This past weekend, the brain trust that is my running group agreed to a run over the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey, to enjoy Fort Lee Park and a shady run down to the Hudson’s edge.
This is a run where few runners go, with cyclists speeding by as you head down the hill to a picnic area with bathrooms and a water fountain.
I would highly recommend the bridge run, and in past months I’ve written about how to get to the bridge itself.
So I won’t cover that again here.
In preparation for the New York City Marathon, which is rapidly approaching, we look to this run to humble us, as of course, what goes down must come back up; the hills on the way back from the river’s edge, and back to the George Washington Bridge are as challenging as any in the area.
Of course, this past weekend, the park was CLOSED!
Darned bike race!
So, we took it upon ourselves to think of a Plan B, which, in this case, was conceived at mile 7 of a 15-mile run.
Perhaps not the most brilliant idea in 80 degree heat with 90% humidity, but we decided that instead of turning around, we’d take the path less traveled.
Or, in this case, well-traveled.
Just not by runners.
We decided to run to Hoboken!
It’s quite easy, given that River Road (as you can see in the map) is fairly North-South.
Given the sun was beating down on us from the East, we didn’t run every scenic part of the path along the Hudson itself, but the views of Manhattan were stunning either way.
Fairly quickly you can see the Upper West Side buildings, including the Riverside Church, and all the Riverside Drive cooperatives.
Further down, you will get to view Riverside Boulevard, with the contemporary glass condominiums that have cropped up over the last 15 years, along with the newest addition, One West End.
I felt like the distance of the river really helped me understand what the architects were going for there.
The views get even more interesting as you travel South from there.
First, the Via57 building, the “pyramid” building you may have driven by on the West Side, looks stunning from the West.
Sharp, dazzling, gorgeous.
It looks like a sailboat sweeping across the Hudson- likely what they were going for.
Finally, before we hit our 15-mile mark, we hit upon the mass of construction in the 50’s, 40’s, down to Hudson Yards.
The cityscape will be altered beyond recognition to anyone who has been looking to Manhattan from the West.
But let it not go unsaid that the construction in New Jersey is impressive at Port Imperial, our terminus for our run, and the ferry dock where we left New Jersey and came back to 39th street on the West Side of Manhattan.
There were no fewer than 5 projects underway, and a few complete residential complexes done by well-known developers such as Roseland and Landsea, who are doing a very pretty condominium called the Avora.
In all, while the sidewalks were a touch treacherous- and there was no way to run on the road itself due to speeding cars- AND it was probably as muggy as weather can get before it rains- we had a nice time looking at the city from a different vantage.
We saw plenty of runners who had taken the PATH train to Hoboken and were heading North to the George Washington Bridge- so there are certainly plenty of ways to enjoy this run.
And I hope you will!