runs brooklyn/brooklyn runs: If I Was President: Fewer Cars, More Bakeries

Wednesday 11/1, Run #76: Dyker Heights

Distance: 10.08 miles
Time: 1:15
Pace: 7:26
Temp: 60
Dewpoint: 52
Weather: mostly sunny

click on image for interactive map

Unique Miles Today: 8.96
Total Unique Miles: 598.43
Percent of Brooklyn Run: 34.35

For the complete route, click here

Notes: It was a beautiful morning here in Brooklyn (even if it was a bit warm for my tastes), as some remaining cloud cover from overnight cleared out and left bright sunshine. And my run today was excellent, too -- everything felt good from the start, and I covered just over ten miles at a pretty solid clip despite the hillier-than-usual terrain. Dyker Heights, like its neighboring communities (Sunset Park to the north, Bay Ridge to the west, Bensonhurst to the east) is a great place to run, with a nice mix of small businesses along the avenues (which run more or less north and south) and residential areas (including some beautiful townhouses) on the tree-lined east-west streets. Of particular note was a statue ouside St. Ephrem's church, depicting Jesus cradling the twin towers of the World Trade Center. September 11th-related murals and memorials are quite commonplace around the borough (understandably, of course), and the image of the two iconic buildings figures prominently in many of them. Still, I hadn't seen anything quite like this before.

The run today filled up enough of the neighborhood that I can finish it entirely with one more trip down there, and after looking at the "big map" today it looks like I'm getting close to being done with everything south of the 65th/Avenue P/Flatlands Avenue line I drew a couple of months ago. All I need, I think, is one more run in each of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach, Marine Park, Canarsie, Bergen Beach, and East New York, and maybe two more in Flatlands. Plus, I'll have to take the train out to Rockaway and run back over the Marine Parkway Bridge, since half of it's in Brooklyn (this run will also give me the opportunity to poke around Floyd Bennett Field, too). But I'm heading to Flatlands and Brighton Beach this week, and it appears that I might be done with the southern third or so of the entire borough within two weeks. Crazy! Of course, this means that I'll have to come up with some kind of plan for what to do next, but I've still got a little time, I suppose.

Anyway, lots to see today, including some bright autumnal foliage, which I haven't seen a lot of around here this fall. Henceforth, photographs: