Can serenity come from suffering?

For that matter, can serenity be found in New York City, specifically, in this case, the Bronx?

Those are the questions I pondered as I ran the back hills of Van Cortlandt Park's famed cross-country trails. I was in the middle of a race put on by the Van Cortlandt Park Track Club, a 5-km run that began with a sprint across the flats and a dash into the hills of New York City's third-largest park, which sprawls for more than 1,000 acres across the northeast corner of the Bronx.