After work, I drove up to LAX to catch an evening flight out to NYC for my 8th NYRR race for the year. Once again I had pre-purchased parking at the Airport Center Express parking structure located next to the Crowne Plaza hotel. The first leg of my flight was on a small regional American Airlines plane out to Denver airport. Boarding those smaller planes are usually less stressful and much faster. We had to be bused out from terminal 5 to another part of the airport to board the plane.
After landing in Denver, I decided to grab a quick dinner at the McDonald's in concourse A. Apparently they had a limited late night menu from which I ordered a Quarter Pounder with cheese. It was a pretty pathetic looking burger and didn't taste all that fresh. Oh well, at least it was good enough to tide me over until the next day.
During the second leg from Denver into JFK, I used the Gogoinflight app to watch the Avengers: Infinity War on my tablet. It was a pretty entertaining movie to watch even for a second time. However I was pretty tired, so I was fading in and out near the end. After the movie, I was able to catch a few z's before landing in JFK.
Saturday 9/15
As soon as I got off of the plane, I made my way for the AirTrain. I took whichever train that would arrive first which was to the Jamaica Station. I took the usual E train into Manhattan and got off at 5th Ave. From there I walked over to my favorite spot for breakfast, Connolly's on W 45th. I got the usual coffee and their full Irish breakfast. I was able to catch part of the EPL match between the Spurs and Liverpool. Perhaps I should consider moving to the UK. :)
Full Irish breakfast
Spurs vs. Liverpool #COYS
After I was done with my meal and the first half of the match, I paid my bill and walked over to the NYRR RunCenter to pick up my race packet. The race premium for this race was a nice short sleeve shirt. I used their restroom before heading back out.
Shirt
From there I walked over to the AMC Empire 25 movie theater to catch a matinee. Unfortunately they didn't open until about 10:30 am, so I walked over to the nearby McDonald's to get a large iced hazelnut coffee with the mobile app. Once the movie theater opened, I used one of the kiosks to buy a ticket for Mission: Impossible - Fallout with my MoviePass. It was an action-packed and entertaining movie with a lot of plot twists and turns throughout. The story turned out to be much different from what the movie trailer would have you believe. Even though I'm not a big fan of Tom Cruise, I was thoroughly entertained by this movie.
Iced hazelnut coffee
Finally seeing Mission: Impossible - Fallout
After the movie, I took the R train down to Whitehall St station which was just across the street from my hotel for the weekend, the Hilton Garden Inn. I was a bit early for check-in, so my room wasn't ready. Instead of having me wait, the guy at the front desk put me in another room. The room had a nicer view so it was considered a complimentary upgrade. From the room I could see most of the Staten Island Ferry terminal. I was able to catch part of the Dodgers games on TV.
Let's go Dodgers!
View from room
When evening rolled around, I went out to pick up some drinks and dinner. I first stopped in at the 7-Eleven on Fulton St to buy the usual Powerade and some water. Then I stopped in at the McDonald's on Broadway for food. I used the mobile app to order a Quarter Pounder with cheese for $2 and a cheeseburger for $1.79.
After the quick dinner, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race before getting ready for bed. The weather forecast was for a humid day, so I was not looking forward to running 18 hilly miles.
Flat runner
Sunday 9/16
The race was scheduled to start at 7 am, so I timed it to get there at about 6 am. The streets were actually really quiet as I made my way up to the Wall St subway station. I could've gone to a closer station, but I wanted to check out the fearless girl and charging bull statues at a time when they're not surrounded by so many people.
View from room at night
Fearless girl
Charging bull
I took the subway train up to the 103rd St station and walked over to the starting area near the North Meadow Fields. The temperature wasn't too hot, but the humidity was high. I was definitely not looking forward to running 3 hilly loops around Central Park.
Start line
I started the race feeling pretty good. That feeling lasted about 3 miles. After which I decided to take a walk break and give up on running any more "fast" miles. I really made sure to not overdo it after the horrible experience with the 15M training run a couple of weekends ago.
6M: 56:09
Once again the high humidity was really getting to me during loop 2. I had to take more frequent walk breaks than my usual training intervals. I was dumping water on my head at every aid station. As I was coming up to the end of the 2nd loop, I heard my friend shouting encouragements to me from the other side of the road. He had already finished his race and was cheering on those that were still running.
12M: 2:00:25
The third loop was a complete grind. They actually changed the race flag from green to yellow. I came into the race having a rough goal of finishing around 3 hrs. I knew that that goal was out the window as I was pretty much in survival mode. The last 3 miles were pretty horrible as my legs were cramping up. I really didn't want to walk across the finish line, so I had to suck it up and limp across with both legs on the verge of locking up.
Finish line
Finish: 3:20:28
Click here for my Garmin data.
Once again, I had a tough time running through Central Park. I think the struggles will help me in some of my upcoming races. I'll definitely be ready for any hilly course. I really had to work for this one and now I only have one more race to go before earning my spot for 2019.Relive 'NYRR Training Series 18M'
1 more race to go!
After I finished eating the bagel and banana, I started heading for the subway back to my hotel. I had gotten on a local train, so it felt like it was taking forever. The train stopped and was held at Grand Central Station. While we were waiting, an express train rolled in. Since the final destination of the local train that I was on was only Brooklyn Bridge City Hall, I got off and hopped on the express train heading for Bowling Green.
After I got back to my room and got cleaned up, I took a nap. I woke up with a headache. That seemed to always be expected now whenever I run in high humidity. I spent a few hours just drinking water and laying down. When I felt a bit better, I went out to pick up a late lunch as well as to walk around a bit. I first picked up a McDouble for $1 and a cheeseburger for $1.79 at the usual McDonald's. Then on the way back to the hotel, I went over to check out the FDNY Memorial Wall on Greenwich St between Liberty St and Cedar St.
$1 McDouble, $1.79 cheeseburger
FDNY Memorial Wall
For dinner, I got the 20 pc Chicken McNuggets for $4.99. It was a pretty good deal, but I kind of didn't want nuggets. I didn't have much of a choice since I ran out of the normal deals that were available on the mobile app.
20 pc Chicken McNuggets for $4.99
Monday 9/17
I woke up kind of early. It was early enough that I decided take the usual walk down to McDonald's for a little breakfast. I used the mobile app to use the "buy one hotcakes, get one free" deal. It was $3.49 for an order of hotcakes. Not the best deal, but that was the only breakfast deal that was available to me.
BOGO free hotcakes
After checking out of my room, I took the 1 train from the South Ferry station up to Times Square to catch The Predator with my MoviePass. I wanted to watch A Simple Favor, but this was pretty much the only movie that I was allowed to watch with my pass. It was a pretty mindless sci-fi action movie, but it really wasn't all that bad. The casting and the humor was actually pretty good. Get to da choppa! :)
The Predator
After the movie, I walked down to the Go Go Curry on W 38th St for some lunch before heading over to the airport. I ordered the home run plate and added fukujinzuke. After the quick meal, I hoofed it over to Penn Station to catch a NJ Transit train over to Newark Airport. Each of the AirTrain cars were packed to the gills as many people were headed to the airport.
Home run add fukujinzuke
The first leg of my trip home took me from Newark over to Chicago O'Hare. Once I landed I stopped at the first McDonald's that I came across which was located between concourse H and K. I used the app to get the usual Quarter Pounder with cheese for $1.
McDonald's at ORD Concourse H/K
Eventually while waiting for my flight, the gate for my flight was moved over to concourse K. Along the way over to the new gate, I stopped by another McDonald's to buy a drink. With the mobile app, I was able to buy a large iced hazelnut coffee for $1. This McDonald's was bombarded with too many orders for them to keep up! I felt bad for the employees working here. I had to wait a bit before they got around to making my coffee.
During the second leg of my trip home from Chicago O'Hare to LAX, I ended up watching the movie, Gringo. Most of it was okay with some humorous parts. I was more than willing to overlook some of the bad parts since I was mostly watching it for Charlize Theron as she is one of my favorite actresses.
Gringo
I landed at LAX just a few minutes past midnight. I was able to catch a Crowne Plaza shuttle fairly quickly. I've learned to just take the hotel shuttle if it shows up first instead of waiting exclusively for an Airport Center Express parking shuttle.
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