Bagel Hole!

Ah. My long-lost lover, back near me. How I missed you on those overnight plane rides, when they tonged up bread-in-a-circle to accompany my sugar-added orange juice.

But first, the run. Trapeze Girl met up with me to jog to GAP. I haven't seen her in so long! That was a super bonus. There was an unusually pliable group there today - a lot of new people, who don't like to rock the boat - so I was able to railroad everyone into doing one of my runs. Yay!

The run I chose always seems so easy on the way there. Down Prospect Park West first. Was 'running' with Ivy League in that he was about 40 feet away in the bike lane. Had a repeat of 'Feed the Tree' stuck in my head. Wished for my headphones, which I didn't bring (gasp!). Was trying to keep up with him when a woman stepped right in front of me at the circle and asked me where Ocean Ave. was. I ignored her: Ivy League had gone through the center and I had foolishly taken the left part of the loop. The Photographer was right behind me and, apparently, the lady kept staring at me with a very unpleasant expression on her face after I passed her.

Don't ask someone who is clearly running for directions when there are 3-4 people around you who are not so doing.

Down to the cemetery and around. Ivy League was in front of us but the Photographer and I had a nice chat while we ran down to 5th Ave. Felt tired on the hill up to 40th but then got to play 'video game' with all the obstacles on 5th Avenue and 67th came up in no time at all. Took a right on 67th and went down to Owl's Head Park. Up and around to see the gorgeous view of the water from between the trees.

The Vivacious Redhead said "this is the whole reason we do this run - the view. Otherwise, it's pretty ugly."

I can see her point but I really enjoy seeing the people doing their Saturday business in neighborhoods that I never get to otherwise. My inner voyeur wonders where they are going and what they are thinking and who they are meeting.

Plus, I got to see all of the amazing icing on those cakes in the bakeries in Sunset Park. MMMMMMMMMM.

The way back was when it got difficult for me. Thank goodness Gorgeous nicely slowed down for me. I was tired from yesterday's run and the way back is mostly uphill. Likely the reason why the way there felt so nice!

Even better, she forced me to do the cemetery hills on the way back. My left knee was hurting again, like yesterday but it felt better on the hills because a) I got to run in the middle of the street and b) everything else hurt so much going up the hills that the knee felt better in comparison. The old 'if your head hurts hit your thumb with a hammer' trick really works!

Then we got to go to the Bagel Hole! Yay. Gorgeous shamed me into running just past Union then I stopped for coffee at Ozzie's.

Standing in line, I thought "Wow. Someone must have stepped in something because it smells really bad."

It was me. Oops! I stood by myself on the train back home.