My Run Home

After work at 8pm last night, I geared up and started a run from midtown Manhatten to Paramus NJ. I went through Time Square and then cut into Central Park at Columbus Circle to avoid street lights, Hung a left at 96th street and ran the path along the Hudson River all the way up the West Side. It wasnt until it was too late that I realized it was probably not the best route to take in the dark. Some pretty scary sections once you get past 125th street. I mean nothing really happened , but when you are running in the dark by yourself with the River directly on your side and no one in sight except for a random homeless person, you cant help but think of how easy it would be to get mugged and dumped in the River to never be found again. So basically I couldnt get to the GW Bridge fast enough.

After a run in w/ a skunk, a possum, and a couple of Rats, I missed a turn for the running path and ended up on a single dirt trail in the middle of woods(yup, woods in Manhatten) and couldnt help but think of how stupid I was. I ran about a quarter of a mile before I quickly turned around and sprinted back to where I got off track.

I finally found the crossing to get back over the West Side Hwy away from the river and hit the streets again. After carefully choosing someone to ask where the entrance of the Walkway across the bridge is (its a little tricky getting to it)

I made it to 178th st to the entrance of the bridge where pedestrians could cross and there is a big orange sign stating that this south side of the bridge walkway is closed to use the North side. So I run to 179th st and I find the entrance for the North side walkway, and there is a big gate with a lock on it!!!! OHHHH NOOOO, I'm thinking I am pretty much screwed. So with no other options, I mean I have to get over the bridge to get home.....yes, I jumped the fence! A little crazy to be hopping fences at 41 years old, but I figured worst case scenario, I would explain to a cop and possibly get a ride over the bridge if I had to.

Ok, one dilemna I get over that first fence, no little fence by the way, probably 8 feet tall and up at the top of the stairs, there is another very large fence, and in the distance I see a 3rd large fence! I panic and turn back.

So now I opt to go back over the first fence and figured I would see how many fences are locked on the other side. Back to the South side, I pass the big orange sign saying closed, I climb up the stairs.....and guess what, it wasnt friggen closed. They must of not changed the signs or something. So I am now running over the George Washington Bridge at about 10pm at night and it felt great just to have made it out of the city alive. Oh, and I did stop to send a couple of pics into my twitter account just for fun.

This is where I basically ran aimlessly the rest of the way home. Once I got over the bridge I had to somehow navigate around all the connecting highways while staying in the basic direction of my destination. Yup, I did this with no directions. Its a long story, but basically I couldnt get a runnable route printed out on map quest so I figured I would just wing it. I mean worst case scenario, I would be running all night.

On the backroads, I came to several dead ends and wrong turns that I'm sure added several miles to my trip and once I took a road that brought me right on to Rt 4, a pretty fast moving hwy that you really dont want to be running on, especially at night. I got off at the next exit. hehe

I made a gas station stop, a 7-11 stop and a McDonalds stop along the way to refill my bottles and try to make sure I was heading in the right direction.

The McDonalds doors were closed so I had no other choice but to get in line behind a car in the drive through. Lol, it was pretty awkward but my bottles were light and there was nothing else around. It was my turn ,so I walked up to the window and I guess since I didnt make my order through the speaker they didnt know I was there. So I proceeded to knock on the window, and order my bottle of water. The look on the employees faces pretty much summed up my whole night.

I did get a call from my wife at about midnight questioning my sanity, so I tried to convince her that this is normal Ultra runner behavior, She wasnt buying it as she laid in bed alone knowing I was out on the roads.

At one point in Teaneck NJ, I ran into a group of Asian guys on the street and asked them If I was heading in the right direction for Paramus, and after they got over the strangeness of this crazy runner asking for directions at 11pm to a town that is still 9 miles away they were a great help. How do you say crazy or stupid in Chinese? I'm pretty sure thats what they were saying.

My car was parked in Paramus at my brothers house and after it was all said and done, I made it back in Just under 5 hours. 25 mile trip.

I will definitely be doing it again.