I’ve adjusted the run to avoid going down to Battery Park and then backtracking up the East River shore and I now initially cut across Manhattan straight off the Brooklyn Bridge via the little City Hall park, head towards Ground Zero, over the West Side Highway and reach the Hudson River where things get better.

For a while, as I run south along the fancy waterfront, I could almost be in Vancouver, somewhere on False Creek. Glass towers to the left, yachts to the right, joggers everywhere, a few cafe terraces, the afternoon sun, a sea breeze. Here, the view carries far away over the Hudson, past the Statue of Liberty and into New Jersey.

I then approach Battery Park from the north, round what I have nicknamed Cape Manhattan and join my previous route back up to the Bridge. This works much better for me as I don’t do very well on back-and-forth runs. And either by coincidence or clever planning, I end up with a 10.5K run which is exactly what I am used to running.

Next, I’ll look into local Brooklyn solutions for interval runs and also a longer route to Prospect Park. Thanks to the Forerunner, things are looking up. And the heat won’t last forever. Soon, I’ll have to deal with Montreal frost bites.

But, for now, the highlight of running is the return home…