After the run we went home to get ready for the annual Coney Island Polar Bear Dip into the Atlantic Ocean.  This was without a doubt the highlight of my day, specifically because my 8 year old son decided to come with me and take a dip into the ocean as well.  I can’t express how proud I am of my little man.  It was 17 degrees outside and the water temperature was in the low 40’s and the kid tore off his clothes and dragged me into the water.  He was excited, laughing and had eyes shining bright with excitement.

The place was a mob scene and it was difficult to make our way through the crowd into the water.  We ran in holding hands and with adrenaline flowing.  I looked at my son and asked if he was ready to dunk himself.  He shook his head yes and then on the count of 3 we dunked our heads below the surface of the water.  It was bone chilling cold, so we didn’t hang around and started to run back to our blankets.

The crowd was even thicker at this point and we had a tough time finding our blanket.  To make matters worse, I wasn’t wearing my glasses, so I could see hardly anything.  I felt bad as I could tell my son was really cold and wanted his towel.  We probably found it within a minute, but it certainly felt longer.  Both our hands and feet were really cold and it was a struggle to get him dressed.  I had hand and toe warmers and I put them in his gloves and shoes to help warm him up.

Fortunately, while at the beach I met up with @brujitalinda.  She was there with a friend who wasn’t doing the dup and was kind enough to take pictures of me and my son on the beach.    @brujitalinda looked stunning in her bikini and was adorned with her New Year’s resolutions written on her body.  Perhaps next year I will do the same.

 On the way home from the beach, my son rested in the back seat, laying down across it with his cold feet pressed against the bare flesh of my stomach.  They were nice and cold and he found it infinitely amusing as I complained about his cold feet pressing against me.  When we got home, we both took warm baths and then went back out to Larry’s house for post Dip festivities.  We drank his wife’s delicious Hot Toddies and equally delicious Chili.  All totaled it was a great start for the New Year.

 

I headed out from my house near Prospect Park and headed into Sunset Park. I ran along 2nd Avenue, which is still paved with Cobblestones and has trolly/train tracks running through it. I am fascinated by this area. I can imagine it 50 years ago and around the time of WWII. I could just feel all the activity happening in all these waterfront warehouses and all the train activity. This area used to be so vibrant with commerce and you can feel the ghosts of the past with every step through the neighborhood. Here is a picture of me looking into an alleyway of a warehouse that used to accept freight cars for the loading and unloading of cargo. There are many buildings like this along the way.

From Sunset Park, I continued up 2nd Avenue and ran into Bay Ridge. I went past Owls Head Park and ran onto the 69th Street Pier. The pier offers fantastic views of downtown Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. For me this view will be forever scarred. I can’t get used to seeing it without the Twin Towers. But life moves on and so did I. From there it was along the bike/running path that runs right along the water and underneath the Verrazano Bridge. I stopped at the bridge to admire the view and take a couple of pictures. The biggest shame about the VZ is that they built it without a pedestrian lane. Running over that bridge is great and something I only get to do when I am in the NYC Marathon.

Once past the VZ Bridge you can see the landmarks of Coney Island coming into view. My route was also taking me past the neighborhood where I grew up. I was able to see the building where I grew up across of the Belt Parkway. Many years ago the area I was running past was an illegal dump. I’ll never forget exploring in this dump one day when I came across a pair of sawed off horse legs surrounded by a bunch of losing Off Track Betting tickets. The apparent meaning was very clear to me, but that was almost 30 years ago and there was no sign of that now. I just kept going and made my way into Coney Island.

My first stop into Coney Island was on the bridge that crosses the Coney Island Creek. Years ago this bridge was a drawbridge and unfortunately, I never got to see it being used in my lifetime. When I was a kid you could still see fish swimming in the water, but I don’t think anything has lives in it for 3 decades.

From there is was into the heart of Coney Island and onto the boardwalk. I ran out over the pier and took a picture of the soon to be obliterated Astroland Amusement Park. I also got a picture of me underneath Brooklyn’s Eiffel Tower, the famous Coney Island Parachute Jump. I never got to ride on this, but I understand my parents did before I was born. I then ran the rest of the boardwalk into Brighton Beach and then took to the roads to run into Manhattan Beach. It had been years since I was in Manhattan Beach, having not gone there since and old friend moved out in his own. I ran to the end of Manhattan Beach, which is essentially the end of Coney Island and then headed back towards Sheepshead Bay. I ran over the small footbridge that crosses from Manhattan Beach into Sheepshead Bay, took a left and made my way back towards Ocean Parkway.

On my way to Ocean Parkway, I encountered what I believe to be the largest NYC rat I’ve ever seen. Fortunately it was quite dead, having been struck down by a car. At least I think this thing is a rat. You can judge for yourself with this picture.

Once I got back to ocean parkway I had run about 15 miles. I knew the trip back to Prospect Park would be another 5, plus one additional loop of the park would get me to my goal of 24 miles. It was getting late in the day, so I just put my camera away and ran a nice tempo pace all the way back to the park. I covered an uneventful lap in Prospect Park and exited it just as my wife was calling to inquire as to my whereabouts. Fortunately, I was able to tell her I was just a block away and would be home within a minute or two.

It was a very successful run and capped off a 7 day period that saw me running over 61 miles.

Here are some other pics from the day:

Running from Manhattan Beach into Sheepshead Bay

Shoot the Freak on the Coney Island Boardwalk

I passed a pleasant weekend. I played poker with some friend later on Friday evening (lost $40), but had to leave early so I could wake up to take my son to his baseball game Saturday morning. My son went 3 for 3 with 3 runs scored and made a play at the plate. He loves playing baseball and is certainly enjoying it infinitely better than I was at his age. After baseball and horsing around with my son and his friends we headed home for lunch. My wife and daughter were heading out for her soccer game when we arrived. I wanted to get to her game, but I couldn’t get my son back out the door since he wanted to hang around and rest for a while. I was sorry to miss her game and I vow to myself not to miss her next one. I was able to get in a good 25 mile bike ride in the late afternoon, when my mother came over and took the kids out to a movie. It was my best ride in months.

Sunday morning I took my kids out on their bikes while I ran a lap of Prospect Park. While circumnavigating the park, I ran into my coach who happened to do a duathlon that was held in it earlier that morning. We chatted for a few minutes and I let him know I am contemplating the Greenbelt 50k on May 12. He told me as long as I keep jumping into ultramarathons I will be just fine for Lake Placid. I just need to get in the pool a little more. We then finished up our lap of the park and soon headed back out to it to play baseball with my friend as his kids. I felt a little bad for my daughter who didn’t really seem to want to play baseball, but fortunately our practice didn’t last too long.

After leaving the park all of us headed out to Coney Island. We went to the beach and played in the surf for about an hour. Their clothes, hair and bodies were full of sand and saltwater by the time we left. Fortunately they were mostly dry by the time we got back to the boardwalk and I was able to easily brush the sand off of them. We then headed to the Wonder Wheel for a ride in the swinging cars. This was their first time in it and they had a thrilling good time. I then dumped a ton of money in the arcade where they played Skeeball and other games that award you tickets, which could be traded in for an assortment of crappy prizes.

After the arcade the boys at some pizza and I promised my daughter I would take her to Nathan’s for a hot dog. Before we went to Nathan’s though we went to the Coney Island Freak Show. The show can best be described as a collection of circus side shows reminiscent of years past. It was hokey and amusing at the same time. They had a contorting girl, Geek the Freak, a man who at the glass of a light bulb and a fire throwing. The show went on for a long time and was filled with pitches for donations to see additional exhibits.

The show went on much longer than expected, so we had to leave a little early in order to get to my mother-in-law’s house for dinner. We didn’t have time to get to Nathan’s for my daughter’s hot dog which deeply upset her since everyone else had gotten something they wanted to eat while at Coney Island. So after dinner I agreed to take her back to Coney Island so she could get her hotdog. She ate it during the car ride home and the look of happiness on her face was worth the side trip.