25 May 2017

An Indian Comes to NYC....and Runs the Brooklyn Half with Me and Our Own Unofficial Full

I met Ash last year when I went to India, and he immediately became my best friend in India. So when I invited him to our wedding, of course I was excited when he bought his tickets (and then immediately began planning where we could go running and where to go eat...Ash is like me, running and eating are his favorite things (though maybe I like eating a little more?)).

After he arrived on Friday, we took him to Anella for dinner. We ate dinner in the garden and even though it was 90F, he thought it was cooler, compared to Chennai, which has been having a heat wave with temperatures near 110 F. Ugh. Living in a place with tons of alcohol restrictions, he requested someplace with beer. He was happy.

We ran the Brooklyn Half. I've been feeling pretty out of shape, but still somehow managed to crank out a 1:37. Not bad considering the effort didn't tax me too much.

The Brooklyn Half is a lot of waiting, but it's actually a lot of fun. My running club had over 400 people in it so it was a lot of waving and chatting and having fun. And then Ash needed to have a Nathan's hot dogs, so there were some lines for that, then lines for the subway, blah blah blah. Still, it was a fun day and felt nice to be back.

The next day, we got up early. Luckily Ash was super jet lagged and I'm used to getting up stupid early, so we were fine. We ran down to Dumbo, me pointing out every little thing on the way. Then we got on the Brooklyn Bridge. We chatted until in the middle I began panicking....w my fear of the Brooklyn Bridge. Ash thought I was joking when I forced him to stop taking photos and grab my hand. We ran across the bridge hand-in-hand until the cement part, and then I sent him back to take photos (and try to regain my dignity).

Ash said it best: "you run over mountains, yet you're afraid of a bridge?!" oh shush.

We ran around the bottom of Manhattan, stopping in one of the worst port-a-potties ever (Hey, I was hydrated!) and then up along the Hudson. On 59th Street, we ran east until we hit the park, and then did a loop of Central Park. We ran into ultra runner Andy Jones Wilkens. Ash was in heaven, and then we ran back home via the 59th Street Bridge. Ash's assessment of the bridge: "It looks beautiful from afar, but not when you're on it."

We were at just about a marathon, and we ate Ash's first NYC bagel with cream cheese. Felt like it was def a NYC ultrarunning weekend.

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