A London Afternoon

Not really, but I was channeling Mr. Bean last Wednesday.

I had a dermatologist appointment, and I booked with a doc in midtown since I needed a new one (and I work in Chelsea now). A HS friend of mine who is a resident at Columbia Presbyterian recommended this practice, and its about 20 minutes from my office via subway & foot.


So I left exactly at 2 pm, planning to take the 1 train, transfer to the N, walk 2 blocks and arrive promptly at 2:18 for my 2:30 appointment. So I leave my office, walk the block to the 1, go through the turnstile, and promptly realize I'm on the wrong side of the tracks (and small stations dont have crossovers). So back out I go, across the street, and now I have to refill my Metrocard...and I miss the subway.

And I wait, checknig the time obsessively. Of course, this particular small station doesn't have the "next arriving train" signs.  9 minutes later I'm on my way. And I miss my transfer because I'm engrossed in AngryBirds Rio.

So, after thinking fast and more or less leaping over some poor guy to check the map, I got off at 59th/Columbus Circle and basically ran across Central Park, dodging about a million tourists, nearly tripped over some photo takers on the east side of the park and finally got to the derm at 2:31. (All was fine, I filled out my intake forms, waited 10 min, had my appointment and yet another mole removed for testing).

Now its 3:30 and I'm a little anxious because I realllyyyyyy wanted to get the 4:07 out of the city so I could get home early and run (since a) I haven't run in forever b) it was nice out and c) we had dinner plans at 7....not to mention I hardly ever have the opportunity to get home early!).  So I head down 5th Ave, dodging all the tourists and ladies who lunch peeking in the windows of the fancy stores - and a woman dressed, I swear, like the Wicked Witch of the West - planning to get the A/C/E to Penn Station.  At 53th, I spent a good minute looking around for the dang station until I finally asked a cop (I checked my phone, and this station was CLEARLY suppossed to be there). He points across the street and tells me, "Its right there" I stare blankly and he finally tells me, like I have XRay vision, that is  behind the giant construction barrier. YES because clearly I would think to look there (from the north side of the street, it didn't appear to have an openning).  Luckily the train came right away, and after more or less running through ALL of Penn Station, since the subway literally could not be further from my gate, I made my train to NJ. End Mr. Bean afternoon.

And I *finally* ran that night, woot. haha :) I did 3 sets of 200/400/600 (plus a warm up) with 1/2/3 minute walks between them. My inner thighs were tight the next morning though. I did about 4.4 miles overall in 45 minutes (counting the walking). I haven't downloaded my splits yet but they were mostly 7:45/8/8:20 if I recall correctly (pace, not time) so I was pretty pleased given my current fitness level. I did another 3 miler last week, plus a 10 miler on Saturday in the rain that went surprisingly well (1:40ish), so hopefully the race will be OK this weekend.