Thru the Dusky Dusk

… a free copy of the new book about the New York City Marathon A Race Like No Other to the first person to post a comment correctly identifying the source of my post’s title.

Last night. 10 thru the dusk and the dark of Central Park. Saw fewer than the usual amounts of suspects, but I did get a quizzical nod of greeting from AL, an old NYU student of mine and a razor-thin, fast runner who skulks about downtown with effortless cool. He’s run the New York City Marathon before many times (he blows me a kiss as he runs by my cheering station in Queens), and it’s always a pleasure to cross paths with him.

My 10 turned into a zoomy, jerky (imagine if a lead-footed, last-minute-breaking cab driver were your pacer) 9.4 miler–one full loop plus two lower loops, since I took a wrong turn (the dark disorients me) and ended up running the bottom of the park three times. I hate the goddamn bottom of the park. At one point a raccoon scuttled across the road, which was something. A little more than something was the casually sparkling panorama of the Upper West Side. When the trees parted in the East 80’s, I could see all the way across the reservoir. (Time: 1:21:08.)

This morning. 5 miles across the 59th Street Bridge and back. I left at 6:15 AM and it was still dark, I couldn’t delay any longer as I’ve a big day at work. While stuck at a light in Queens Plaza for a full minute, a cyclist who pulled up next to me struck up a conversation about my training and his races. It was a little surreal–in 45 seconds he had my Fall race schedule and I knew his half mary PR. His pugnacious face and Irish accent only added to the pleasant oddness of the moment. As far as workouts go, this one was a pretty mundane recovery run. I finished in 52:05, although at first when I went to record the time, I thought I’d run 50:52 as I was looking at the digital display upside down. That’s one way to get faster, I suppose!