I ran in the Snowpocalypse

Only 1.5 miles. But in boots, every mile counts for two. Right?

This run required different shoes.

From Drop Box

Saving your space, Chicago style.

This guy shoveled half the street just to get his car out.

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Waverly Street, untouched by plows.

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Looking down Willoughby Ave.

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This truck seems to have been abandoned in the middle of Willoughby.

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These guys turned away help. A crossing guard scolded them: "Next time somebody who needs work offers to shovel, you give them the job!"

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Trudging down Skillman

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Don't Walk

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Walk

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A Christmas Eve run to Dyker Heights, Brooklyn

When I was a kid in Aurora, IL, my grandparents lived on Lehnertz Avenue in a neighborhood called Pigeon Hill. Every year at Christmas, since 1951, the neighborhood puts on a Christmas display. One one side of the street, every house has cut outs of shepherds and sheep, on the other (my grandparents') side, "books" telling the nativity story. It all leads up to a crèche of dubious constitutionality in the public park at the end of the street. Buy a house on Lehnertz and you inherit the books or the shepherds in the garage or the basement; they've been using the same displays since the early 60s.

Here in New York, the local Christmas lights neighborhood is Dyker Heights. It's not really a community effort. Instead, it's a handful of families trying to out-Clark-Griswold each other.

Church-and-state quibbles aside, I prefer Lehnertz Ave.

This run was about 12 miles, and crossed through Kensington, Boro Park, and (I think) Bay Ridge.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Hogswatch.

In front of a hot pot restaurant on Fort Hamilton Parkway

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In Dyker Heights. No holiday display—but my what a classy menagerie!

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I find this a little scary...

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In front of a church in Kensington

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Staten Island Half Marathon

I ran it in respectable (for me) 2:05. I took only a few pictures because, well, it was a race and I thought I might have a shot at my first sub-two. Also the sun was low and bright, which made it hard to get good shots. But it's a terrific course—it winds along the Staten Island waterfront, so it has a lot of visual variety, which makes for a much easier run. Plus... free boat ride!

This was my first-ever run in the borough of Republicans and Wu-Tang. I look forward to coming back for a more leisurely look around and better pictures.

Runners board the ferry

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Getting ready for the race

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Tugboats

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Near the start. Much of the course is industrial waterfront like this.

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At mile 1 in St. George

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Staten Island Rail tracks

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Heading back, with a view of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge

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After the finish, rewarded with a great view of the city

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The minor league SI Yankees park

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Walking back to the ferry, cheering on some tough runners

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Ferry terminal

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Last look back

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Sorry, but can't resist this... SI's biggest pop cultural moment?

Woke up, it was an O.C. morning

A gloomy run from the hotel by the freeway.

Vinegar Hill and DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass)

Shots from a short 3.5-miler to the little remnants of Vinegar Hill by the Brooklyn Navy Yard. 

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Brick road in Brooklyn

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Prayer flags

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Married

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