Nike had its 4-mile NYC summer evening run yesterday.  The run was in celebration of the one year anniversary of the Nike Running store that opened in Flatiron. And it also kicked off the summer running program Nike sponsors. The run started at the Nike Town store on 57^th Street off of Madison Avenue.  Participants lined up at Nike Town to register for the run, which was gratis as were the really cool T-shirts Nike provided with “We Run NYC 2013” printed on the front. 

The number of participants well surpassed Nike’s  expectations; they only had 4 iPads on hand for participant registration, and they ran out of T-shirts.  But they handled the over-subscription of runners gracefully and started the evening on schedule!

At 6.30 p.m. the runners (aka participants) departed Nike Town and headed North up to Central Park entering at the  59^th Street East entrance.  They jogged up to 65^th Street where they stopped for 20 minutes to stretch; the stretch session was led by a Nike trainer.  Somewhere on the order  of 200 runners wearing “We Run NYC 2013” T’s were  stretching and planking and jump jacking and doing all kinds of pre-run moves.  

Soon after the stretching session Pacers lined runners up in Pace-groups and the runners took off.  But before they took off, they were encouraged to put a hand over head and on the count of three do the Nike 'swoosh’ sound, cheer, or as you want to call it!  And then the several hundred runners were off ‘running NYC’.

From 65^th Street in Central Park they jogged east to 72^nd Street West across the Park turning back down through the Park exiting where they entered on 65^th Street and Fifth Avenue.  From there the runners jogged down Fifth Avenue to the Flatiron Store on Fifth Avenue and 20^th Street.  Now for anyone who has jogged in NYC, or for that matter ever strolled the streets of NYC, they have no doubt noticed prevalent crowds.  Well last evening was no different. Hundreds of pedestrians walking the streets of Fifth Avenue were out and about strolling and shopping and just enjoying a summer evening.  And in fact the pedestrians were very gracious to the runners as the runners jogged down the Avenue.  The pedestrians cheered them on, offered tons of high-fives’ and some in fact even chanted the Nike swoosh cheer! 

After some undisclosed amount of time the runners arrived at the Flatiron store (as it is known by Nike staff).  Aka the Nike Running Store had a DJ on hand playing dance music, store staff distributed water and PBRs which flowed, and a local burger truck cook flipped burgers for a hungry crowd from his burger truck parked outside the store.  All organized and gratis of Nike.

On Wednesday morning EndorphinGirl^™’s daughter called her to invite her to the Nike run.  While EndorphinGirl^™ was at first a bit skeptical to do an evening run in the summer especially because she had not been running too much since the half marathon, and given the run was partially in hilly Central Park.  [She has limited hilly running experience!]  Her skepticism waned quickly because it was yet another opportunity for her to run with EndorphinDaughter and for EndorphinDaugher's favorite store Nike! They ran together the entire way and had an endorphin-filled evening!  Swoosh!

Today’s blog imagine is one of EndophinDaughter – she sure does 'Run NYC' indeed, indeed!

Until next time guest comments always welcome in guestbook and keep on endorphin.

EndorphinGirl^™.