Coney Island trot

Christmas morning, I met another blogger at Coney Island and we did a 3-mile jog along the boardwalk. This was quite a new experience for me, as I haven't run on the boardwalk at all, except for the single Brooklyn Half I did.



Michelle is quite a good runner, though she limits herself to five miles right now. But she is pretty fast, judging from her 5-mile PR and she does 5 miles on the boardwalk almost every day. I wish I could attain that kind of consistency.

It was a pleasure to run with her, since she didn't seem to mind my coughing and spitting. I am finding running very difficult right now - my lungs just don't seem to be what they used to be. But I did my best and having Michelle pull me along was nice, though I still had to walk a couple of times.




You can see from the graph how many times I had to walk - not the best training for Michelle, I'm sure. But the second half of the run wasn't too bad, really.

I did find running ON the boardwalk strange. It can be treacherous if you aren't watching your footing. Several portions are in poor repair. A couple guys with some replacement boards and deck screws could fix the boardwalk up in a few days - but apparently our city can't be bothered with that. Maybe I can go down there with my screwgun and at least take care of the deck screws that are sticking up.

The beach was deserted of course, but there were still people out enjoying the sunshine, especially the older Russian community.

Michelle and I have plans to run together again on Wednesday. She wants to run the Manhattan Half, but there's precious little time to train up. She's got a month to get her long run mileage high enough to tackle a half-marathon race. I think with her outstanding base, she'll be able to do it, if she's very careful about fueling and hydration during her long runs and makes sure to take a rest day after.

Anyway, just before we started our run, we found this:



Laughed a little over that. Seems about all the Internet I can afford, I tell you what.

You can read Michelle's write-up of the run here. I think she gives me too much credit. Or maybe I'm just a little embarassed. But if she can draw strength from my stubborn example, then more power to her. Like me, she plans to run all five borough Halfs. I don't think I told her, but if she accomplishes it, she gets special medal from NYRR! It would also be five qualifiers toward NYC Marathon 2010...