Saturday, February 27, 2010

Running in Central Park


So this morning I decided to hit Central park for a run despite the snow. The running group I recently joined (The Reservoir Dogs) has a scheduled group run every Saturday morning, and today was no exception. So I decided to join them for some training company. Something I am sorely missing since uprooting out of Westchester, where I had my training peeps.

There was a 6 mile run on the schedule, and about 12 people showed up. This is the second run with them and they appear pretty consistent. They are really a training/social group. They go for their runs, but also hook up afterwards for breakfast or drinks on evening runs. So far I like them.

The funny thing about being in a new group is that you are almost interrogated about your training and racing history. I was running with a guy who is a triathlete, so we had lots of war stories to swap. You know you have done alot when you can relate to almost every story a bunch of people come up with.

One good thing about running in a group, at least for me is I get motivated to run harder than I normally would on my own. Too bad that was not my goal. Cause I ran moderately hard at 8 min miles today when I really wanted an easier run ( Like 9 Min/mile). Oh well.

But I did get to get a background of the wonderful Central Park. For example I finally got to know how Cat Hill got to be named that way. Its cause of this:


Thats Right! Its a Black Panther!! Sitting waiting to pounce on you!! Its been waiting a loong time! Its neat, to have all these little points of interest sitting around to discover. Makes my run a little interesting. The Panther lies in the middle of the hill, on the east side starting on 80th street. I was told its bad luck to run by and not greet the cat.


2 comments:

Caitlin said...

Nice! I'm a Central Park Runner myself and plan to hit it up tomorrow for a 20 miler! Greatest place to run and train! Happy Training!

Ski Dad said...

Enjoy the run! Make sure to say Hi to the cat!