March 12th – A 5K Race in Riverside Park followed by a Run to the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden

n Sunday the 12th I did a "Double". It was a frigid cold day (single digit wind-chills) compounded by the change to Daylight Saving Time (which means I had to wake up at what the day before would have been 5:30 AM). But the pictures above show that it was a very good, frigid cold day.

The Frozen Penguin 5K in Riverside Park

Let's start with the 5K. NYCRuns called this race the "Frozen Penguin 5K". Yes, they like to give funny names to their races. But this was not funny. I think it was the coldest day of the winter (so far) and the temperatures during the race were between 19° and 21°. The hardest part was not running the race, but getting ready before the start and getting out of there after the finish. When I took off my wind-breaker pants, I could barely untie and then retie my running shoes. But I wanted to do better in the race than I had about a month ago in the same place (see ) when I was underdressed before the race (="freezing") but considerably overdressed during the race. This time my under/over dressing was about right. But that means when I took off my two outer layers just before the start and got into the cold crowd waiting for the horn — with everyone jumping up and down freezing — it was pretty bad.

But I did warm up in about a mile and I was determined to hold my pace and break 30 minutes. I felt I was better prepared, fitness-wise (I had been doing weekly tempo runs) and I certainly was dressed about right. The route was the same and when I turned and ran the last 50 yards or so to the finish line I could see the clock just broke 30 minutes before I crossed the line (note the clock in the finish line photo above). I was hoping I had still met my goal due to the usual start delay, but didn't find out for sure till I got home late in the afternoon and checked my results. YES! My finish time was 30 minutes flat and that was good enough for me. And what is more I was the first in the 70+ age group (out of 3) by a wide margin.

So, I went home, took a shower and a nap, right? WRONG!

I went up to Broadway and into the 110th Street #1 train station. I was heading up to Highbridge Park at 155th Street to meet my friend Susan. We were planning to run to the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden via the Old Croton Aqueduct (aka the "OCA") through Highbridge Park, then over the High Bridge to the Bronx and thence to the Orchid Show.

One problem! In my excitement after doing a good 5K under adverse conditions and looking forward to a nice easy recovery run to a great destination, I had gotten into the downtown side of the subway station. Duh! Well 2 minutes getting across Broadway through moving traffic and another subway toll on my Metro Card later, I was in the right spot and in about 5 minutes the train came (the uptown train! hurrah!) and 20 minutes later I got out at Broadway and 157th, and walked the several blocks to 155th and St. Nicholas.

The plan was that Susan would run some miles in Central Park and then up along St. Nicholas and meet me at the Dunkin Donuts at the corner of 155th Street, right by the entrance to the OCA in Highbridge Park. We figured the Dunkin Donuts would be warm and have a bathroom and we could get some hot coffee and a bite to eat should we so desire. Well I was a couple of minutes early so I got a coffee and was sipping it when in walks Susan, EXACTLY at 10:30 and ZERO minutes late!! (She told me "Put that in").

But to her great credit, she had not run just "some" mile in Central Park, she had run down to Columbus Circle and joined the Flyers Little Red Lighthouse LTR (which runs along the Hudson River bike path from 72nd St. to the LRL under the GWB — confused by all the acronyms? So Google them already). She broke from the group at 155th Street and made her way to our rendezvous with surgical precision and split second timing!

The OCA not only goes through Highbridge Park and over High Bridge (yes, one word for the park two for the bridge) but goes up though the Bronx through the streets to Van Cortlandt Park and thence through various Westchester towns all the way to Croton. We would just follow it about a mile to the Kingsbridge Armory (yes another bridge, but not here), then along Kingsbridge Road to Webster Avenue (with a little bit on 194th) to Bedford Park Boulevard, which is just across the Metro North tracks from the Botanical Garden. For a more detailed description of our route, check out blog post from last year which has lots of photos and a couple of slideshows of a similar run I did with my friend Terry.

But we both did tough runs in frigid cold weather and even though we had just done a nice recovery run, we were HUNGRY. And the Botanical Garden only sells fancy food at high prices in their restaurant so we popped into the Webster Café, which sells good unfancy food at low prices. We loved this place. Lots of diversity, big menu and good waitresses.

After a leisurely lunch (the Orchids could wait) we packed up out stuff and headed out the door. The two guys who had been sitting across from us were also leaving. For just about the whole time in the restaurant they had been laughing at just about everything. As we walked out I said to them "We conducted a poll in the Café and you two were selected as the funniest". They laughed and without missing a step one said "Well, we conducted a poll and you two were selected as the healthiest looking". That was a fast comeback in the same good natured spirit, but was actually a nice complement since they figured by our dress and general "look" that we were runners. They asked if we had just run a marathon and, without trying to explain what exactly a marathon is, I said yes I had run about 8 miles getting here and my friend had run over 13. They were impressed and we parted ways, all of us the better for the encounter.

The New York Botanical Garden Orchid Show

I bet you thought I'd never talk about the Orchid Show, which in a way is the most important thing, since it was the destination of the whole day of running (and eating). I think I have been to the Orchid Show every year for many years, often times twice in the same year. Last year I went both on the first day of the show (Feb. 27th with Susan) and the last day (April 16th with Terry). I've also occasionally come by train (the train station is right across the street from the Botanical Garden) with my wife and other non-runners. Simply put, it's one of the most beautiful things you will ever see. I didn't take many photos on this visit but just the few that make up the collage for the title of this post will give you the idea. Certainly, of the two alternating photos at the top of this post, it's by far more pleasing to look at the orchids as compared to me crossing the finish line.

The show is held in a building which is basically a huge green house made up of numerous interconnected galleries (the ). The galeries form a circuit which takes between 30 minutes and an hour to negotiate, depending on how much time you want to spend and how crowded it is. On Sunday I would say the crowds were substantial but not insufferable. It was a cold Sunday in March and made an attractive destination for those in the know. I'll in put a small sampling of what we saw on Sunday. You can click on any of these pictures to see the full size photos:

Well all good things must come to an end and we had to watch our time since we were going to return home via Metro North — just 20 minutes to GCT — and the trains run but once an hour on weekends. So we made a quick stop at the flower shop (didn't buy anything), and walked leasurely over to the train station. The train came on time and about 15 minutes later Susan exited at 125th Street to make her way to her subway, and 5 or 10 minutes later I got off at GCT and made my way to my subway.

But one of the most unexpected things happened in a day full of (nice) surprises: as I climbed the stairs at the subway exit near my apartment, a man asked me "How did you like the Orchid Show". With not-a-little surprise, I asked him how he recognized me and he said by the sneakers I was wearing (they were Hokas). And he said I was with a young lady with the same sneakers (sorry, they were Brooks, not Hokas). Well as the song says "It's a small, small world".