Bluejake

I've been thinking of skating to Coney Island since the Two and Two skate at the beginning of the month. On paper, the skate is 32 miles round-trip. I figured it would take about three hours, but I didn't count on the exhaustion factor. The trip out took an hour and forty five minutes, and the way back took about two hours. I stopped for about twenty minutes in Coney Island- so the whole expedition took me a little more than four hours. When I was planning the skate, I thought about it as four different parts:

SoHo to Sunset Park: This would normally be a whole skate for me, but today it was just warm up. I tried not to go too fast over the Brooklyn Bridge, but I was worried about time, so I took it at full speed. I decided to take Clinton to Union Street, and then over the Gowanus Bridge to Third Avenue. Skating down Third was fine- there was a bike lane for about ten blocks, and after 16th Street I crossed to the South side. Most of the traffic through Sunset Park is on the BQE, so skating down Third Avenue under the elevated roadway is pretty safe. Occasionally a big truck or Jersey SUV would force me off to the side, but I made it to 69th Street about an hour after I left the apartment.

Sunset Park to Coney Island: Skating along the water on the path beneath the Verrazano Bridge is one of the nicest skates in New York. There are very few people out on the path- some guys fishing, a few people biking or flying kites. When you skate beneath the Bridge, you really get a sense for the neglected majesty of the Verrazano. The gracefulness of the span and the dizzying verticality of the towers makes it one of the most interesting bridges in the city. After the path ended, I followed the support road next to the Belt Parkway until it joined up with Cropsy Avenue. It was about ten blocks until Cropsy crossed the small canal that separates Coney Island from Brooklyn. I skated around the new Cyclones stadium, and thought about buying a cap. After that I skated out on the pier, and then went to get a hot dog and fries at Nathan's. The dog was fighting to get out of my stomach the whole way back to the city.

Coney Island to Park Slope: I decided to take the old Ocean Parkway greenway back to the Slope. It's not as smooth a path as the one that runs along the water, but I was tired and it is a more direct route back to the city. I loved watching the different Jewish neighborhoods blending into one another as I made my way north. At one point this Orthodox guy with a long white beard was riding next to me- on one of those tricked out BMX low-rider bikes. After about an hour I found myself back at Prospect Park, so I took the park path around to Grand Army Plaza. As I skated up the big hill in Prospect Park, I realized that I had reached my physical limit- I was a total wreck, going about 2 miles an hour.

Park Slope to SoHo: After I got out of the park, I picked mostly downhill streets through the Slope and through Gowanus and Downtown back to the Manhattan Bridge. I was in the kind of pain that made me realize I'll not be doing this ride again for awhile. When I finally got back to the apartment, I was totally immobile for at least an hour.

Skating