Island Run

On Presidents’ Day weekend I fittingly met up with friends at Roosevelt Island, which even many long-time New York City residents have not been to. Technically part of Manhattan, it’s a skinny island to the east of the Upper West Side / Midtown East neighborhoods. To go by public transportation, you can take the subway, ferry, or the most unique way, the tram, a cable car that runs on a line high above the East River and makes you feel like you are floating in air.

You can also drive there, which I did once during the height of the pandemic, to pick up a box from a friend who was moving back to her country temporarily and needed a place to store some of her stuff. I was confused that the GPS directed me to go east into Queens and then drive back west to cross a bridge to Roosevelt Island. At the time I thought maybe it was because the bridge between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island was one way. However, according to Wikipedia the Roosevelt Island Bridge is rarely opened because that side of the river is where boats pass.

This most recent time, I took the tram, like everybody else and their mother because the subway was closed for weekend construction. I was headed to the island for a purely leisure activity: jogging with a close friend. I never thought I would jog voluntarily, but it is a pandemic hobby, i.e. one of the hobbies I cultivated during the pandemic. My friend, on the other hand, has been running for years and has been encouraging of my venture into this sport. We had not run together before save for an actual race last year (why not start with a bang?), and “together” is used loosely since she soon disappeared from view during that event. I was looking forward to seeing if I could keep up with her or at least stretch toward my potential, which I know I have not reached.

We chatted as we jogged, which I think is unusual for both of us. It made it fun… and challenging.

Roosevelt Island is a beautiful place to run around. And it feels like a village, a strange thing to say about Manhattan. There are high-rises, but there is also only one of everything. One main street (Main Street), one supermarket, one library… you get the idea.

After maybe a mile, I said I would walk a bit but that my friend could go ahead. She suggested we could walk in the park, which we were approaching. Although we weren’t purposely observing Presidents’ Day, we happened to be entering Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park. (I guess this was more coincidental for me since she frequents the park.)

After a look at the view, we continued on our way, making sure to take a peek at the cat sanctuary, one of the island’s quirks that I had first visited with a friend from Massachusetts who had arrived with a list of off-the-beaten path sites to see in NYC.

After another stretch of jogging, I opted to finish up but encouraged my friend to keep going if she wanted. While she continued running, I took my time walking and stopped along the river in the sun, then headed to our agreed upon meeting point to wait in the shade.

We reunited. After a break at the apartment she and her husband share, the three of us went out to get nooooodles. Yes, noooooodles.

I was delighted to see this rabbit decoration on the door and wondered where the restaurant had gotten it—a couple of weeks earlier, I had looked around Chinatown and bought some cute rabbit decorations for Lunar New Year but hadn’t seen designs like this one. Maybe they had other sources. The island is full of sights you won’t see anywhere else.