I took a late red eye flight out of Ontario Airport. Lately, I've been making it a point not to fly out of LAX. Once I arrived at the airport, I made my way into parking lot 5 which costs $11 per day. Unfortunately JetBlue flies out of terminal 2 and I didn't want to wait for the shuttle, so I hoofed it over. It was so much easier to get through TSA at this airport compared to LAX. During boarding, they had announced that it would be a very full flight. Fortunately for me, the center seat next to me was empty. Once we were in the air, I put in the earbuds and slept most of the way out to JFK.
Parking lot 5
Friday 5/17
The plane landed at JFK at about 8 am. From there, I took the AirTrain over to Jamaica Station. Thankfully I still had money on my MTA MetroCard, so I was able to skip the lines to use one of the kiosks. I made my way straight to the subway station to catch the E Train over to Manhattan.
Landed at JFK
I got off of the train at the 5th Ave station. Originally I was going to get breakfast at Connolly's, my usual spot. However I decided to mix things up as well as to save some money, so instead I ate at Chick-fil-A. I used the mobile app and ordered a chicken breakfast bowl meal. I used the code provided by the app to check-in on the tablet near the pick-up spot. When the food was brought out to me, it was a chicken burrito. Since the ingredients were pretty much the same thing, I didn't bother informing them of their error. The meal came with hash browns and a small cup of coffee. I found a seat at the bar to eat my breakfast.
Breakfast at Chick-fil-A
After finishing my breakfast, I walked over to the AMC Empire 25 to catch a movie. On this visit, I watched The Sun Is Also A Star. It was a nice movie to watch in New York City as a lot of the scenes were shot near where I usually stay at when I'm in town. It was kind of your typical story about love and destiny. Unfortunately the story was pretty half baked, disjointed, and just not very believable. I'm normally a sucker for a romantic film, but this one was just poorly executed.
Alex Morgan's Nike ad at 8th Ave and 42nd St
After the movie, I walked over to the nearby Jollibee at the corner of 8th Ave and 40th St. It was pretty small inside and the line to order was long. However they had a guy going through the line taking orders on an order sheet to help speed things up. Unfortunately they didn't have the palabok fiesta on their menu. The guy told me that it was because they didn't have a full sized kitchen at this location. Instead I went with their 1 pc Chickenjoy and spaghetti with pineapple juice. Once I got my order in and paid for the food, I was given a pager. When my food was ready, it was rather difficult locating a spot to eat my food. Fortunately a family at a small table was just ready to leave.
Limited menu at Jollibee
Chickenjoy!
1 pc Chickenjoy with spaghetti and pineapple juice
After I was done with my meal, I walked over to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to catch the first A/C Train heading downtown. I took that over to the High St Station in Brooklyn. From there I walked up to the race expo at the Brooklyn Bridge Park. It was drizzling a bit during my walk, but not enough for me to pull out my umbrella.
Brooklyn Bridge
They had the standard participant name wall at the entrance of the expo. I found my name before going inside. After being assigned a bib number and getting my race shirt, I went through the official merchandise and the rest of the expo.
Expo entrance
Found my name
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Before leaving, I briefly checked out the pre-race celebration area. The rain was starting to come down a bit harder so I decided to bail and start heading out to the subway station.
Pre-race celebration area
I took the first A/C train uptown and got off at Fulton St Station. From there, I walked over to the nearby 7-Eleven to buy some water. I guess I was a bit tired as I had forgotten that the place that I was staying at for this trip provided complimentary filtered water.
Smartwater x2
After buying the water, I walked over to the Club Quarters Wall St to see if I could check into my room a bit early. I was able to check myself in via one of their kiosks. Unfortunately I was unable to use their mobile app on my phone instead of the traditional room key. It would've been very convenient to open my room with my phone and not have to carry one more thing with me.
Toiletries
After getting settled in, I took a shower and relaxed for a few hours before going back out to the nearby Chick-fil-A to pick up dinner. I used the mobile app to place my order before walking over. Thank goodness as there was an extremely long line to place an order. I used the code that was provided to me on the app to check-in on their tablet. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and waffle fries. Once the food was brought out to me, I took it back to my room to enjoy. Boy, those waffle fries were mighty good with their Chick-fil-A sauce!
Grilled chicken sandwich and waffle fries
I laid out my flat runner before calling it a night. It had rained the last 2 times that I've run this race, so it was nice not having to plan for a rainy race. I decided to wear the shirt from last weekend's race.
Flat runner
Saturday 5/18
Even though Prospect Park wasn't too far away, I still hate being late getting to places. I got ready early and caught the first 2/3 train from the Wall St station. I took that over to the Franklin Ave station. The entrance to the corrals was right there as I exited the subway station. The weather forecast for today was going to be very nice. Still there was a chill in the air, so I wrapped myself up in my mylar blanket. While waiting for the security check stations to open, I ended up talking to a fellow runner named Rafael. We talked a bit about doing the 9+1 program to secure a guaranteed spot for the NYC Marathon. He was a bit shocked when I told him that I was doing that program from the West Coast. We both agreed that it would be better to go through one of the charities as it would be much cheaper and charity runners have VIP access.
Once I went through the metal detectors, I headed inside my assigned corral to use one of the portapotties. After I was done, I headed over to my friend's corral to see if I could find her and say hi. Unfortunately I was not able to spot her before I headed back to my corral as it was starting to get crowded with runners everywhere.
Starting corral
Having run this race in the past 2 years, I knew that the first 7 miles had the hills followed by a nice long gentle downhill to the finish line at Coney Island. Both years that long downhill felt like it was slightly uphill. This year I was hoping that it would feel easier, but once again I struggled from about mile 8 to the finish line. This year the problem might have been that the weather was too nice. It got a bit warm during the final miles and my legs were beginning to cramp up as I reached the boardwalk.
Free race photos
Finish line
Finish: 1:56:46
Click here for my Garmin data.
Overall I was happy with my race. After posting slower finishing times in some of my recent half marathons, my goal today was to just finish in under 2 hrs. The race did get a tad warm in the final few miles.Relive 'Brooklyn Half Marathon'
I always love the finisher medals for NYRR's bigger races. I thought this one was nicely designed with a very nice two colored lanyard. After receiving my medal, I walked further down the finisher chute before given a recovery bag full of recovery snacks and drinks.
Finisher medal
Post race recovery goodies
Since it was my first time running this race where it wasn't raining, I decided to go check out the post race festivities inside the MCU Park. It was quite packed inside. There wasn't anything that warranted me sticking around, so after I got my stuff packed up in my bag, I started heading out over to the Coney Island/Stillwell Ave station. I took the first available N/Q train over to Atlantic Ave/Barclays Centers station. From there I switched over to the 2/3 train and took it back to my hotel getting off at Wall St station.
Post race at MCU Park
Back at my room, I watched the football match between Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt. With the win, Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga title. I currently only follow the English Premier League. However I think I should start following the Bundesliga as well. I will first need to choose a team. I'm leaning towards Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Bundesliga
After the game was over, I walked over to Chick-fil-A to pick up lunch. I got the usual grilled chicken sandwich and waffle fries. I could get used to eating here instead of McDonald's! :)
Grilled chicken sandwich and waffle fries
I was feeling pretty exhausted from all of my recent traveling and racing, but one of my old college friends wanted to meet up for dinner. He came all the way out from the Long Island area. Man, we haven't seen each other since the late 90's when we were still going to UCSD! It was good to catch up. We ended up going to a ramen shop that was close to my hotel. It was called Kuu Ramen. I ordered the Okinawa shio ramen and edamame. It was decent, but nowhere near the best bowl of ramen that I've had. My main issue was that the broth wasn't served piping hot. Nobody likes a lukewarm bowl of ramen!
Edamame
Okinawa shio ramen
After dinner, we walked around the World Trade Center area. I ended up playing the tour guide as I've been to this area numerous times and it was my friend's first time there. I showed him the Oculus, 9/11 Memorial Pools, Survival Tree, and the FDNY Memorial Wall. After that short foot tour, we said our goodbyes and I went back to my room to get some rest.
FDNY Memorial Wall
Sunday 5/19
I checked out of my room at a little before 10 am. I walked over to the Fulton St station to catch the first A/C train up to 59th St/Columbus Circle. From there it was a short walk over to the NYRR RUNCenter to get my medal engraved. It was one of the perks of being a NYRR member. The line wasn't as long this time, so the whole process didn't take very long.
Medal engraved
After getting my medal back, I walked over to the Go Go Curry on W 38th St to eat my usual lunch before heading home. I got the Home run plate with chicken katsu and added fukujinzuke.
Home run with chicken katsu add fukujinzuke
After lunch, I headed over to the AMC Empire 25 to catch a movie before heading to the airport. I ended up watching John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. Although I would be watching it with my friends in a couple of weeks, this was the only movie that worked with my schedule. I thought chapter 3 was better than chapter 2. The much advertised scenes with Halle Berry were a bit disappointing. She was overacting. On the other hand, Laurence Fishburne did quite well reprising his role as the Bowery King. The role suits him. Keanu Reeves' fighting skills were once again okay and sufficient. However he wasn't keeping up with his Asian costars. His skills were akin to the celebrity partner compared with the professional dancers on Dancing with the Stars. Still overall it was a good John Wick movie. If you've seen the first two, you have to see this one. The way the movie ended, there would definitely be a fourth chapter.
After the movie, I headed over to the 42nd St/Times Square/Port Authority Bus Terminal to catch the E train over to JFK Airport. I got off at the Sutphin Blvd/Archer Ave/JFK Station. Then from there I took the AirTrain over to Terminal 5 to catch my flight home with JetBlue.
Once again, the flight crew announced that the flight was full. As luck would have it, the center seat next to me was empty again! After getting my drink and some snacks, I tried to get some shuteye. The plane landed at Ontario Airport a few minutes before 11 pm. I didn't see a place that was designated as the shuttle stop, so I just went ahead and hoofed it back to my car.
Drink
Snacks
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