Cool Nights

I’ve run for the past three perfectly cool nights with my son Lucas riding alongside me on his bike. It was pretty cool having him with me. This desire to go with me is new and he is determined to make it 3 times around Prospect Park without stopping. So far we’ve only gone twice around, but I think he will be ready for a 3 lapper when the weekend rolls around when we can go during the day. It won’t be at night, so he wouldn’t be getting as tired towards the end of the second lap.

Our weekend ride though will have to wait for another weekend. On Saturday, I am doing the Staten Island 6-hour run. It will be held on Yom Kippur, which will make this in my mind, the Yom Kippur Ultra Marathon. My plan is to do it without food or water in observance of the holy day. I discussed this with my coach, who thinks that such a plan is foolish. I’ll see how it goes. If anything, I’ll just drink some water so as to not send myself to the hospital due to dehydration. I wonder how this will go. The day will be nice so I suppose it will be better than my fictional account of a Yom Kippur marathon from two years ago. Oh and before I forget to mention it, I plan to back up my ultra marathon with the Westchester Triathlon on Sunday.

I guess you can say I am spending two days to taper for the YKUM. I took Thursday off completely unless you count a little bit of canoeing on the Gowanus Canal. My friend Tim invited me to a party to benefit the Red Hook Boaters, who offer a free kayaking program in Red Hook. I was more than happy to spend the 25 bucks to go to this party to support Tim’s organization. If it wasn’t for him kayaking beside me a couple of years ago, I never would have done the swims to Hoffman and Swinburne Islands. We made tentative plans for him to be escort for a swim from Sandy Hook to Coney Island. Today I just did an easy 1500 yard swim. I feel ready for tomorrow.