NYC West Side Highway

Time: 71:07
Distance: ~16.1 km
Pace: ~4:23/km
Map

I picked up the Karhu CEO from JFK yesterday afternoon and we had a couple of business visits to make in Brooklyn. We finished up and were able to drive into Manhattan just as traffic was picking up and people were leaving work. I just love driving in NYC, the taxis are just so friendly. We made it to his hotel where I dropped him off and then I went to find parking and drop my stuff at a buddy's house.

Earlier in the week there was talk of trying to meet up with some of my teammates from Brown who were in town for business as well. Three members from the class of '06 met up at Brother Jimmy's across from Penn Station. The location allowed Owen to peace out and catch his train back to DC and for me, Craig and Ari (class of '08) to hang out a bit longer and pick at greasy bbq. The Karhu CEO was invited out and he joined us for a burger. The night was young and we were in NYC, but despite my best persuasive tactics, I couldn't convince Craig or Ari to come with us to SPiN New York.

For those of you unfamiliar with SPiN, think basement of a college frat house. Alcohol. Ping pong tables. Bros. Mostly attractive women.

Now, I'm no ping pong (table tennis to acknowledge the politically correct) wizard, but there were certainly plenty of real life Forest Gumps flailing crazy backhands and putting crazy spin on their serves. We were waiting for a table and actually ended up getting bumped further down the list because a "member" showed up who gets preferred status. Eventually a hostess came around and asked if we were on the list. Knowing that we had just been bumped, I said "yes" and then started shouting out popular names like, "John... David... Michael." She asked if I was Mike and I concurred to which she lead us to our table.

We played for an hour or so and then when our time was up were awkwardly invited to join a young couple on their first date who had met on a Jewish online dating site. One can only assume it was JDate.com. It was terribly late to still be out and I had consumed a fair number of beers on the night. I only recap the night because my run the next morning was absolutely horrendous.

I was out the door right at 6 AM and stood around in the freezing cold for my Garmin to find a satellite. It never did until a couple minutes of running north on the West Side Highway bike path. The wind lashed my face for the first 8 kilometers out. It didn't help that I was tired and had a headache due to the late night and pints. The run never felt comfortable but the pace did finally pick up the final 15 minutes, granted I had the wind at my back.

The rest of my nights in New York wouldn't have nearly a negative effect on my training.