A crew from Central Park Running Club is on a mission to run the perimeter of all 5 boroughs. Even though the weather forecast was warning about a "heat dome", we decided not to reschedule our run date. Instead, we went out and faced the 94 degree weather head on. We started at 5 am from the Staten Island Ferry, and had 1 bike supporter from the beginning. Two runners also joined for just the first half of the Perimeter run.
Everything went well in the beginning, and we split into a faster and a slower pace group naturally for about the first 12 miles. Desperate for a bathroom, we found one at the BP which appears to be open all hours. Around Mile 19, additional car support came out to save us with a cooler of water, Coca-Cola, Gatorade, muffins and cookies. We were still relatively strong at this point, but the frequent car support would become critical as the day went on. The early morning eventually became very hot and humid, and definitely drained my energy quickly. Around Mile 25, we took a wrong turn off a trail and ended up walking along the beach, which was beautiful, but not easily runnable. Once we go out, we continued running until Mile 27 when we hit more trail that was fairly overgrown and difficult to get through. Here, we decided it was safer to go on the road for a little bit rather than continue on the trail, which would've cut down on some distance. There were some other areas where we opted for the road instead of beach, which also could have cut down on distance, but not necessarily difficulty. Around here, two more bike support friends joined us to help keep us both motivated and safe.
By Mile 30, I really began to suffer, and I wasn't sure I was going to make it. Up until this point, I was trying to run the perimeter self-supported, but a lack of bodega/deli stops was beginning to catch up to me, as I was slightly dehydrated and under-fueled. By Mile 35, I thought I would have to DNF soon. I gave up the self-supported idea and accepted cookies and Coca-Cola from our support vehicle, but even then I walked almost all of the next 2 miles until we reached Bite Burger. We stopped here for an extended lunch break to gather ourselves and re-fuel. Two additional friends joined us from here to help us finish.
After a Mini Burger, some more Coca-Cola and a Lemonade, I felt a little refreshed. I was still slower than the main group coming out of our long rest, but at least I could run/walk consistently again. From here on, it's a bit of a blur for me as I just wanted to keep moving. Earlier in the day, we stopped around our support vehicle a little too long each time. In the remaining 15 miles, I tried to stop at the vehicle for no more than 2 minutes--just enough time to chug some water and Gatorade and put some ice on my head--then move on. Even if I was only walking, my goal was to constantly make forward progress.
Eventually around Mile 45, when we reached the Boardwalk, I was walking the majority of the time, but I could walk briskly, and I was confident that we could finish. We took a brief break at Fort Wadsworth just to get some nice pictures of the Verrazzano Bridge, but otherwise kept moving. Around here, my Garmin reported low battery, so I really tried hard to start jogging again. I did not want to lose this 50+ mile run because of a dead Garmin battery. We really picked up the pace from here on, and even though there were multiple times we wanted to slow down, we stuck to a slow jog except for the uphill segments.
When I finally crossed the street to the corner where we began, I was so happy. The first thing I did was take off my shoes and just sit, and it was glorious. As we collected ourselves and silently celebrated (because we were all dead tired), we eventually settled on a quick dinner at Shake Shack before catching a ferry home.
In the end, this was both a great and terrible run at the same time. I think everyone really pushed themselves to their limits, but also learned a lot about ultra running and preparing for the conditions. This run really showed me that I can do difficult and mentally challenging things, but also exposed a lot of weaknesses, including my need to train more in hot conditions. The biggest things I will work on in the future are the following: I would move more quickly through aid stations, just to always keep making forward progress; and I need to find a better solution for keeping tape on my blister hot spots--I had to stop to re-tape on multiple occasions.
A big shoutout to DHash for the inspiration and the original route we used as a template. Additional shoutouts to all of our friends that could not join us but followed and supported the journey virtually. I don't know if I'll ever run this again, but I hope may others will come out and at least try it once.