Thursday 6/14
After work, I drove up to LAX to catch my flight with Alaska Air over to JFK International Airport. I arrived at the usual parking lot C at about 5 pm. I went through a good portion of the lot, but was unsuccessful at finding a spot. I finally gave up and exited the lot to go find parking somewhere else. I went to my normal backup spot, The Parking Spot on Sepulveda Blvd, the one located next to In-n-Out. The entrance was blocked with a sign stating that they were full. I then headed over to their other location on Century Blvd. I had to crawl through some horrible traffic only to find that this location was also full. I drove down Century Blvd checking on Hilton, Marriott, Joe's Parking, etc., however every single lot was full. I drove down 98th St trying to figure out where to park before resorting to parking at the airport for $30 a day. I ended up pulling into the back entrance of the Airport Spectrum LAX parking structure. The employees there knew that somehow I had got in without a reservation. They tried to get me to valet my car, but I told them that I'd rather self-park. I guess they took pity on me, so they directed me down to self parking which was 2 floors down. I think they let me slide when I told them that I would need to park until Sunday. They had me park in a spot that would be blocked in by other cars. They told me that someone will move the car if my car was blocked when I returned.
Airport Spectrum LAX parking
The traffic was a bitch around LAX, so I decided to just walk over to the terminal instead of waiting for the shuttle. It was a pretty long walk, so I showed up kind of sweaty as I went through the TSA security check. Their scanner doesn't like sweaty clothes and my cargo pockets, so I got a nice little pat-down by the TSA agent. :)
Before going to my gate, I got in line to get dinner at The Habit Burger Grill. I ordered their Santa Barbara Char for the very first time. I've always gotten their Double Char, so I thought I'd try something new. I liked the avocado, but I prefer the hamburger bun over the sourdough bread.
Santa Barbara Char
It was a short flight over to Las Vegas McCarran Airport. We got off of the plane and then got back on the same plane for the flight into JFK. Once I boarded the plane, I browsed through the available movies and I saw that they had Star Wars: The Last Jedi. No thanks! Watching that awful movie twice was twice too many. I elected to get some sleep instead. :)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi for free? No thanks!
Friday 6/15
I landed at JFK at about a quarter to 6. After stopping at the restroom, I made my way over to the AirTrain station. I took that over to Jamaica Station to catch the E train into Manhattan. I got off at the 5th Ave/53rd St station and walked over to Connolly's on 45th St for breakfast. I got there just as they opened. I ordered the usual full Irish breakfast and coffee. I feel that this is the best meal for the price in Manhattan.
Full Irish breakfast
Starting to like the Brown Sauce!
After finishing off my breakfast, I headed over to the NYRR Run Center over on 57th St to pick up my bib and race singlet. I was actually hoping for a t-shirt, but it was a pretty nice looking singlet. I don't like to wear singlets anymore as my shoulders have been burned way too many times by the sun.
Bib
Race singlet
I then walked over to the Regal Cinemas E-Walk 13 on 42nd St to catch a showing of Incredibles 2. Honestly I don't remember much of the first movie. It was 14 years ago and I might have only seen it once. I'll have to re-watch it some other time. This second movie was quite entertaining. However I did fall asleep in the early parts of the movie because I was really tired from the red-eye flight and not because the movie was bad. Looks like I'll have to re-watch this one as well to see what I had missed. :)
Incredibles 2
After the movie, I took the 1 train down to the South Ferry station. I walked by the Charging Bull to check out the Fearless Girl statue. It was super crowded so I just got a little peak from across the street. Once again I booked a room at the Club Quarters Hotel, Wall Street. I stopped by to see if I could check into my room a couple of hours early. I was able to do so by using one of the kiosks. Thank goodness I was able to take a shower and watch the Portugal vs. Spain World Cup match from the comfort of my room.
Portugal vs. Spain
For dinner, I stopped by the nearby McDonald's to pick up some food. With the mobile app, I was able to score some free medium french fries with the purchase of a Quarter Pounder with cheese burger. After eating my meal, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's 10k.
Free medium fries with Quarter Pounder with cheese purchase
Flat runner
Saturday 6/16
The race was scheduled to start at 7:45 am. In hindsight, I probably should've left earlier, but per the race instructions I tried to time it to arrive an hour before the start. I took the train from Wall St to 42nd St/Grand Central station to catch the 7 train. From there I took it to the Mets/Willets Point station. The train was packed with mostly runners and it eventually got delayed. The conductor then announced that the train was switching from local to express. I didn't reach my destination until about 10 minutes after 7. After getting off of the train and following the masses, I walked briskly over to the starting corrals just to make sure that I had enough time to use the portapotties to empty my bladder before the race.
Before the race even started, it was already feeling quite warm and humid. The course was a bit narrow and congested. I wanted to run faster during the first mile, but I was blocked. However I also didn't want to run too hard and suffer from heat exhaustion, so I didn't make an effort to get around too many runners. I tried my best to keep a pace that would get me to the finish in just under 50 minutes. I had a hard time convincing myself to keep running during the last 2 miles. I had to fight the overwhelming urge to walk. I didn't walk, but I slowed enough to land me just a few seconds past 50 minutes.
Finish line
Finish: 50:04
Click here for my Garmin data.
Completed NYRR race #4 of 9.
I got the usual high five from Peter Ciaccia and a finisher medal after crossing the finish line. I was feeling pretty spent, so when I was given a bottle of Gatorade, I pretty much chugged the entire bottle. I was also given a bottle of water, an apple, a bag of pretzels, and a PowerBar as part of my recovery bag. I don't think it was smart at all for me to wear a regular cotton t-shirt for these warm conditions.
Finisher medal
Chug that Gatorade
Post race recovery bag
After I felt recovered a bit, I started walking over to the Unisphere to take pictures before heading to the train station. Between taking various pictures of the Rocket Thrower statue and the Unisphere, I came across one of my local Marathon Maniac/50 States friends just as he was finishing his race. It was as if we planned to meet there! What a coincidence!
Rocket Thrower
Unisphere
I'm glad that I finally made it out to the Unisphere although the fountain wasn't turned on. I want to return one year for the US Open Tennis Championships.
On the crowded train ride back to my hotel, I ended up having a good conversation with another runner. I believe he was from upper Manhattan or north of upper Manhattan. He was a bit shocked to find out that I would be doing the 9+1 program while living on the West Coast. Although it is quite expensive, I thought it would be a good way to see the different boroughs versus going the charity route. The train ride took a while since it was running local and it was packed to the gills. We felt sorry for the normal passengers as they had to be packed in there with all of the sweaty runners. I got off at 42nd St/Grand Central to switch over to the 4 train.
Back at my room, I got cleaned up before going back out to pick up some lunch at the nearby Go Go Curry. I ordered the usual Grand Slam with fukujinzuke and took it back to my room to enjoy. Since I only ran a 10k, it was more than enough food for me to skip dinner.
Grand Slam
Sunday 6/17
Since I had an early morning jetBlue flight, I got packed and ready before heading over to the Fulton St station to catch the A train over to Howard Beach. I think I prefer this route over taking the E or J train to Jamaica station.
Flying home with jetBlue
On the plane, I finally got to watch Doctor Strange. It was pretty entertaining, but not among my favorite Marvel movies. I can see why people were upset about the casting of the Ancient One. At least it tied a few loose ends for me with all of the Marvel movies. After that I then switched over to watching the Germany vs. Mexico World Cup match. It was pretty crazy when all of the Mexican passengers in unison erupted with joy when they scored the only goal to defeat the heavily favored German team with a score of 1-0.
Mexico beats Germany 1-0
After landing at LAX, I decided to walk back to the parking structure instead of waiting for one of the shuttles. Along the way, I spotted a couple of the Spectrum parking shuttles so for sure they were making the rounds. Unfortunately during the long walk, I was approached by a supposed Army vet asking for a handout. He was asking specifically for cash. After I told him a couple of times that I don't have cash on me, only credit cards, he quickly changed his tone. He berated me for lying and being a non-human for refusing to give him anything, not even a penny. Yeah, good luck getting any sympathy with that kind of attitude. Who the heck carries cash these days? We're practically a cashless society. I have credit cards and Google Pay. It would be easier for me to send you money via PayPal than to give you cash! I actually hate the fact that people will look at an Asian and automatically assume that we're all loaded with money. Some of us work at a non-profit organization and live from paycheck to paycheck!
In case you were wondering, my car was actually not blocked in when I returned to the parking structure. After dropping off my bags at my car, I went to the valet desk to pay for my ticket. It actually turned out to be an okay experience parking my car here. However I will need to start making parking reservations for my future flights out of LAX since I can no longer depend on parking lot C. I could also use SuperShuttle or Prime Time Shuttle service, so I don't have to worry about driving.
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