On 2 Wheels

I'm really not the most athletic person in the world. I consider my everyday travel and excessive walking around the city a form of exercise (to my credit, visiting friends have always complained how much New Yorkers walk daily) and hey, I do work with preschoolers! My rights as a grad student to the campus gym is completely wasted because I have yet to use the facilities at all. Heck, I've only recently discovered where the gym was located! Friends have given up asking me to free yoga tryouts in the park, tennis lessons had gone weary (bruised wrists for a week!) and running laps on a Sunday morning? Forget it.

So it came as no surprise when a few friends invited me to go biking with them on an early Saturday morning.  I refused to wake up. "I've only biked once in the last ten years! I'm nervous around cars, so no no no! Just go!" I mumbled irritably. "Come on! The streets are closed today to bike, so you don't have to worry, it's safe!" After consistent pestering of peer pressure, I grudgingly obliged. And had a lot of fun!


One awesome thing about New York City, they always have fun and free stuff to do. Here's a brief info about the event:

Summer Streets 2011
NYC DOT and its partners are proud to present Summer Streets. This summer, for the fourth year in a row, Summer Streets will temporarily close Park Avenue and connecting streets from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park to motor vehicles and open it up to people on three consecutive Saturdays in August (August 6, 13, & 20).

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/summerstreets/html/home/home.shtml

Park Ave closed for bikers, rollerbladers, skate boarders and joggers.

Looking all 'sporty'! I was too lazy to change into my contacts. My awesome bike was borrowed from a friend who happened to be out-of-town.

I was actually waiting to get my tyres pumped up. They had free bike repair tents as well as first aid stops along the way.

Entering through Grand Central Station...

We biked from uptown 69th street to the Brooklyn Bridge and back again!

And that's how you take good pictures.

Say HI!

Along the way, we stopped by a dance workout session by Crunch gym where passerbys stopped to have fun. Their classes seemed like a lot of fun!

Back view.

Some campaign about shoeless running.

Sunbathing..

Sandpit by the streets.

Professional sandpitters.

Nice PJs.

NYPD and dog.

Biking is a family event!

Nearing Brooklyn bridge, which we didn't go to cause it's gonna be too crowded. I had a 7 hour babysitting gig later that evening so I had to get home early. So, U-turn back uptown!




It was a great experience. I gained about 4 bruises along the calf of my right leg (from getting off the bike clumsily), but even that was all worth it.

I love New York.