How'd Your Run Go Today?

It's a simple, innocuous question, and I usually answer it with the same stock answer. "Fine." It's not like anything ever happens on these daily runs ... or does it?

Think about it.

Getting outside and pounding out the mileage has the added benefit of seeing things that you might not ordinarily see, and certainly experience things not found sitting on the living room couch. It's not the exceptional all the time, obviously (though I have seen what purportedly was a dead body) ... but it's still enough to make me want to head out the door the following day. It's those little details.

And it helps to have fun people to run with.

The route of today's run isn't anything particularly special. From Grand Army Plaza, out to the Green-Wood Cemetery, around clockwise, back to Prospect Park to complete the loop, then on to Brooklyn Heights. About 10.5-11 miles, or thereabouts - not at an incredibly fast pace either, but then, it didn't need to be.

But, some of the run highlights:

-- a dead raccoon (blech)

-- almost getting smooshed by an MTA bus pulling out of the bus yard (thank you kind driver for stopping in time)

-- high-fiving a teenager who, along with his friend, looked like he was coming back from a party where he inadvertently fell asleep at 4 a.m. and was just getting home

-- a lively discussion about whether Michael Jackson was in fact buried in Green-Wood (a significant portion of my friends and colleagues are entertaining the prospect that he's not dead)

-- a helpful chat with a park worker at Smith and President about the time the park sprinklers would be turned on (apparently 80 degrees is a key temperature).

My friend at What You Do Not Know Because You Are Not Me often regales me with his running adventures. Since some of his runs are a lot longer, he sees a lot more.

Anyway, here's today's route.