Engineers' Gate, 90th Street and 5th Avenue, New York: The start of most of my morning runs
I arrived back in New York about ten weeks ago, in summer, and today it's snowing! I can hardly believe what I'm seeing, but I know it's cold enough. At 8 am I ran the last 10 miles (16 km) of the New York marathon course with a bunch of friends and it was damned cold by the time we'd finished and I was walking home. It's now settling on the trees and ground as snow. Gorgeous.
Too much has happened since my last post on 4 October to catch up now. I feel so at home here and I go about my day like any other New Yorker, so it doesn't really feel like I need to keep a travel blog. That will change soon when I fly south for the winter.
My family had a scare mid-month when Mum, in Australia, had serious heart issues and had to have a pacemaker installed. Once the procedure was done she was out of any danger, which was a great relief for us all. I've changed my plans so that I can go back in late February for a week.
Some highlights from the past month: Staten Island half marathon (my best half mara time since 2009 and a third place in my age group); New York Film Festival, including "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" and "The Ballad of Mott the Hoople" (which I saw with Albury pal Mary-Jane); my own mini film festival: "Bombay Beach", "To Be Heard", "Texas Killing Fields", "The Way"; catchup birthday meals and a run in Toronto with Hong Kong pals Sarah and William, and Frances; Niagara Falls marathon: a personal best time of 4:13:00 and a fifth place in my age group on a beautiful day; catchup with my "B" mate Di (Bali, Berlin, Broadway/Brighton Beach); and pre-dawn runs in Central Park three mornings a week with some or all of Maria, Sung, Sarah, Lissy, Heather, Joe, Marie, Steve, John....
I'm really going to miss friends from 96th Street: Chloe, John Boy and the rest of the crew.
No comments:
Post a Comment