Rainy Days, Nipple Chafing, and the Coolest Superfund Site in Brooklyn

Run was originally on 9/26/12. 6.08 miles through Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and Gowanus.

This is the third run since I sprained my ankle, and while I’ve lost some fitness, overall I feel like I’m 90% recovered. Lost 4 weeks and my plans got derailed, but all things considered it could have been much worse. As I am still recovering, I’m taking this opportunity to finish off the neighborhoods closest to my home in Park Slope. My route looks a little strange, like a mouse going back and forth through a maze, but I had to shuffle around the neighborhood to hit the right streets.

Total miles: 6.08

Unique Miles: 1.85

Highlights:

  • The thing I love about running is discovering new things. It’s the best way to explore in a city. I was about ready to head home when I decided to go down 2nd street all the way to the Gowanus Canal. It was the typical Gowanus neighborhood: weeds filling every sidewalk crack, graffiti covering dilapidated warehouses and factories, a few rotting factory cast offs laying mournfully in a abandoned lot — an almost beautiful decay. But at the end of it was the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. That’s right, a club for canoeing in a Superfund site, a smelly stew of industrial waste and sewage runoff.  I talked to a friendly, informative guy named Owen Foote. He mentioned that they have been canoeing in the canal since 1999, and also advocating for a clean up of the canal. I actually want to go out on the canal and explore a bit.

Lowlights:

  • Wow, forget how much a rainy, humid day can chafe the nipples. I’m not quite petrified of it like Andy from the Office, but that is a painful condition. I would have an awareness run for nipple chafing but then it would lead to more chafed nipples.

Route:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5684629

Proof (besides pics):

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/227304161

Roads Not Taken:

6th Street between 2nd avenue and the Gowanus Canal was really just a private parking lot/storage area of NYC tourist buses. I still ran down it anyway as far as I could go. The end of Hoyt around 5th Street was another industrial parking lot.