The Greatest Saunter. 32 Miles Around Manhattan.
Mostly notes on food & bathrooms.
I walked around the perimeter of Manhattan Saturday along with a few friends, friends of friends, and the thousands of registrants for New York’s annual, first-Saturday-in May, Great Saunter.
I’ve done this in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2024, and now 2025 (six times). This was the Greatest of them. The saunter is about 32 miles (yesterday my watch read 33), which is truly a long time to be on your feet regardless of whether you are moving fast or slow.
The beauty of the event is threefold.
One is that walking with friends is a great way to catch up. When we do this, we always organize a group (maybe you next year?) and send out this guide well ahead to cover logistics, training, and what to expect.
Two is that the best way to learn a city is on foot. For example, for most people (certainly including myself when I moved here) the most northern feature of Manhattan that any of us could name is Harlem. Well, Harlem is actually only the middle of Manhattan, starting at 110th street. Manhattan keeps going and going until it finally ends in 218th street in Inwood Park. You don’t really grasp the size of New York until you take this kind of trip where you find out in exhausting fashion how vast the city is.
Three is that the Saunter is a physical accomplishment that you will feel proud of. The people I was with yesterday had a celebration at the Marathon mark, 26.2 miles, and I had to bite my tongue to not tell them that the real accomplishment was going to be the next six miles.
The defining characteristic of each of my saunters is that the last six miles have been grueling. Yesterday we started the day at 7:15am and finished at 9:42pm. It was sunny and above 80 degrees. I think 14+ hours sitting on a park bench in that weather would have been a lot. Sure, the Saunter is just walking, but it is a ton of walking, and all of the paths are paved with (my opinion) something harder than normal concrete.
So every year the last six miles hit in a couple of ways. You see a bridge in the distance and your mind wants to think it’s the Brooklyn Bridge near the end (in part because that’s one of the only bridges that you can name). But no, it’s just the Queensboro and there’s still the Williamsburg after that and even then you won’t even be in view of the Brooklyn Bridge. It gets dark. The crowds of other Saunterers thin out and you start to wonder if you are bringing up the rear. You bring up Google Maps to see your distance to go — but the direct route it shows is a mile short of the route the Saunter takes you. But mostly you are just really, really tired. And you almost certainly have blisters.
But it’s just walking and so no matter how grim the walk is, you press forward and finish. As a result, it’s these last six miles that gives you a real sense of pride of accomplishment.
Here’s the photo we took to celebrate having completed a marathon, the sun still out, somewhat unaware of how hard the next few miles would be.
For me, this year I was just tired. The bones of my feet hurt and so did my hips. But my back felt good and my legs kept moving and I was able to keep talking to my friends. That’s the best case scenario. It’s more normal to go quiet and that’s what happened last year when I told my two final compatriots: “I’m going to stop talking, please don’t talk to me or even look at me.”
Ok, I’m going to move onto my nutrition and bathroom notes now.
I used the same training I use every year which is to work up to ten+ mile walks until those walks seem easy. My last training walk was ten miles at 17:10 pace which is much faster than the Saunter goes. These walks are also one of the joys of the Saunter because they are all upside: I’m outside, either chatting with Sarah or listening to music, I see the world on foot, it’s not grueling.
Last year I struggled with nutrition at the end of the Saunter and felt like I bonked by running out of glycogen on top of the standard physical exhaustion.
Normally Sarah cooks food to share and this food is often high protein or high fat, things like frittata. But Sarah had to bow out at the last minute and we were away from home until late Thursday, in calls all day Friday, and then hosted friends for dinner Friday night. That meant that my entire nutrition strategy was based on the 7/11 that was open at 11pm Friday and the pharmacies & bodegas that are on the second half of the route.
This year’s strategy was low protein and low fat because the bathroom sitch on the Saunter is not great and one of my other nutrition goals is not to have significant bathroom needs. (Example: the bathroom in the park on 145th street is a single stall that two people share simultaneously because it contains both a sit-down toilet and the urinal)
But mostly I just felt this year like my body needed more liquids and more simple carbs and that that only needed to be balanced out with electrolytes.
For the first half, walking up the west side along the Hudson river, I need to remember that there is no food for sale. But there are plenty of bathrooms and water fountains. The best bathroom is at Chelsea Piers which is around 8:45am on the walk. For the first half, I consumed (remember, this is the 7/11 nutrition strategy!):
- two Starbucks doubleshot energy drinks (vanilla), 15oz each.
- two 28 oz bottles of water plus a long drink at a fountain.
- two snickers bars
- one half of a bag of Fritos. Perplexity was very dismissive of this as an electrolyte replacement because of the lack of potassium and magnesium. But the sodium was good and electrolytes weren’t a problem for me (for example, I haven’t had any cramping).
- a few salted cashews, but I was trusting my body and my body didn’t want any of these.
The second half of the trip has fewer bathrooms and water fountains but many more bodegas and CVS/Duane Reade options. Someone in our group didn’t know what a bodega was so the New Yorkers were excited to explain: a corner store with a deli and a cat to keep the rats away. Fair explanation?
The second half is defined as after Inwood Park. Generally people refer to the park as “lunch” and sit down even if they aren’t really having a big meal. This is the point where you start walking east and then south along the East River. My opinion of the East River is entirely set by a Seinfeld episode about how dirty it is. Here’s what I consumed:
- A 28oz bottle of Gatorade purchased from a bodega that was a block off the main path. Next year I think I would like to consume one more of these earlier in the day just to be safe.
- Two more jugs of water, probably about 28oz again.
- A 12oz Dr. Pepper from a Duane Reade.
- A 12oz Mountain Dew. People overestimate the diuretic impact of caffeine and clearly all these caffeinated drinks (4 if you are counting) were fine. I didn’t feel remotely dehydrated even though it was a warm and sunny day.
- One protein bar.
- The other half of my Fritos.
The bathroom sitch on this half is that the lunch spot has lines that are way too long (even if it is flooded) but the next bathroom stop (a park at 145th) is pretty far away. I think it’s worth it though to just hustle, keep lunch short, and get to that bathroom. Later, I think of the bathroom at Gracie Mansion as good, but I didn’t need it this year. There’s one more that we got to after dark that was still open — good to know about.
For shoes, I did most of my training in HOKA Bondis. These felt springy and fun to walk in. I honestly think they are a big reason so many of my training walks were so fast. But I worried that they wouldn’t hold up on a longer walk and so I switched to the HOKA Kawana for the last few training walks and think I will stick with these next year. The deciding factor is that I finished the Saunter with zero blisters — that’s basically unheard of.
For friends who want to join mid-way, I usually say my policy is not to coordinate with meeting along the course. I just know I’m not good at keeping tabs on my phone or estimating when we will be at a particular spot. But I also break this rule all the time because sometimes this is a rare chance to see someone. So this year I did a lot more texting people my location and that worked fine. I think I’ll go with that next year.
I spent most of my first Saunter considering a burger and shake as a reward at the end. But I’ve lately found that I’m not that hungry afterward and really just want a shower and bed. That was true this year. I showered, drank some water, had some Advil, and then crashed into bed/unconsciousness. So I think I should plan for that, followed by a nice brunch the next day. Note: Henry’s Public had their outdoor seating up already and so we did have a nice brunch of me, Sarah and our dog, Eloise.
TLDR; for next year: Kawana shoes worked for me, more liquid calories, a little more Gatorade, share my location aggressively, recruit more people to join, fantasize about a luxurious brunch the next day.
I let other people take the pictures so I don’t have a lot of originals to share.
