I took an evening red-eye JetBlue flight out of Long Beach Airport. That's one of my favorite combinations as JetBlue is one of my favorite airlines and LGB is one of my favorite airports. Much unlike LAX, there's very little traffic and getting through TSA is pretty stress-free at this airport.
Here we go!
Boarding the plane
Saturday 11/2
The plane landed at JFK at about 4:30 am. Once I got off of the plane I made my way over to the AirTrain station. As of 11/1 the price of riding the AirTrain went up to $7.75. I didn't have enough money on my card, so I had to reload at one of the kiosks. Per the usual, I waited for the first AirTrain to arrive. This time it was a train headed to Howard Beach, so that's where I went. It would seem that more often than not, I would end up on a train heading to Jamaica Station where I would catch the E train. If I had to pick, I would prefer heading into Manhattan from Howard Beach. At Howard Beach, I waited for the A train which I took over to the 59 St - Columbus Circle Station.
From there I walked a few blocks South along 8th Ave to get breakfast at Chick-fil-A. I had to wait a few minutes before going in as I had arrived there just ahead of their 6:30 am opening time. This was a much nicer and larger restaurant than the nearby location over on 6th Ave and 46th St. I will be sure to come here instead in the future. Using their mobile app, I ordered their chicken, egg & cheese bagel meal. Man that coffee sure hit the spot as the weather was a bit nippy.
Chicken, egg & cheese bagel meal
After I was done with my breakfast, I started heading down to the Javits Center. Along the way, I stopped in at a CVS to buy some water to make sure that I stayed hydrated the day before the marathon. I bought a large 1.5 L bottle of Smartwater for $2.99. No too bad.
Bottle of water
Since the expo wasn't scheduled to open until 9 am and it was located pretty close by, I decided to go check out the Vessel. I didn't feel the need to walk up any of the stairs, so a photo of it would suffice for now. If you want to visit and check out the Vessel up close, click here for some more info.
The Vessel
I had an hour to wait before the expo opened, so I found a spot to sit down. Eventually I went to down the escalator to use the restroom as well as to charge my phone at a charging station. As the opening of the expo approached, I went back up to find long lines of people waiting to get in. They were controlling the inflow of people, so it never really felt too crowded once I had gotten inside.
Expo
Waiting to get in
After collecting my bib, I walked further down to the t-shirt section for my race shirt. The shirt was the usual long sleeved shirt, but this year's was a thinner New Balance shirt. For me, the thinner the better as I tend to struggle with overheating when I run. I was also given a race guide, a rain poncho, and a clear bag to carry my stuff to the start village.
Bib pick-up
T-shirts
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Race packet
After I was done with that, I entered the New Balance official merchandise area. The selection seemed a bit slim since I always come to the expo on Saturday. That's a good thing for me and my wallet as I really do not need to buy any more race merchandise!
New Balance official merchandise
After the quick walk-through the merchandise area, it was time to explore the rest of the expo and check out the vendor booths. I got a picture with me and my bib in front of the colorful enlarged representation of this year's finisher medal. That was pretty cool!
Medal picture
I stopped by the Abbott World Marathon Majors area where I found a couple of my friends' names on the Wall of Fame. Some day, I hope to get my name on that wall! I just need to run the London Marathon and Boston Marathon to complete all 6 Marathon Majors. One of reps there gave me a key chain. I also took a photo of myself on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before moving on.
Where Champions Run
Abbott World Marathon Majors key chain
Abbott picture
Nearby were the lead cars where they allowed you to write your name and/or messages.
Men's lead car
Next was the standard participants name wall. Since there were about 54k participants in this year's race, it actually took me a while to find my name.
Participants name wall
Found my name
After I was done with the expo, I went over to the Gold room to say hi to my old high school friend. Always good to see him whenever I visit NYC. I then started making my way over to the AMC Empire 25 movie theater over on 42nd St. I timed it so that I would be able to catch the first showing of Jojo Rabbit. I've been wanting to see this film for a while, but they weren't showing it yet back home. It was an interesting and clever movie. While it had a lot of tongue-in-check humor all throughout the movie, it did get quite incredibly sad near the end of the movie. There was a lot of foreshadowing so it wasn't a shock, but still it was quite sad.
After the movie, I walked to a nearby Chick-fil-A at the corner of 6th Ave and 46th St to eat a quick late lunch. As with most Chick-fil-A locations, it was very busy. Although I had ordered my food on their mobile app, their check-in system was down. I ended up still having to get in line to check-in with a cashier in order to get my food. Once my food was ready, I found a spot to enjoy my 2 Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
Chick-fil-A sandwich x2
After finishing lunch, I walked over to the 5 Ave - Bryant Park Station to catch the 7 Train over to my hotel for the weekend. For this trip, I was staying at the La Quinta Inn by Wyndham Queens. This was my first time staying in this particular borough. It was located in between the 33 St - Rawson St Station and the 40 St - Lowery St Station, so I got off at the first station and walked over.
After checking in at the front desk, I actually had difficulty opening the door to my room. The guy at the front desk had one of the maids go up with me to assist. It would turn out that I was swiping the card too fast. The slow swipe did the trick.
La Quinta Inn by Wyndham Queens
After unpacking and taking a shower, I vegged out in my room while watching TV until it was time to go across the street to buy my traditional pre-race dinner from McDonald's. There hasn't been any good deals lately on the mobile app, but I ended up using the "Buy a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder with Cheese, get one for $1" deal. I ordered one of each.
McDonald's
Buy a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder with Cheese, get one for $1
After eating dinner, I laid out my flat runner before calling it a night.
Flat runner
Sunday 11/3
At about 4:30 am, I walked over to the 40 St - Lowery St Station to take the subway over to the NY Public Library where I would then be catching a bus over to Staten Island. I got off of the train at 5 Ave - Bryant Park Station. On the walk over to the bus pick-up spot, I started talking to a guy named James who does a lot of charity work with Bombas socks. He was a local New Yorker and despite having heart issues, he has become a pretty decent runner. We were able to get a little bit of shuteye on the bus ride over to the start village. I arrived at about a quarter to 6, so I had about 4.5 hrs to wait before the start of my wave. I could've gotten on a later bus to cut down on the wait time, but I wanted to be there early just to get a fresh clean Dunkin' Donut beanie! Back in 2016 when I last ran this race, I had to fish one out of the donation bin. They're nice to keep you warm while you wait, but people usually toss them at the beginning of the race. I think they make a nice free keepsake as they have the year stitched on them.
Start village
Here for the beanie
Dunkin' Donuts beanie
Small shot of coffee
Besides drinking a tiny cup of coffee, I also got a bagel to go with my breakfast. I filled up my handheld bottle with Gatorade which they had available in the start village. After eating breakfast, I walked around a bit to check things out. They had set up an area in each of the start villages for comfort dogs, but I never did see any of those dogs. I thought that they should instead have those dogs out at mile 20 where most of us would need some comforting! :)
Blue wave, corral F
Eventually I waited just outside of the pacer tent for my friends to show up. After taking a group photo with my fellow Marathon Maniacs, I went to go find my other running friends. The start villages were starting to get quite chaotic as more and more people had shown up, so it took a while for me to find my friends. Eventually we met up right under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge at the intersection of Marshall Rd and New York Ave. After we got our usual pre-race photo, we were off looking for the shortest portapotty lines. Over the last few times, we had found that the ones across from the Charity Village had consistently been the shortest. After that we went our separate ways as they were assigned a different start village and needed to check their gear bag there.
Marathon Maniacs
My Taiwanese friend
I then entered my starting corral. After all of the waiting, it was close to the starting time for my wave. By now, it wasn't too cold with the sun out in full force, so I shed my pullover and my throwaway gloves. Within a few seconds of me depositing them in the donation bin, one of the volunteers inside the corral that was in charge of managing the bins, took my clothes. She was quick to notice that what I had put in was in very good condition and in her size. I guess she was killing two birds with one stone... getting volunteer credit while shopping for free clothing. We were then released from our corral and allowed to walk up to the starting line.
With a loud shot from the cannon at 10:10 am for wave 2, we started the race with Frank Sinatra singing New York, New York. That's right up there with Randy Newman singing I Love LA at the start of the LA Marathon! I started in corral F and it took me about 5 minutes to cross the start line. My goal for the race was to finish in about 5 hrs feeling good. I was so over the arch discomfort in my right foot. I really need for that to go away! For about the first quarter of the race, I felt great. However I've run this marathon enough times to know that I still needed to get to the Queensboro Bridge feeling good. That way I could enjoy the run up 1st Ave. I'm glad that I wore my Chick-fil-A shirt. The spectators loved it. I got so much cheering and energy from them! There were a few that reminded me that Chick-fil-A was closed on Sundays. :)
Approaching the start line
Things got a bit tough for me as I crossed the Willis Ave Bridge and arrived in the Bronx at about mile 20. From there through about mile 24, I definitely went through a rough patch. I tried to rally a bit as I entered Central Park for the final 2 miles, but my legs cramped up. Although I had hoped to have finished in under 5 hrs and knew that I was so close to the finish line, I had to walk a good majority of that last mile. All in all, I was glad to have arrived at the finish line for not just another marathon, but my favorite marathon!
Finish line
Finish: 5:02:41
Click here for my Garmin data.
Click here to see me crossing the finish line. In the video, I'm wearing red and crossed with the clock at about 5:36:24.
My finisher stats
After crossing the finish line and walking a bit further down the finish chute, I received my hard-earned finisher medal. After getting my medal, there was a volunteer that was handing out apples, so I took one. However we were given a recovery bag full of post-race goodies which included an apple. I ended up with 2 apples. Then we were given a mylar blanket which was followed by a long walk to the exit. Thank goodness those who had elected for not checking in a gear bag got to exit earlier at W 77th St where we were given a poncho to wear to keep us warm.
Finisher medal
Contents of post race recovery bag
Long walk towards the exit
Post-race poncho exit
Lots of ponchos
After heading South on Central Park West for a few blocks, I turned right at the first opening at W 72nd St and headed over to the 72 St - Broadway Station to catch the subway down to Times Square - 42 St. From there, I transferred over to the 7 Line to head over to Queens. Once I got back to my room, I got cleaned up and vegged out.
At about 6:15 pm, I dragged myself across the street to pick up dinner at McDonald's. Originally I was planning to go to the nearby Jollibee, but I was too tired to make that short trek. Instead, I ordered a Quarter Pounder with Cheese to get free small fries. I also ordered a Double Cheeseburger and small fries for $3. It was not the greatest of deals, but not too bad. The salty fries really hit the spot!
Buy Quarter Pounder with Cheese, get free small fries. Double Cheeseburger and small fries for $3
Monday 11/4
I packed up my stuff and checked out of my room just before 11 am. Before heading to the airport for my flight home, I took the subway into Manhattan to eat my usual post-marathon meal at Go Go Curry. I got off the subway at Grand Central and walked over. I must have been really hungry as stupid me nearly got run over since I didn't notice that the right turn lane had a separate light. That's why cars have horns! :) My bad! Thank you for not running me over! I used to always order their Grand Slam, but these days, I'm only ordering their Home Run with chicken katsu.
40 St - Lowery St Station
Chicken katsu home run
After I was done with my food, I walked over to the Lexington Ave - 53 St Station to catch the E Train over to the JFK Airport. After getting through the TSA security checkpoint, I had a few hours to pass. I found a spot near my gate, pulled out my iPad and hunkered down for the wait. For the most part, I got caught up on Facebook with everyone else's races for the weekend. Once I had boarded the plane, I attempted to sleep for the majority of the flight home.
The plane landed at LGB Airport at about 8:30 pm. As I exited the plane from the rear door and was heading for the terminal, I saw that our plane had the NY Jets overlay. Although they're a pretty horrible team this year, it was still pretty cool to see.
Along the way home, I swung by the McDonald's in Brea to pick up dinner. In addition to the McDouble and McChicken sandwich for $3, I got 6 pc Chicken McNuggets for free as the Chargers had won their home game against the Packers yesterday.
The Bolts win! lol :)
Choose 2 for $3 and free 6 pc Chicken McNuggets
My job involves working with data, so I enjoyed looking over the finisher stats for this year's race that they had sent us with some nice pretty graphics.
Overall finisher stats
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