I grew up on Bedford Ave.

In Sheepshead Bay.  The Southern end of Bedford Ave.  Bedford happens to be the longest street in Brooklyn.

When I was 14, 34 years ago there was a blackout in NYC.  I was crossing the street when the lights went out.  I remember it got dark and I saw the darkness spread to the North.

In my insulated world we did not know till a day later that over in the middle of Bedford Ave in Bedford Stuyvesant there was looting,   From Wikepedia "In 1977, a power outage occurred throughout all of New York City due to a power failure at the Con Edison Plant. Bedford-Stuyvesant and neighboring Bushwick were two of the worst hit areas. Thirty-five blocks of Broadway, the street dividing the two communities, were affected, with 134 stores looted, 45 of which were set ablaze."

This morning I ran the Bedford Stuyvesant (30th) Annual 10K Community Run.


I was so happy to run this race.  It has been on my bucket list for years. It usually conflicts with the Staten Island Half and always conflicts with NYC Marathon training.  But I ran 20 miles on Friday and I was ready to give my legs a chance to see what they can do in 6.2 miles. 


I figured I would take about an hour to run the race. However, the pain just went buy-buy after about half a mile and I had a great run on a super flat shady course. I finished in a good time of 54:44.


But I did not just have a good time on the clock.  I had a good time.  It was good to see the restored Bed-Sty.  Bed-Sty is not gonna let itself get burned down again.  I ran by so many nice blocks, blocks that look so much like my own neighborhood.  Many of the stoops had cheering families.  When they cheered for me, I gave them a cheer back;  I told them they had a nice block.