Random Thoughts on a Monday Evening

I am not a huge fan of running the early mornings. 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. starts, I can do with no problem. Even 6 a.m. isn't so bad. 4:30 a.m., after being awoken by a persistent (and yet undead) mosquito - not a fan. I read about the people who regularly get up for 5 a.m. runs and come back after a 10 mile jaunt - consider me impressed.

Yet circumstances and training necessitated a 9 mile run this AM

The few things that remain in my sleep-deprived mind (there is no way I'll see the second half of Monday Night Football tonight):

-- at 4:30, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade is empty, and beautiful when there is a full moon shining on the water

-- at 5 a.m. in Prospect Park, there are more power walkers (and couples, I might add) then there are runners

-- the park's raccoon and swan population is alive and well

-- I have to be really, really, really desperate to open one of the PortoPotties at that hour (I didn't)

-- It's harder to sprint for a subway car after running 9 miles

Other stuff as I'm thinking about it:

-- The Prospect Park Track Club is sponsoring a marathon bus ($10 for members, $15 for nonmembers) to get to the NYC marathon start. Also of interest: a Gatorade supported group run on Oct. 25 of the last 10 miles of the race

-- Check this out: Photo and article in Prospect Park, including resident Chris Bither, about running with a stroller

-- I asked Heavy Metal Runner for his description of an almost 20-miler that he's been running, and he obliged. To quote from his e-mail:

"It's a pretty good route. Lot's of water available on the 2nd half. I run from carroll gardens up union street to easter parkway, then up bedford all the way through williamsburg. I make my way into long island city over the pulaski bridge, the over the queensboro bridge, across manhattan to the west side and then I take the west side down until I hit chambers street and then i head over the brooklyn bridge and straight home. I like this route also because it covers a lot of territory that the marathon covers which I had yet to run on (this years marathon is my first so i figured it would be to my benefit to run some of it's faraway from home stretches to gain a little familiarity)"