My 2nd Manhattan Circumnavigation

I’m very well trained for a half marathon distance, so I let this frame my goals and expectations for this day. For about a month I’ve been dabbling with running without music or podcasts. I want to be more in touch with how my body feels, learn to understand my breathing, and to need less extrinsic motivation to continue moving forward.

My goals:

• To not get lost

• Have overall per mile pace under 15 minutes

• Never run faster than a 10 minute mile

• Hydrate

• Run without music or podcasts

• Not text or talk to anyone during the run

• Have FUN

The first time I did this was in 2024. There was a heat advisory on the only day I could do it. This year, my planned day brought tornado warnings and strong storms during the day. Luckily this time I could push off by one day. My day turned out to be a nice cloudy yet humid start. The clouds would burn off later in the day and we’d reach a high of 88 degrees, but no heat advisory! I love summer in the city, and the weather worked for me.

Scott and I stayed at a hotel that didn’t have breakfast included. This meant no waiting for my “free” breakfast to begin so I set out just a few minutes after Scott left to go run with Central Park Run Club.

I wore my Lululemon vest, my Gorges Half tank top and my Janji short tights. I now knew how to secure my water bottle - or so I thought. I woke Elizabeth up with a facetime call at 6:30 am just to confirm I had it in there properly. I had one full 24 ounce water bottle and also packed a collapsible cup.

I enjoyed a scone and some kefir, packed a Bob’s bar and some Honey Stinger chews and headed off for the mile walk to where I’d start.

It was time to start so I ducked into the restrooms at 56th only to have an unhoused woman start to slam the other stall door once I went into my stall. Slam. Slam. Crazy white racist b*tch. Slam. Hey there’s a white b*tch in here. Over and over. I raced out as quickly as I could and saw a text from a friend. She shared a picture of her baby as he flipped the pages of a book I gave him. With my hands shaking, I texted her back and then quickly started my adventure. I didn’t expect my day to start this way and I didn’t get my planned video or picture of my start.

When Xander was a little boy he used to say “never get lost” so naturally our family picked it up as a saying. It was a perfect mantra for today and it was easy to stay on track for the first few waterfront miles. I had the GPX file loaded into my Coros (thank goodness for this as I’d need it later). It wouldn’t let me get very far off course without letting me know.

This one was a little tougher. I rely heavily on my watch for pacing and with the GPX loaded, I couldn’t also have a pace goal. I’m also working on pacing so this was an opportunity for me to run by feel. The watch gives me mile splits so I could adjust in progress. I could also switch the screen away from the map and see pacing, BUT goal 1 was paramount.

I grabbed a short video around mile 5 and took stock of how I was doing. My paces were not what I’d desired with a few too many sub 10s but they weren’t too far off either. I decided I’d just take a video to show the lay of the land where I was every so often for today.

Shortly after mile 5 things got a little confusing and I got slightly off course a few times. Soon after that the actual detours started in that I wasn’t on the waterfront nearly as much. The last time I ran this I got lost while in the lower east side and today I understood why. Without a gpx track the first time, I frequently had to pull out my phone to see if I was on course. With lots of opportunities to head into the streets it is easy to get turned around. Today I was ever so grateful to have the track to follow.

I worked on slowing my miles down as I hit mile 6-10 but encountered a small snag at mile 8. This was when I decided to fuel. I had my first package of Honey Stingers followed by a swig of water. Moments after that swig of water, the bottle started to fall out. I only had a couple of sips but it started to wiggle its way out of the holder. Oh no!! I was not about to run with this bottle in my hand like I had in the Gorges Half. I did the only thing that made sense to me in the moment - I drank the entire bottle of water and stuffed it back into the little pocket. I had my cup and there are water fountains and stores. I’d be fine.

As I settled into a rhythm and the miles began to tick by, my mind started wandering back to the day before. and a chance encounter that ended up anchoring the rest of my run. The prior day’s weather had postponed my circumnavigation. It was ok as it allowed me to run outside our hotel on the waterfront in New Jersey, lift and do yoga in the hotel gym and spend most of the day dealing with financial things for my father’s estate. He recently passed away and I’m the executor. I generally struggle with doing anything responsible like this, so my day of “adulting” had me tired out. I had a deal with myself that I would get things done and then head over to the city once our new hotel room was ready (Scott is on a business trip and I get to be here because it is summer break for my teaching job). Anyway, as I walked into the ferry area a man held the door for me and remarked that my bag looked heavy. Soon, we were standing on the covered area awaiting the 4 pm ferry when one of the storms started to roll through. I mentioned that we may get lucky - the storm could pass through by the time we got off the ferry. He said, “oh I am always lucky” or something else positive and hopeful like that. We boarded the ferry and had a lovely chat - turns out he is a trumpet player and was playing for Aladdin that evening. He gave me some career advice to pass along to Xander.

I mention this conversation because it was what I thought about as I started to hit the harder miles. Two days prior, I’d been in on the T in Boston and looked around at everyone scrolling on their phones. After we got off the T, I remarked that I didn’t know how anyone could meet anyone anymore. I expressed gratitude that I grew up during a time where there was a chance at a conversation with a stranger. This conversation made me feel hopeful. It reminded me that our world is smaller than it feels sometimes and when you are running alone without music or news or a book in a big city, this conversation brought me strength and optimism.

At mile 12 the sun was fully out - no more hiding behind clouds for bits here and there. And I saw a water fountain in the distance as I stopped to take this video. Turns out the water was off. Marty’s words of “I’m always lucky” popped back into my head. I knew I’d find water soon … and I did. Less than a half mile later.

The first time I ran this in the clockwise direction, the pool was at mile 17. Today I hit it at mile 16. I was still feeling positive and hopeful at mile 16 and while my pace had slowed a bit, I was still running. I stopped briefly to take the video below, and also got off course. Thankfully, it was brief because I had my watch to help me back.

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In the image below you can see mile 19 in blue. I got lost again. It was brief but it added mileage and I was getting tired and adding miles did not fit with my last goal to have FUN.

I was fatigued from seeing people swearing at no one in particular on the street. I was tired of drinking hot water out of fountains yet grateful for those fountains and my little cup, and sad to keep passing by garbage on the streets and lots of dog poo on the sidewalks. The differences between the tourist part of the city and other parts are very stark in places.

The video below is filmed at mile 20. I didn’t take video again until mile 31. The streets ahead were uncertain and I felt stressed as I ran through them so I didn’t stop to take any videos.

While I didn’t fully KNOW that I’d hit this goal, I did reason that if my first 10 miles were 10 minutes or slightly under for the most part that I had plenty of fluff time. My split times slowly creeped up as the day went on. I got slightly off course a few more times, I finally stopped to get water and a Clif bar, and I started to run more slowly and add some walking into my miles. I switched to walking quickly at mile 30.

Those last few miles were interesting. I was so hot. I was thirsty yet ever so grateful for the occasional fountains. I chose to walk quickly because it felt more FUN than running at this point.

I did it! 33.57 miles later and I was back to where I had started almost 7 hours prior. I took a picture of myself and flopped onto a rock before promptly entering my day into Strava and texting coach Alex to tell her all about my day.