Wednesday Night Skate Blog

Sometimes it’s not about distance and speed. In fact, we try to avoid those two things whenever possible. That’s because there are times when you just want to skate off the beaten path and enjoy the leisurely ride. Rolling along side streets, places away from the tourists and landmarks, and quiet neighborhoods is just as much fun as skating over a bunch of bridges.

On October 14th, we did just that, with a twisting and turning route through the downtown areas of Manhattan. Starting from Union Square, we ended up criss-crossing from the Lower East Side to the South Street Seaport. In the process, we visited places such as Greenwich Village, Canal Street, and Thompkins Square Park.

The skaters, who didn’t know where we’d end up next, seemed to enjoy the apparent randomness and feeling of adventure as little-used side streets took us from one area of Manhattan’s nether regions to another. Officially, WNS designates it The Mystery Skate — and the mystery of it all is a big part of the fun.

On October 7th, we combined several “sight-seeing” routes into one. We passed the United Nations, skated up Madison Avenue to 72nd street, went into Central Park and skated the loop, relaxed at the Central Park Bandshell, and then hit Times Square for some group photos and mass admiration. After Times Square, we sailed down to Bleecker, rounded Washington Square Park, and headed back home to Union Square.

Sounds like quite a trip, but in reality it’s no big deal for the awesome skaters of the Wednesday Night Skate.

Our September 30th skate ended up being an intense cardio workout for the group of about 50 skaters. Why? Because it was our first truly chilly night since the start of the season. We had to keep moving to keep warm.

And to top it off, it was time to revisit our famous Three Bridges Route.

We kept all of the rest stops to a minimum, bypassing many of them altogether, and quickly reached the 59th Street Bridge. We sailed over the bridge, waiting only for the slower skaters to reach the other side. Then we kept it moving, on over the Pulaski bridge and to a gas station where we had an extended break to load up on snacks and water.

Finally we headed home over the Williamsburg Bridge, still keeping our swift pace. The group handled it all very well. Apparently, since it was towards the end of the season, everyone was in pretty good skating shape.

We hit the bar to replenish the spent calories and quench our thirst with beer (and in some cases, vodka & tonics). Another great night for WNS.

Well, not really. We would have loved to meet the President. But Obama was long gone by the time our skate started on Wednesday, September 23rd. During the day, President Obama and representatives from all over the world – including Iran’s Ahmadinejad and Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi — gathered at the United Nations.

But even though he and the other world leaders were done with their business at the United Nations, the effects of their visit still lingered on the streets of New York: entire avenues were closed by the NYPD, blocked off even to pedestrian access in some areas. And traffic was, as they say, a bitch.

Thus, it was the job of the Wednesday Night Skate to provide our usual first-class skating experience while avoiding the madness and mayhem created by the aftermath of all that international power descending upon the city.

We started off by going up 8th avenue as far as we could to Penn Station. Then, we skated over to 10th avenue, and skated uptown for quite some time. This kept us parallel to the closed streets of Lexington avenue and the United Nations (and as far as possible away from it) while giving us a great workout.

We skated up 10th avenue all the way to 71st, then turned and skated to Riverside. From there, it was down the West Side Path, taking a break at the Intrepid (and pausing for one of our famous group photos). We continued skating down to the path to Chelsea Piers.

Finally, we left Chelsea Piers and cut across the city to return to Union Square.  A collectively tired group then hit the bar for hard-earned beer and food.