and walked about a half mile to an entrance to Central Park near the American Museum of Natural History. When we walked into the park, I wanted to take picture after picture. Eager to get on with the run, I told myself to go buy a postcard and get over it. We joined the flow of the inestimable number of runners on the six mile loop around the Park. Most seemed to be casual runners with the occasional fast paced runner passing, and most seemed to be running alone while some chatted with friends.
It was an unseasonably warm morning of 52 degrees after a string of days with lower than average temperatures. Above and through the colorful tree canopy, we could see the skyscrapers with their captivating architecture like exclamation marks punctuating the beauty around us.
My plan was to run the six mile circumference, but we ran short on time because of our purposefully slow pace and stops to take iPhone photos of picturesque landmarks I've seen in movies. From the Museum, we ran toward Central Park South and then turned up near Fifth Avenue and ran past the Guggenheim. We cut across the Park on a path after studying a map, ran back down toward the Museum, and stopped at an entrance to the loop around the reservoir. This 1.6 mile loop seemed just as busy as the outer loop, and at that particular junction, there was another parallel path. Runners filled three different paths.
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| The reservoir |
It was then that I started planning my next trip to New York City. It's a sign of a good trip if you leave wanting more. In reality I probably will not make it back for a long time. Whether I visit with family or girlfriends, they will learn that my next trip will revolve around Central Park. I would like to start my days exploring the different running routes and devote a full day or parts of several days to enjoying the Park's meadows, fields, lakes and ponds. Others can have the hustle and bustle of Midtown and Broadway. Give me the Park every day!
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| Runners on the resevoir |
In the end, we needed to get back to the hotel to prepare for our departure. We sadly said goodbye to the Park and began the half mile walk to the hotel. We stumbled upon the outdoor Green Flea Market, which lured me in with its stalls of rugs and chandeliers that led to vintage clothing, fur coats, trinkets, jewelry, baked goods and much more. I didn't get to savor the experience and shop, but it was fun nonetheless discovering a City treasure by happenstance. At the airport, I picked up a book about the best of New York to plan my next trip and saw that we had stayed in the top rated neighborhood hotel and had experienced a top ten sight in our area at the Flea Market. I didn't need a book to tell me that I had found the best of the best on that run in Central Park.
