The first event of the BridgeRunners #BridgeTheGap week of activities was an introduction into urban running in their home city with a 5 Mile route which was the first they ever took when forming. This involved following a pied-piper style soundstystem on a push bike, holding traffic and storming the streets running thru red lights, going over the Brooklyn Bridge to Biggie Smalls neighbourhood and back over Williamsburg bridge. What started off in the daylight, ended in nightfall and returning across the river to a lit-up city scape of Manhattan's Lower East Side. We were then treated to local Italian pasta and a potted history of how the area has changed since founder Mike Saes grew up in the community. This was a real first experience for me and one I'll never forget - running in the warm June night thru all the Chinatown lanes I have nostalgic attachments to and then crossing the water, snaking our way along the wooden boarded bridges to a Brooklyn I've never witnessed before. From Hong Kong to Amsterdam we all united in sweating our souls out and have been reborn, brand new for the next day of #crewlove to ensue....................
To kick off (excuse my penchant for a pun) the 10th Anniversary of NYC's BridgeRunners #
BridgeTheGap celebrations, here is a rainbow of NIKE sneakers from the international crews assembled today. I wish we could have all stood in line to make a spectrum, but there's so many of us that would take some organising! I seem to have left out purple today, so I'll snap some in due course and edit them back in .............. ever shade was covered with some people wearing a different shoe from separate pairs to achieve two colours in one hit!
Here I am, back in my 2nd home and beloved Big Apple. This week marks the 10th Anniversary of the first urban running crew forming and to mark the occasion NYC's BridgeRunners have planned a big blow-out "Bridge The Gap". To explain - the movement that began running over the Brooklyn bridge has born an international extended family which connects all the World's capital's separate crews who travel to each city's homes for reunions. This usually involves a weekend break to coincide with a marathon or race but this is a very special 7 day event programme which has attracted runners to fly in from all across the globe. I arrived last night and here are a few snaps from my wanderings including a Kenny Scharf graffiti, Kavat Mask from Papua New Guinea at The Museum Of Primitive Art, and meeting up with some fellow Londoners L-R Troy The Magician, Sami Janjer and Nathaniel Cole.
The Cyclists of RunDemcrew have made an offshoot "BikeDemCrew" and been going on long distance rides the last few weekends in preparation for the Dunwich Dynamo next month. It's become apparent that the mountain bike I've had since I was 12 is not quite up to speed (literally) so I have finally caved in and invested in a proper road bike from Hackney Peddlers. Just in time for the London to Brighton ride that we made on Sunday! It took the best part of the day to scale the many hills that route the course, not to mention the vertical slant of Ditchling Beacon. Fish 'n' Chips and a 99 ice-cream on the beach was a very welcome and joyous celebration at the end of the 54 miles!
