Wake-ups

Because it's been so hot, at least for New York City- 95 degrees fries brains around here, I've been going to the park earlier and earlier. The A train gets me to 59th Street at just about the time you can see your hand in front of your face 5:25am. There are always bikers and runners in the park before me. The cops are always there too. The police go around to the various benches near the entrance and do wake-ups for the people sleeping there. Everyone knows the routine. Cops yell "Hey", sleeping person lifts head and says nothing. Cops move on to the next bench. It's like watching someone do an odd version of the Stations of the Cross or maybe seeing some tourists in a hurry at the Met. I watched a group of people go through the Monet section in about five minutes once. They moved in front of each painting, there was a moment of reflection, some murmured comments and then they moved to the next and the next and the next. I turned around to look at one of the statues and when I glanced their way again, they were gone.

The cops move into the park about the same time I do. They roust the people under the trees near the public johns (which are locked up tight at that hour. I don't know when they open but I have taught myself not to need to go before the morning run.) I grab a sip of water from the fountain, start my music, start my watch and head out. I re-mapped a three mile route the other day because I was getting bored with always going up around the little horseshoe. It is a good run, starts uphill and passes the lake and Cleopatra's Needle is the two mile mark.



But even that can get old, so I figured out on a map that if I ran one and half laps around the lower loop and then headed for Fifth Ave I would get exactly three miles.
Except that it turns out I was trying to kill myself. The lower loop, if you head North is uphill all the way to the Fifth Ave Exit, so I was making myself run up two really long uphills and then finishing with a teeny downhill to the zoo.

Which is why you should always map things out on site and by sight rather than on paper. That was my wake-up.