More Half Marathon race recap - part one

What a day. What a weekend. What a race! I am experiencing the ultimate runner's high after today's race. But, let me start at the beginning.

Felice, Elisa and I left for NYC yesterday morning. We drove to Beacon/Newburgh and hopped on Metro North. It actually worked out really well. The drive to Newburgh was pretty uneventful and quick. We parked the car, got our tickets, and still had 10 minutes to spare before the train arrived. Then we took the easy 90 minute trip into Grand Central. I should mention here that this was MUCH cheaper way to get to NYC than taking Amtrak from Albany. It was only $30 round trip as opposed to $100.

Anyway, we arrived in NYC and took the subway to our hotel which was awesome. I should mention here that Felice's brother generously gave us some of his Marriott points - so our hotel room was free. Yup. Totally free. We can't thank him enough! And we were right in Times Square. When we arrived, our room was ready for us - so we could check in right away. We pretty much dropped our bags, and then headed out in the direction of 18th Street where the race expo was.

 It was a nice enough day, so we decided to walk. I should mention here that the hotel was at 46th Street. So it was a bit of a walk. But - it was a nice walk. We took in the sights and enjoyed the city.
One of my favorite parts about the walk, was that I saw the Flatiron building. I have seen photos of it - but I had never seen it in person. Well, now I have! And it was pretty darn cool.

In front of the Flatiron building!

After we reached the 14th Street area, we grabbed some food at Whole Foods - (which neither Felice or I had never been in). Holy cow. The place was amazing. But it was easy to get overwhelmed in there. And we were hungry. So the experience was a bit nutty. But, we got our food, and then headed across the street to a park, sat on some benches and listened to some music that was in the park, and watched the people.

After our delicious lunch, we headed over to the expo, which was just a few blocks away. We picked up our race bibs, our T-shirts, and goody bags. We wandered around the expo and sampled some of the goodies. And we took some pictures in front of the race expo sign.

Me, Elisa, and Felice - at the Expo

After that, we headed back uptown. We decided that our feet were a bit tired and since we were running 13 miles the next day, we decided it was a good idea to take the subway. So we did. We ended up at 59th Street and went to another Whole Foods to grab a snack. Then we found a bench by Lincoln Center (which I had never seen before either), and enjoyed our food and watched the people go by.

At that point - we realized that we were pretty close to the start line of the race, so we decided to head into Central Park and check it out. What an experience that was. We sat on a bench there and just watched the world go by. There were people jogging, roller blading, and walking. We watched the rickshaws, and the horse and carriage rides. It was very relaxing as we took it all in.

After a while, we headed back to the hotel, cleaned up and got ready for dinner. We decided we wanted to be a bit adventurous since we were in the city and they have such great restaurants. So we found a really cool Thai place. We analyzed the menu because we didn't want to eat anything too spicy the night before a race. Dinner was great, and after that we headed back to the hotel and settled in. It was lights out by 10 PM. But of course, that didn't mean that I could fall asleep. I tossed and turned...and tossed and turned some more. After about 2 hours of not falling asleep, I finally decided I needed to sleep on the floor. And so that's what I did. And I think I finally fell asleep around 12:30 AM.

Stay tuned for part two...race day!