Nyc lockdown1/4/2023 ![]() ![]() The first, I was speeding towards being pre-diabetic, next stop diabetes. I was barreling towards a health disaster of my own making. I was well on the way to looking like Fatty Arbuckle. #Nyc lockdown tvChocolate biscuits, cola bottles, gummy bears, ice cream, all are great compliments to TV binging. Bending down and tying my shoelaces was a pain in the hole. My new best friends were a double chin and a growing pot belly. When we married, I was about 25 pounds heavier than I should have been. Except there was one niggling thing that bothered me. Worn down from NYC dating, it was a miracle that I found someone at all, especially my beautiful wife to be, unencumbered by baggage. My glory days of running and general fitness were a fast fading memory by the time I got married, mid-life. Convinced running credits earned interest, I was shocked to discover my zero balance. #Nyc lockdown licenseThe advent of episodic television like Game of Thrones, preceded by The Wire, had given license to the idea that it was ok to lay yourself out on your couch and veg. What counted for exercise was banging my drums and hauling my gear from gig to gig when I played in my band. ![]() It was 1985 and we had just won the silver medal in the All Ireland Cross Country championships.Ī quarter of a century later, I was happily living off the running credits that I had banked in my youth. I considered myself lucky, being even on this team, they deserved their place in school history. Mercifully, the odd smattering of support along the sidelines helped keep my spirits up and willed me on to the finish line. In that moment, I did not feel like I had been training all year for this. The snot was ripping from my nose and a bare singlet did nothing to help mask the cold. The race had started thirty minutes earlier and already I was covered in mud due to the previous day’s rain showers. It was a windy grey dreary afternoon on Dublin’s St Benildus school campus. My adventures in running actually started off on a positive note. ![]() It will keep running, and, for that matter, so will I. My hometown is locked down, but not broken. For the past month, I’ve run the abandoned streets of America’s largest city, witnessing eerie desolation and haunting beauty. * An abbreviated version of this story first appeared in the New York Daily NewsĮver wondered what a night in the museum would be like? Or how it would feel to live surrounded by lifeless landmark relics, wander your own version of the “ I am Legend” movie, minus the zombies? Suddenly, such flights of fancy don’t seem so remote. ![]()
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