Run 104 Art

Shortly after I started my run today, I saw a sign that said “207 Gallery”.  It is not unusual to see an art gallery in NYC, but I wasn’t in an area where you would expect to see one.  I was in Inwood, it was a very residential area, some what of a poor area.  I tried to get a peek at the art gallery, but as I ran by I didn’t see one.  For some reason it stuck with me through out my run.  Who’s art was in the gallery? Why did they decide to open it here? Who purchases the art?  The curiosity got the best of me and after my run I went back to investigate.  I found the sign, but couldn’t find the gallery.  I stepped into a barber shop in the neighborhood and asked where it was.  The barber had his shop there for years.  He said the gallery was no longer open, but did give me a little back ground about it.  It was open by a guy named Mike.  He grew up in Inwood and became quite successful.  He opened 207 Gallery to encourage and help local Inwood artists.  He wanted to have a place where they could show their work, learn, grow, gain experience and be motivated.  The local artists took shifts running the gallery to keep it open.   The barber said that Mike has since passed away and the gallery was closed, but I was touched by the story and the memory of 207 Gallery.  That’s the NYC that I’m getting to know. 

Time: 1 pm
Distance: 5.7 miles
Time: 45:47
Music: Jekyll and Hyde

Run 103 Homeless

The weather is turning cold again.  Today's run was freezing.  As I was trying to stay warm running around I saw a homeless man bundled up on the sidewalk.  I couldn't imagine being homeless in NYC in the winter.  I've always said if I had to be homeless I'd live in Hawaii!

Here are some facts about NYC homeless from the NYC Coalition for the Homeless:
-In June 2013, there were an all-time record 53,270 homeless people, including 12,701 homeless families with 22,625 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system
-Each night thousands of unsheltered homeless people sleep on New York City streets, in the subway system, and in other public spaces. There is no accurate measurement of New York City's unsheltered homeless population, and recent City surveys significantly underestimate the number of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers.
- Studies show that the large majority of street homeless New Yorkers are individuals living with mental illness or other severe health problems. Four out of five street homeless New Yorkers are men.

I found this video on youtube of pictures of NYC Homeless. 



I also found this interesting article about what it is like to spend a night in a shelter:
http://www.businessinsider.com/sleepingin-a-homeless-shelter-2012-1

How to help? I've always been wary of giving people a cash hand out. Maybe they will go buy a slice of dollar pizza and a hot coffee…. maybe they won't.  You never know, but that doesn't stop me from wishing I can help.  I have not helped out at a homeless shelter yet, but as I've been looking up info I found a good source of places to help out: http://www.timeout.com/newyork/things-to-do/where-to-volunteer-homelessness

Unfortunately some people take advantage of this situation.  People pan handle with signs like, "Why Lie I need beer" and this horrendous article (http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-930349), the story isn't about NYC specifically but there is a lady that rides my subway train everyday with her baby.  She uses the baby.. others use pets inappropriately, to get extra sympathy from people passing by.  

NYC Homeless is a very complex situation, and I'm just starching the surface.  It's a topic that I don't understand well..  but I just wanted to share a sliver of a piece of the pie because it is such a common sight as I run through out NYC.  

Time: 3 am
Distance: 7.26 miles
Time: 55:18 minutes
Music: Darren Hayes

Staten Island Half Marathon

Some times the stars align.  There are so many factors that go into running.  If your body is cooperating then the weather is bad.  If your shoes are broken in the perfect amount then traffic gets in your way.  If your mentally stable then your music keeps getting messed up.  If the length of the run is perfect then you end up starting to slow or too fast.  
But it just so happened that this time everything fell into place.  I got up nice and early and boarded the Staten Island Ferry to run the half marathon.  It seemed like any other race, it was too early, I hadn't eaten enough, stretched enough or slept enough the night before.  But the weather was nice and the race was starting.  At this point I've been training pretty hard for a while now and the marathon is just a couple of weeks away.  I started running and everything seemed to be falling right into place.  I was running fast and it was feeling good.  I was a tad worried that I was going too fast and couldn't keep up with myself for the entire race, but decided to just go with it. The race and the course continued to fly by.  Before I knew it I was rounding the last corner.  I could see the NYC skyline in the distance.  I had a great race.  It felt good.  I ran really well. I ended up crossing the finish line at 1:28:16.  I was 205th out of 5,798 people.  
My fingers are crossed that the stars align in the exact same way the morning of the marathon.  

Time: 8:30 am
Distance: 13 miles
Time: 1:28:16
Music: shuffle

Run 102 Blowing chunks and blowing over

You are what you eat.  Actually that's not really what I meant to say, what I really meant was don't ever eat a chimichanga before going running.  Yes, believe me, I know they are delicious, but they tend to weigh you down on a 6 mile run, like a brick in your stomach.  You spend most of the run trying to convince yourself that you are not going to throw up and you end up running pretty slow.  
Not only was I fighting with a chimichanga, but it was extremely windy as well.  I felt like I was going to be blown over, the wind was so strong.   Long story, short.  This was not a very fun run.  It's good thing that I usually (except tonight) enjoy running.  I never would have ran this much if tonight was the norm. 

In case you were wondering I found an article about "the best foods for runners".   A list of 15 items to "fuel peak performance".  Chimichangas did not make the list.  I bet they were number 16.  

Time: 5 pm
Distance: 6.39 mils
Time: 52:43
Music: Kristin Chenoweth

Run 101

Today I was running out of time.  I only had to be somewhere in an hour.  Most of the time I run any where from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, but that wasn't going to happen today.  I thought about just not running.  That would have been the easy solution.  Just run tomorrow when I have more time.  But what about about my training schedule?  What about this 30 minutes I have?  Why not take advantage of it.  I almost talked myself out of running, but then drive kicked in and I wanted to make it happen.  I decided to cover as much territory as I could in 30 minutes.  
NYC is know for many things, but space is not one of them.  We are know for using every square inch that we can.  The parking lots here have car lifts, to park cars on top of each other.  We build apartment buildings straddling railroad tracks.  We build down underground, we build up into the sky. We live in small apartments.  Some apartments even have the shower located in the kitchen.  Space is expensive and no one wants it to go to waste. 
A perfect example of this caught my eye as I was running tonight.  There was a tiny shop called Maraya.  It was no bigger than a walk in closet and it housed an entire business. I initially thought it was an art gallery, but it turned out to be a cigar shop.  www.marayacigar.com
I then began to look around and found other pint sized shops in the area, including a pop up store (only open a short time), a dry cleaners, hand bags, sunglasses, jewelry, clothing designers and many more.  I'm sure you can find small hidden store fronts all over the city.  Here's a photo of one of them, Eli Halili Jewelry and Design. www.elihalili.com   

Time: 8:30 pm
Distance: 4.64 miles
Time: 39:20 minutes
Music: Passion

Run 100 Churches

Did you notice that this is my 100th run?!  

There hasn't been a single time that I have went out on a run in NYC and not seen a church or place of worship.  There are over 7,000 places of worship in 468 square miles that make up NYC.  That is about 15 churches in every square mile.  These places of worship range from huge Cathedrals to a small carpet laid out right on the side walk.  Some you can't miss, others are small and simple and blend right in.  Having run by so many of these places the variety and beauty intrigues me.  There's no better way to explain it, than to just show you what I mean.  

Time: 2 pm
Distance: 5.89 miles
Time: 49:26 minutes
Music: Sara Evans

Run 99

There are some area and streets that are closed, blocked or I'm just not allowed on.  So obviously I'm not going to be able to run those.  I've encountered closed gates, fences, police barricades, etc. I've even been yelled at by cops (more than once) trying to run those areas.  Streets going to and from the tunnels and bridges are closed to pedestrians.  A few streets by ground zero are still closed.  Random other streets on the map are just closed, dead ends, private roads, etc.  I'm not talking about a high percentage,  just a few here and there. But, I just wanted to throw the disclaimer out there that when I said I was gonna run "every square inch" it was just an expression, I didn't mean it literally.  Here's to getting as close as I can! There is no stopping me now!

Time: 6 pm
Distance: 7.75 miles
Time: 1:10:20
Music: Kimberly Caldwell, Lady Antebellum