Happy 40th Greg!

Today: 10.5 miles

Week: 24 miles

Workout: 4 miles on my own @ 7:30/mile, 1 mile warm up with the running club from Y to 72nd St Transverse on East Drive, 5 mile loop in 36:15 (7:15/mile), 0.5 mile cool down back to the Y.

Another beautiful day in Central Park. It was good to see Francois at the workout today. After everyone arrived at the end of our 5 mile loop, we watched over half a dozen fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars go by us up the East Drive. At first they came through 72nd Street Transverse and headed toward the west side of the park, but they must have made a wrong turn. They all turned around in the middle of the transverse, came back toward us, and went up the East Drive, stopping near the Boat House.

As one fire truck was making the left hand turn from the 72nd Transverse onto East Drive, we witnessed a typical New York moment. A guy with a pedicab wasn't pulled over to the side of road enough for the fire truck to make its left turn. The driver of the fire truck leaned out of his window and said, "Get the f**k out of the way!" Not only were there fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, and one of those emergency police trucks, there was also a police helicopter.

No one really knew what was going on. We had some guesses. One theory was that the police were just doing an emergency drill. Another person suggested that someone fell into the lake near the Boat House. Since Central Park was so crowded today, I thought, maybe there was a huge riot involving runners, cyclists, and roller bladers. Each group had finally had enough of the other groups getting in their way and resorted to violence.

After the workout, we went to Bar Coastal on the Upper East Side to celebrate Greg's 40th birthday. Look out running clubs! The WSY will be fielding a masters team in the Run for the Parks on July 18th!