Tour of my past, or: The Brooklyn Half-Marathon.

My great-grandfather helped build the Wonder Wheel in Coney Island. So when the the race started, and the first half-mile took us right by it, I felt a little twinge of sadness... I miss my family, in spite of everything. We ran down the boardwalk, turned around, and came back up past the Wonder Wheel, turned left at the Cycone, and merged onto Ocean Parkway.Directly past where my Grandmother used to live. I had a really fast, crazy, rush of images as I looked up at her building. I feel like being a teetotaler for the last one-and-a-half years has done good things for my memory.

The last five miles took place in Prospect Park, where I ran past the fields I used to go to every Saturday and Sunday. Early. When dogs are allowed off lead. I saw people out with their animals, and I was happy for them. That was always a highlight of my week.

It was a neat experience. I woke up at 4:30, drove to Prospect Park, took the F train to Coney Island (befriending a nice guy named Igor, who is 38, but has a 19 year old son in college), and got there plenty early to check my stuff onto the baggage bus.

I managed to shave seven minutes off of my previous best finish, too... the unofficial results have me doing 8:12/mile for 13.1 miles. I'll get the official results tonight.