A Quick Run to End the Year

Sunday 12/31, Run #102: Greenpoint and Williamsburg

Distance: 4.73 miles
Time: 0:35
Pace: 7:24
Temp: 42
Wind Chill: 38
Weather: mostly sunny

click on image for interactive map


Unique Miles Today: 3.85
Total Unique Miles: 794.11
Percent of Brooklyn Run: 45.58

For the complete route, click here

Notes: Barely twelve hours after arriving home from the left coast, this morning I hit the road for one last time in 2006. Actually, I wasn't going to run at all, but with tomorrow's forecast calling for rain I figured it wouldn't hurt to get out there and put in a few quick miles, especially since I hadn't run in a week and a half. Being a bit out of practice (and most likely a pound or two heavier), I stayed close to home and took it easy, turning in my second-shortest run of the year on a very pleasant winter day. I don't yet know if the time off has healed any of the damage I've inflicted on myself thus far, but it really did feel awful good just to be out running again.

The route I followed today took me along part of the Greenpoint and Williamsburg waterfronts, a semi-industrial area not entirely unlike the parts of Sunset Park I ran earlier in the month. Many of the streets dead-ended at the East River and provided terrific views of Manhattan, though judging by the air conditioners in the windows and the mailboxes by the entrances a lot more of the old buildings up this way seemed to have been converted to residences. The streets were mostly empty, however, with only the occasional dog-walker or bicylist as evidence that people, indeed, live around there. I don't imagine things will stay this way too long, though, since high-rise condo development is spreading rapidy up the waterfront.

Anyway, I toyed with the idea of putting together a big end-of-the-year Runs Brooklyn 2006 wrap-up extravaganza, but since I'm within ten runs or so of hitting the halfway mark I figured I'd wait until then, since that would be a much better excuse for such self-congratulatory self-indulgence. Keep an eye out for such a post around the third week of January, when I hope to hit that milestone.

Until then, I'm delighted (and quite flattered) that Gowanus Lounge included Runs Brooklyn on its list of the top new Brooklyn blogs of 2006, as part of its extensive "Best and Worst of 2006" year-end post. Alas, GL is too humble to include itself on such a list, although it certainly belongs there -- it's my favorite of the multitudinous local blogs and invariably the first one I check each day.

Happy New Year, everyone. Some pictures from this morning:


Noble Street


The view from the end of Java Street


Bedford Avenue


6th Street