Saturday last week was the NYC Shorewalker’s Great Saunter, a walk around the entire perimeter of Manhattan, advertised as 32mi total.
All the training walks in SF with Alex, and of course, last year’s top-to-bottom Manhattan walk with Davida, were preparation and inspiration for this walk. Alex and Davida and I all did the walk together, and I’m really grateful for both of them, it was such a fun day.
Back in 2019, I did the Manhattan 20 Bridges swim, which is similar: another circumnavigation of Manhattan, but in the water. Every few miles on this walk, and especially around the East River, Alex teased me with “I can’t believe you were in this water.”
We were blessed with amazing clear weather, that was neither too hot nor too cold. We packed bagels, knock-off Uncrustables from Trader Joe’s, Advil, sunscreen and extra socks.
Photos
We started at 7am at the bottom of Manhattan, at the Vietnam Veterans memorial plaza. We pinned on number bibs, picked up our hats and got moving. I started with a roll of Kodak 200 Gold.
Firt shot off the roll of Davida and Alex at the plaza
Staten Island ferry
Statue of Liberty in the distance
We peeled off the official route for a quick stop at Hungry Llama coffee for drinks and treats.
Hungry Llama
Many of Alex’s friends in New York joined us for parts of the walk. On the west side, Sonal and Julia met up with us around Chelsea.
Alex with Sonal and Julia
Hip-shot of one of the event photographers
An eastern redbud blooming
Julia, Alex, and Davida
As expected, first part of the walk up the west side was a breeze. There’s paths and a parkway up the entire side. Some of it was a little narrower, but it was contiguous. There was one slight hill to walk up, Alex and I laughed it off after preparing in much steeper terrain in SF.
Under the Henry Hudson bridge at the tippity top of the island
Stopping for lunch in Inwood
Inwood was our only real sitdown stop, for lunch. The Great Saunter folks provided prepacked drinks and snacks which were nice, and luckily we had the additional snacks we provided to augment those.
Public school on the east side
The upper upper east side was all new to me. This was also the part of the walk where we were mostly unshaded so it was hotter and felt more draining.
Some sort of residential building across the East River in Queens
Washington and Hamilton bridges
I’m not sure if it’s universal, but for all my swim friends at least, we switch to paddling backstroke under bridges. So for the sake of “tradition” Alex and I took backstroke selfies (hands in the air) under all the bridges we crossed under.
Empty public pool
The upper upper east side also had the most amount of walking through the city, waiting at lights and stuff. The goal of the Shorewalkers is to expand shorefront access which would eventually minimze segments like these.
Charming, tree-lined streets of brownstones are not just limited to lower Manhattan! Harlem had some great ones as well.
While we were in Harlem, I switched to my second roll, Portra 400.
First shot off the second roll
Alex’s friend Ben joined us on the East side.
Alex and Ben
Alex’s other friend Olivia joined us too.
Alex and Olivia
By the time we got to the Esplanade around 86th street or so, we were joined by even more of Alex’s friends and her parents. It was great having additional moral support on this part of the walk.
The whole group
The lower east side also had a section where we crossed back over the freeway into the city for a bit.
These Messiah stickers were on lights all over the city
Roosevelt Island tram
Downtown Brooklyn in the background
The middle-lower part of this walk had some newer-looking parks, which were well-done as far as I could tell.
Sun starting to set
Right around this section of the east side, I think morale in our group dropped a bit because we could tell the sun was begeinning to set. I started to realize we’d definitely finish in the dark. While my watch reported mileage somewhere around 31 miles, and supposedly the course was 32 miles, I told our group I was going to estimate 34 miles total because I knew we had a lot left and needed to set expecations appropriately.
Our last two bridges, the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges
After the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges, I hustled. I knew we were close, and we were going to keep losing daylight.
The sun set around 7:45pm or so, it started to actually get dark just as we were approaching the finish line. I had us took one last round of photos, taking advantage of bright lights from a food cart parked near the course.
Ben took this one of us
Finally, we crossed the finish line. A large group of volunteers was there for us, handing out certificates and taking photos. Once we stopped, it was clear how tired we were.
Alex on the phone with her mom, confirming we were finished and alive
Fraunces Tavern
There was an “afterparty” at the Fraunces Tavern but they seemed a little too small and formal to handle the crowd, so we opted to go elsewhere. I had a hankering for another michenada (NA michelada) so I dragged Alex and Ben to Jajaja Mexican on the lower east side.
Path
This was easily the longest walk I’ve done. My watch clocked 12hr56min total time with 11hr07min moving time, reporting 73,738 steps and a final distance of 33.44mi.
We went clockwise, which was the opposite of my swim. The west side, with its contiguous greenway was really easy to walk along. The east side had a lot of really nice parks, but we did need to walk in to the city for a few parts.
The Shorewalkers had snack and drink stations all around the island, which was great because we could pack lighter than we would have. Bathroom coverage was okay but there were a few times things got urgent.
Similar to other long walks, I got a few small blisters, but nothing terrible. My legs were sore the next day, but overall, recovery wasn’t too bad! I would definitely do this walk again.
