Beantown, 5/23/09!! W00T!

today i decided to take a running tour of the city (on this side of the charles) - having not really seen boston since my college days (mid 80's). it was also a good time to test my pavement skillz. the whole run was close to 12 miles. tmail had suggested the park along the charles so the goal was to cross town, hitting the commons, hit the charles, work my way back some way, hit chinatown for some snacks and carry the snacks back to the hotel.

highlights:

• i'm amazed at how clean that part of boston is. really clean. very lovely city.
• after touring the Commons and that other little park alongside it on the other side of Charles Street, I headed hit the stairs at the high end of the park and bounced up Beacon Hill - and ran up and down Mt. Vernon street twice, i was so glad to see a hill. from the hill, noticed what turned out to be the Arthur Fiedler pedestrian bridge across Storrow Drive to the park.
• the esplanade along the charles is fun. i ran from the clamshell at the north end to just about harvard bridge, then back again.
• after heading back into town changed mind and thought of heading down to Fenway, but wasn't sure what that part of town was like. i didn't get that far. i accidently went west on newbury street which was wall-to-wall tourists/shoppers. impossible to run through crowds. i zig-zagged betwen it, commonwealth ave and other lesser streets until i hit the Hynes convention center on boylston and took boylston all the way back to chinatown, etc.
• massive thunderstorms let loose while on boylston. everybody looked for shelter. i had sidewalks to myself... big advantage to wearing light running gear. entire city suddenly smelled like 2-week old unwashed back-country ass.
• while running all around chinatown looking for my favorite bakery in horrific downpour, found it. got four fresh egg-custard pastries, two curried beef pastries, a red-bean moon cake and a nut moon-cake, and a chrysanthemum tea juice-box. thought of g-$$$, but not for too long since streets smelled like old piss.

ran back to hotel. sue is now completely a huge fan of egg-custard pastries.

the route is here: (http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/ma/boston/283124321402523878)
i showed the charles river park run as running up and down Storrow Drive - haven't figured out how to plot a route off-road. the route is rough - i actually ran around in the parks, doing big loops around ponds and fountains. good time. i think the whole run was about 1:45.