Central Park

This week has been beautiful in New York. The fall weather has been perfect with highs in the 60s. While I was stuck indoors on Thursday when it was 67 degrees and sunny, I did have Friday to enjoy another beautiful, though slightly cooler day. My roommate had gone running in Central Park the day before and it inspired me to do the same. As I was running downtown through the park, I was awed by the sights. The trees were various shades of yellow, orange, and red. Fallen leaves covered the still green lawns. I'm really not doing it justice. It's really beautiful. I passed ponds and idyllic paths. The whole time I was running I kept asking myself, "Why have I never gone running in Central Park before?"
My roommate had run all the way from Central Park North to Columbus Circle and back. While I'm pretty competitive and wanted to prove to myself I could do the same, I wasn't sure I could. After all 110th Street to 59th and back is a long way. So I told myself I would run for 30 minutes and turn around. At 28 minutes, I found myself at Columbus Circle. I had done it! I turned around and ran back to where I started. While I've been working out, the most I usually run continuously is 30 minutes. I ran for an hour, but I hardly noticed.
Of course, today I noticed. My legs are pretty sore. Especially given that after yesterday's run I had to go up to the Bronx to visit two different schools for my job. Each school was inconveniently located about 15 minutes from the subway. I got an additional hour of walking added to my already over-the-top workout. But I like to think it is all just part of my marathon training.