Illinoistocht

I was recently in New York and got to skate Central Park.  While the city has done a great job adding bike paths along the Hudson and the East River that (mostly) allow you to skate the perimeter of Manhattan, the frequent road crossings and sometimes good and sometimes choppy pavement (see the descriptions on this link) make for a laborious circumnavigation.  It’s fairly easy to skate from Battery Park to the GWB, but it’s a little slow.  By contrast, because Central Park is blocked off to vehicular traffic in the evenings (and in the last few years, during the mid-day as well), it makes for a great skate.  I was happy to relive memories of living in the area and skating (and running in the winter months) the park with its rolling hills and famous scenery and thousands of runners, skaters, and bikers.  One thing I noticed was that there were a lot more cyclists and a lot less inline skaters than when I lived there a decade ago   I went on a Tuesday night thinking I’d see the Empire Speed Skate team but they’ve switched to Mon / Wed from their Tuesday night skate.  The other cool place to skate in NY is Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which will host the 2009 NYC [inline] Skate Marathon and 100km. .