After five straight weeks on the road, I completed two weeks in a row at home. That’s two weeks of sleeping in my own bed, cooking my own meals, commuting to an office, riding the New York subway, and trying to build a routine.
I was initially a bit sour about being home, particularly for the second week, but now that it’s happened, I’m very grateful. It validated my move and reminded me why I chose New York as my new home. The city is filled with so much opportunity, but you need to be there to experience everything it’s got to offer. What a brilliant insight, right?
I feel like I packed two months of living into those two weeks. This made for a somewhat exhausting stretch but made me feel like I belonged to some communities and forced me to get involved.
I attended three different running meetups. Joining a running club has been a goal of mine since moving south of the border but I hadn’t actually made the leap until last week. Like everything in New York, there is an overwhelming number of running groups to choose from. Serious and fast, chill and slow, race-focused, beer-focused and everything in between.
On my first Saturday home I joined the Reservoir Dogs Running Club as part of my weekend long run. Their name stems from the fact they meet at the south pump house of the reservoir in Central Park. They were a fairly chill group with some weird people, but there was a group of three other young people (I know I’m not that young) who I ran and chatted with which made the six mile loop very fun. I joined them again this past weekend and feel like they’re a good group that I’d be happy to run with anytime.
On Wednesday a buddy from the office invited me to another running club called “Run and Chug” – right up my alley. This group meets Wednesday evenings at a different bar each week, all over the city. They run 4-5 miles, then end back at the bar for happy hour specials. The group is amazing. Basically all young people, almost all of whom are more focused on the social aspect than the running, and as a result, the conversation and beers were flowing perfectly at the bar afterwards. About 50-60 people showed up which I was shocked by, and again we met some pretty cool cats! Naturally, everyone is a transient to NYC so it’s always interesting to meet people, hear their stories, and what brought them to Manhattan.
I’m rarely home on Wednesdays but I’ll certainly be back to run and chug next time I’m in NYC for hump day.
Other than that, I caught up with some friends, popped over to Brooklyn, ran lots of miles, went to the Monday Night Football game (Patriots crushed the Jets 33-0) in New Jersey, finished building my dresser, went on a couple dates, and cooked some epic meals.
While I still feel like my life is a gong show and I don’t do any normal “adult” things, I’m enjoying the mixture of working hard and getting a bit more comfortable in my role, setting up my apartment, running around the city training for the marathon, and jumping on random excursions with cool people whenever I’m invited.
Thanks for reading,
Mike