Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011, this day, in which the weather was good like many others days when the weather's good, I decided to walk the Brooklyn Bridge. This has been my main modality of consistent exercise, for the past 5 years. I'm a pretty in-shape kind of guy because of it, by the way. Also, I've been able to increase my general body speed, by constantly challenging myself, to walk even faster, to get across the bridge in a faster time. Not to long ago, I actually managed to walk the entirety of the Brooklyn Bridge in only 20 mins., no joke. But, every once in a while, us fellow New York bridge walkers have a tendency to challenge one another upon our favorite bridges, sometimes out of the thrill to show off how fast we can walk, or simply out of the wanting for healthy competition, either way, we all end up playing the walk-race game, with our fellow bridge-walkers.
But, on this particular Tuesday, as soon as I got on the bridge, and started walking.....this guy, no younger than about mid-40's just blows past me. As I'm looking behind him, I see him & think to myself, "I can't let this old Nigga beat me; I gotta get him!!!" (Now, for all of you who are about to bitch & moan about me using the word "Nigger/Nigga", author's note: he was a White guy. I'm only using it as a general, common generational term, so kill that noise that you're about to make.....i.e. calm ya ass down!!!). So, as soon as I get a chance to catch up and exceed him, I immediately take the chance. He sees me walking faster than him, and he recognizes the challenge. There's no turning back from this point, the race is on.
So, as both of us are going neck-and-neck across the brdige, there's a hell of a lot of traffic, and it's difficult to maneuver at times, with all of the damn tourists, people wanting to stop and take the same exact pictures, on the same exact spot on the bridge that they've taken the last time that they were on the bridge. Then, but of course, there's these mad-dog bikers, who are always complaining about us walkers being in the bike lane, even without being in the actual bike lane. Honestly, if it were up to the bikers, no bridge on Earth would even have walk lanes.
So, we're still at it, me catchin' a lil' 2-foot lead, him coming back and gainin' a ten-foot lead. this lasted a great majority of our walk. Fortunately, I was able to use the crowds of the people on the bridge to my advantage to loose him at certain parts on the bridge, but he was still on my heels, at every single freakin' turn!!! But, things got really interesting, as soon as we got over the divide of the bridge, separating Brooklyn and Manhattan. As soon as we crossed that marker divide.....boom.....he pulled out this immediate burst of speed-walking power. I felt like he was Yoda & I was Luke Skywalker, he straight schooled me, yo!!! But, all this time, I was still thinking to myself, "I gotta win against him!!!". Both of our egos were highly invested into this one-time, random walk-race.
So, as soon as we get close to the second tower of the bridge, the ol' man does a baller move. He daringly cuts across, to the biker's lane. I said to myself, "Did the ol' man really do what I thought he did?!!!" And, lo & behold, he damn sure did. With that move alone, he really caught me off guard, because that one of the most congested parts of the bridge, the parts where the two towers are. People stop, take a whole lot of damn photos, chillax & what not & when you're trying to time yourself, or when you're walk-racing against someone, these lame-os will make you slow down & probably loose to your competition, by just loly-gaggin'.
Now, he's ahead of me by atleast ten feet, and we're about another 5 mins. away from the end of the bridge, this is like 4th-quarter, 2-min. warning action here. If I don't estbalish a solid lead now, I'll never beat him. But, then, ironically in my favor, there was like a jet-stream of people from the opposite side, walking on to the bridge towards us. Now, I see a glimer of hope. I began to gain on him, first 6, then 4, then two feet worth of difference between us.
Then, I see a perfect opening to slip through the crowd and take the permanent lead, which of course I graciously take, within seconds of him taking that lead from me. Now, with the biker & walker lanes so close together & no way to really move out out your lane, or else you'll bump into a jack-ass of a biker, or end up in conflict with a fellow walker, my lead was all but secure. But this ol' man is too good for me to let him catch me slippin', so I used my endurance & youth to consolidate the lead, which really saved me, because trust me, if he were my age, I don't think that there's anyway that I could've beaten him.
So, as we come to the final part of the bridge, I'm very relieved that I wasn't embarrassed, by loosing a walk-race to a man literally old enough to be my father. As soon as we got to the end, I had felt like Usain Bolt, when he won his race, thus setting the world's record as the fastest Human being on record. That's how happy I felt, it was just a great feeling to just win, even though there's no medal or prize money. Most often, when your pride is invested in something, winning is much more than enough.
So, as soon as we stopped at the end of the bridge, we couldn't stop laughing at how much work we put each other through. It was so good to have him as my walking competition. Then we went on our own separate ways. But, that was a very good memory for me, that's why I've decided to write about it. And, honestly, even though I won against him, it's like he still won, because I actually learned from him while we were walking. So, just a warning.....if you're in New York City, and you're walking the Brooklyn Bridge, be careful who you think you can out walk, because I almost lost against an old-timer.
#I'm just sayin'!!!
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