Fulton Street!

Ah......Lovely, lovely Fulton Street! How I've missed your dirty napkins, your rancid fried chicken smell.......

Trying to get a run in before appointments today, and having left my Garmin uncharged, I needed to stay on a more familiar route. Just when I had another chance to go exploring, alas, I had to stay with the park so I had an idea of the miles entailed.

But I needed to add on, so I ran down Brooklyn to Fulton and then up Vanderbilt before going the opposite direction around the outside of the park. Actually, a great combination. To be able to see a familiar yet recently absent friend and to see another familiar from a different perspective made the run surprisingly exciting - like an old lover in new clothes.

Plus, the relatively familiar turns enabled me to concentrate on the paper I've been writing and the surrounding scenery, instead of the route itself.

With my breathing under control and my degree of perceived effort at about lower-middle range, I was heartened to see that I had gone almost 8 1/4 miles at about a 7:42 pace when I mapped it. Steps! Progress! And the paper structure is really coming along in my head.

Plus, I got to see the sights of my neighborhood. Ah, solo runs!