Running With The (Wall Street) Bulls

I ran the New York Road Runners Wall Street 5k Thursday night...a totally beautiful evening weatherwise for a run through one of the coolest parts of Manhattan. There's really no way to describe the amazing feeling of running through those old narrow streets, past the World Trade Center site, over the cobblestones and along the river.

I was cooking pretty good until about 2.5 miles in, when the course was moved to a narrow sidewalk because of some street construction. I somehow dragged the toe of my left foot into a crack in the concrete and fell forward onto the ground. I did one of those "judo rolls" that you learn playing turf sports like soccer and lacrosse, somersaulting over my right shoulder and popping back up without losing much momentum. By the looks of some of the runners around me, it must have been pretty spectacular to have seen. Amazingly, my iPod earpods never fell out, and somehow, even though both of my hands and one elbow scraped the ground pretty well, the iPod I was carrying doesn't have a scratch. If I remember correctly, the song I was listening to was Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher".

Although I was able to keep running, I was immediately sore as hell. I had to slow up my pace a bit, and finished slower than I was hoping for, but still not bad for an old guy. And I have the kind of cool road-rash burn on my elbow right now that tells the world, "That dude's an athlete".

Just one more reason why I love New York.