Today, I filmed a video for the web site turnhere.com, a site that specializes in short, Internet videos hosted by regular people who take the viewer on a tour of their neighborhood. I decided it would be pretty cool to do a tour of Central Park from the perspective of a runner, myself, while I am actually jogging around the loop. So I got into my running gear, slung my camera over my shoulder and headed down to Columbus Circle to meet my friend Dave who would be filming, where we found a rickshaw driver. The first guy I approached was really cool. Peter is an avid bicyclist and also does film and writes on the side, so he was really digging our video. Normally a regular tour is about 45 minutes and costs $40 for two people. We figured it would take us about an hour, so he quoted $50.

One of my main concerns was if he could peddle fast enough to keep up with me. I'm not that fast, but every time I'm running around Central Park I seem to fly past the rickshaw drivers and the worse in carriages. This wasn't a problem at all for Peter.

So I basically went for a 4 mile jog around the park, talking on camera about various landmarks and sites around the park that you can see while jogging on the loop. I also spent a fair amount of time talking about my interest in running, how I got started, and some of my more interesting observations. Peter was extremely helpful and filled in a lot of the gaps that I missed, such as the history of certain landmarks and other details that he, as a real tour guide, knew quite well. Other than that, we stopped every now and then so that Dave could get some footage of whatever it was I was talking about. By the end, I think we got some really great footage and I gave Peter 60 bucks for helping us out so much.

It was a very cool idea and I don't think too many people have tried this. I haven't actually seen much of the footage yet, since I handed it all to Dave as he is editing the piece. But I have a feeling it's pretty funny, since I am hilarious. And what's more interesting than watching me run for an hour and talk about random shit.

When the piece is finished and online, I will include a link. But until then you'll just have to wait and imagine the awesomeness of this video.