H Is for Hell Gate

Happily I’m starting to ramp up my Sunday long runs. Today was 7 miles, the furthest since my race over a month ago. I thought maybe I waited too long to begin the build, but when I looked back at my running journal, I’ve actually been very smart about adding mileage. 

This morning I ran to the Hell Gate Bridge (named after the perilous currents which swirl beneath it, it’s open only for Amtrak and MetroNorth rail traffic), which I haven’t done since September 25th. This out and back run can only be done in the early morning, before Astoria’s woken up, because otherwise I’d be stopping for traffic and dodging pedestrians entirely too much. I start out going north one block on 41st street, then a few blocks west on Skillman Avenue. I cross the Sunnyside Rail Yards then head up Steinway Street, north through Astoria, all the way across the BQE to Ditmars Boulevard, where I turn left (west) towards the river. Once I turn onto Ditmars, I really start loving the run. The houses and shops get cuter, there’s less traffic and more of a neighborhood feel, and the view running towards the river, with Astoria Park (which has its own quarter-mile track) and Hell Gate Bridge looming up ahead is, to me, so appealing. I always think, I want to live here, with a view of this park  and this bridge. The run home is usually spent fantasizing about how to make that happen. 

A positive quality of this route is that it’s adaptable. Once I hit Shore Boulevard (where Ditmars ends), I have the option of running left or right to trot along the East River, and adding on as much distance as I need. Today I only needed to add on about a quarter mile, so I turned left and ran south, which afforded me an impressive panorama of both the Hell Gate and Triboro Bridges, not to mention the park on my left and the brown burbling river on my right. 

The other favorable attribute of  my Hell Gate course is that it’s flat, with the exception of hills at the end of Ditmars and over the 39th Street Bridge (not to be confused with my bridge, the 59^th Street Bridge), which crosses the Sunnyside Rail Yards. This makes for a flowy run, with consistent mile splits. Just the kind of run I needed today, to keep my positive attitude from yesterday’s pace run. 

One thing I’ll always remember about today’s workout: it’s the first time I ran a 7-mile training run in under an hour. I’m fudging just a teensy bit-I officially ran 7.06 miles in 1:00:01, but the 7 miles were completed in 59:36. I’ll give you my splits, because they are gorgeous. 8:36; 8:38; 8:23; 8:30; 8:33; 8:17; 8:34 (plus 00:27 for the last 0.6 miles). 

Songs I ran to: “Hard Core Troubador” by Steve Earle, “Hard to Explain” by The Strokes, “Hard to Handle” by The Black Crowes (excellent flashbacks of speeding up the hill on Lincoln Blvd with my best friend JN in my dad’s Acura Integra, senior year of high school, catching air, then slamming on the brakes so as not to run the stop sign half a block up. Yeah, I killed that poor car’s transmission. Also, driving home from the beach in our bikinis and flirting with boys in other cars along the Sagtikos Parkway), “Hash Pipe” by Weezer, “He Can Only Hold Her” by Amy Winehouse, “Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears, “Heartbreaker” by Led Zeppelin, “Heaven Tonight” by Hole, “Hella Good” by No Doubt, “Henrietta” by The Fratellis, “Here’s to the Meantime” by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, “Here’s Where the Story Ends” by The Sundays, “Here Comes a Regular” by The Replacements, “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” by Al Green, “Hey Jack Kerouac” by 10,000 Maniacs, “Hey Ladies” by The Beastie Boys, “High Times” by Jamiroquai