I should have known better but as I was done with the areas close to where I live, things get more challenging. I have this weird rule about running - no driving to the place to run. In other words, I should not drive x miles out to some place just to run around. I guess it has to do with my strong dislike of driving. If I am to complete this run-mapping of Brooklyn nabes, sooner or later I'll have to drive to where I want to run. Until such time, I'll make the most of my travel.
Late in December I ran to Marine Park just to spell "Park". Marine Park is about 5 km from me so spelling the whole "Marine Park" was not possible time-wise. Lately on these runs I have one or two phone apps to track my "writing". At one time I even thought if not for this run-map project, I probably can retire my Garmin GPS watch. The apps work the same way with regards to pause and resume, so I can use them to virtually cut through city blocks to make letters like K and R with their pesky diagonal lines. When they actually work as they are supposed to, that is. On the "Park" run, they didn't. Both Strava and MapMyFitness totally miss the P and then went crazy the rest of the run. Luckily, I did have the trusty Garmin, even though the lack of a rectangular city grid threw me off my course. As shown below, "Pa" is a big disappointment, even to a non-perfectionist like me. The "a" is too far away from its neighbors and "r" looks too much like an "n". I should have done my usual virtual trespassing in making the diagonal lines in "k". I use the picture in the map anyway but deep down I know I will re-run that route to make a better word.
Even though I am a member of the Prospect Park Track Club, I don't go to Prospect Park that much. Living far south almost in Coney Island, it's a bit of a trip for me. But I do go there from time to time and I should take advantage of those trips to finally add Park Slope and neighbors to my map.
On New Year's Day, I volunteered as a backup time-keeper for the Club's Harry Handicap race, held in Prospect Park. After the race, I had some food and was in no shape to run so I did the next best thing to spell out "Slope" - I walked. It was not as interesting as running but for these far-flung places I just have to make the best of my time. Again, MapMyFitness screwed up but Garmin Forerunner again saved the day. I gladly used the picture in the big map although there are many more street blocks I need to capture to make the map truly continuous.
Given the annoying changes Garmin make to its web site, I should hurry up and run more neighborhoods sooner before some changes render my techniques useless. Wish me luck!
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