I took an early morning flight out of LAX with Virgin America. During the flight, I watched a bunch of Star Wars Rebels episodes. It was my first time watching full episodes. One of the episodes was about the Mandalorians which was pretty interesting although the dialogue was a bit awkward at times.
Once I landed at JFK, I started making my way over to catch the AirTrain. It would appear that Virgin America was flying in and out of terminal 7 which had a lot of international airlines. There was also a lot of construction taking place. Once I got to Jamaica Station, I had to load my MetroCard so I could pay for the AirTrain ride as well as to get on the E train into Manhattan. I got off at the 7th Ave station and walked over to the NYRR Runcenter located on W 57th St just west of 8th Ave. Along the way, I stopped in at the Duane Reade at the corner of Broadway and W 57th to buy some drinks.
The packet pick-up process was really quick. They first checked me in which was very easy and fast by showing them my NYRR QR code. They assigned me a bib number and placed my corral assignment sticker on my bib. Then I went towards the back to pick up my knit cap which was one of the better and more useful race swag that I've received. I really don't need yet another race shirt.
From there I walked over to the nearby Katsu-Hama located on W 55th St between 5th and 6th Ave to eat dinner. Since I was by myself, I got a seat at the bar. After looking over the menu, I ordered their katsudon. It was nice that my meal came with refillable miso soup since it was a cold night. It also came with some tsukemono (kyurizuke and takuan).
After dinner, I hopped on the Q train and took it up to the 96 Street station. From there, I walked over to my hotel for the weekend, the Courtyard by Marriott New York Manhattan/Upper East Side. The hotel staff was very friendly and welcoming during the check-in process. The room was nice and spacious for a Manhattan hotel. I was pretty tired, so I went to sleep shortly after laying out my flat runner.
Flat runner
Sunday 1/21
Fortunately the morning turned out to be not too cold. It started off in the low 40's, so I didn't even bother bringing my gloves. However I did bring with me a mylar blanket. I headed over to Central Park and entered near 96th St. I walked over to the starting area on West Dr. It was still early so I went towards the long line of portapotties to empty the bladder one last time before getting into my corral.
I started out of my assigned corral F. The race was pretty much a 3 loop course. The course started us off heading south on West Dr. Then it had us cut east on Terrace Dr around 72nd St over to East Dr. Then we head north along East Dr until it becomes West Dr. One loop was just under 5 miles. Having run through Central Park before, I was pretty familiar with the rollers. They're not too bad, but just steep enough to keep you honest with your pacing. During that first loop, I made sure not to use up too much energy trying to maintain a certain pace going up those inclines. I started in a later corral than the 1:50 pacers, but I was able to stay ahead of them for most of the race. Per the usual, the same tendon in my left foot and ankle started bothering me around mile 8, but the rollers really helped as the uphills didn't aggravate that tendon as much. It was actually getting uncomfortable to run the downhills late in the race. I was tempted to pull over and walk off the discomfort, but I decided to keep going, believing that I had the endurance to maintain the pace so long as the foot and ankle didn't transition from a discomfort into a sharp pain. During the 3rd and final loop, we ran an abbreviated loop where we would turn left at the 102nd St crossing off of East Dr and headed for the finish line. It looked like the 1:50 pace group was a little bit behind schedule. The pacers passed me during that last mile or so and left me in the dust as they headed to the finish line. They were most likely making up time.
Finish: 1:49:21
Click here for my Garmin data.
I almost always race better in colder weather. However I wasn't expecting to run a good race even though my legs have been showing signs of renewed speed in the past few races. It was quite the pleasant surprise to be able to run a pretty solid sub 1:50 without any specific training. Before this race, I was beginning to think that I would never get below 1:50 again in the half marathon. This was race number 1 of 9 that I'll be running this year to earn my guaranteed entry into the NYC Marathon for 2019.
After receiving my medal, I got some post race snacks, drinks, and a mylar blanket. I started heading east through Central Park to head back to my hotel.
Along the way, I ended up walking and talking to a girl local to New York since we were headed in the same direction. We pretty much ran the same time, just under 1:50. I found it a little amusing that she started using the F-bomb as a comma. I guess I'll never quite get used to that no matter how many times I visit NYC. :)
After getting cleaned up, I decided to go back outside for a walk. I walked the perimeter of Central Park over to the upper west side to get a picture of the Seinfeld diner (Tom's Restaurant). It was a nice long walk to keep the legs loose after the race. From there I took the 1 train down to the Wagamama located on 5th Ave between W 26th St and W 25th St. The first thing I noticed as I walked in was that it definitely had a hipster vibe to it. A couple of my friends really like eating at Wagamama, so I decided to check it out for lunch. I was promptly seated at a long table that was shared with other customers. After looking over the menu, I ordered the edamame, Wagamama ramen, and green tea. My waiter was scribbling numbers on my paper place mat what I figured to be my order. A few moments later he brought out some water, but he never brought out the green tea. No big deal... water will do. The edamame came out next and it was fine. Shortly after finishing my appetizer, my bowl of ramen was brought out. I'm more into traditional style Japanese food. So eating this bowl of ramen was a bit of a shock to my taste buds, as the fusion style was very different. The presentation was not bad, the flavors and ingredients were ok. However my biggest complaint would be that the broth was lukewarm. I don't care what kind of ethnic cuisine it is, the broth really needs to be piping hot! Who knows, maybe someone left it sitting after it was made. Also the bowl of ramen wasn't cheap at $15. Even though I was not impressed with what I had ordered on this visit, I will most likely return with my friends in the future to give this place a second chance.
Edamame
Wagamama ramen
The restaurant was a couple of blocks from the Flatiron Building, so I walked over to get a photo of it before heading back to my hotel. I usually only see this building whenever I go up to the top of the Empire State Building, so it was good to see it from a different perspective. After taking the picture I hopped on the subway back to my hotel.
For dinner, I went back out to one of my favorite spots, Go Go Curry! There are a few locations in Manhattan now, but I went to the one near Times Square on W 38th St near the 8th Ave corner. I ordered the usual Grand Slam and added fukujinzuke.
Monday 1/22
After checking out of my room at about 11 am, I took the subway down to the Connolly's on 45th St for an early lunch. I'm usually here for breakfast so it was a nice change of pace to order from their lunch menu. I went with their bangers & mash and an iced tea. Unfortunately it was not even close to being the best that I've had. However it was still pretty decent.
Bangers & mash
After lunch, I walked up to the NYRR Runcenter to get my finisher medal engraved as a complimentary service for NYRR members. I thought that that was a very nice perk. I waited there with a few other people for them to engrave our medals. It was only about 12:30 pm when I got my medal back. Although my flight was at 5 pm, I decided to just head over to JFK and wait at the airport. I was on an E express train and everything was going pretty smoothly that I was starting to doze off. Then the train came to a halt as we were heading towards Forest Hills - 71st Ave station. The conductor eventually informed us that the power was off and that they were waiting for Con Edison to resolve the issue. We waited in the train for about 30 minutes. There was even a couple of street performers doing their acrobatic performance from car to car while we waited. Eventually all of the conductors walked through each car informing us that they had decided to roll us back to the Jackson Heights - Roosevelt Avenue/74th Street station. From there they were trying to instruct us to take the 7 line instead. When I got up to that platform, they informed us that the power had been restored, so back I went down to catch the E train. The F train showed up first, so I decided to take that one out to Kew Gardens, then wait for the E train there. At least I would be a little bit closer to my destination. Long story short, I got through TSA and at my gate 15 minutes before boarding time. If you know anything about me, that would be incredibly late by my standard!
During my flight home, I watched the movie, The Accountant. I'm not a big Ben Affleck fan, but I thought that it was a pretty good movie. It showed the difficulties of autism for the person with it as well as for those having to deal with it as a family member. Also it had gun violence that I thought was better than those in the John Wick movies.
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