runs brooklyn/brooklyn runs: Flo-Jo in Bed-Stuy

Tuesday 11/21, Run #86: Bedford-Stuyvesant

Distance: 8.61 miles
Time: 1:05
Pace: 7:33
Temp: 38
Dewpoint: 25
Weather: sunny & breezy

click on image for interactive map

Unique Miles Today: 8.51
Total Unique Miles: 674.73
Percent of Brooklyn Run: 38.73

For the complete route, click here

Notes: Today I abandoned all pretense of sticking to my elaborate plans and just went for the easiest run I could come up with. And this morning's excursion couldn't have been much simpler -- it was a direct, 12-minute subway ride from home, it started and finished right at the subway stop, and the route itself was basically just a big rectangle with four of the interior streets filled in. No dead ends, no cul-de-sacs, no weird unnamed streets or doubling back over my route or anything. Just a nice, symmetrical, very efficient run on a chilly but pretty fall morning. It added eight and a half unique miles to my total, but it also cleared my head and made me feel a lot better. I can always go back to the complicated runs tomorrow, I suppose, or the next day.

The parts of Bed-Stuy I saw today sure have a lot of incredible architecture -- just block after block of beautiful houses and interesting buildings in a diverse array of styles. I could've taken a thousand pictures, I think, but in the spirit of the aforementioned ease and efficiency, I reined myself in. One of the many visual highpoints was a painted tribute to Florence Griffith Joyner (better known to many as Flo-Jo), the Olympic sprinter who took home three gold medals at Seoul in 1988 but died at age 38 in 1991. It was, I believe, the first running-related street art I've seen thus far.

Finally, a sincere thanks to all who emailed or left comments over the last couple of days. It really is much appreciated.

Some photos: