My flight was recently changed to an earlier departure time, so I opted to work from home today. Also with LA traffic, I had to skip dinner and leave a bit earlier just in case. In the end, I arrived at the Renaissance LAX hotel parking structure about 30 minutes earlier than I had planned. Better to be early than late! After parking the car, I went down to lobby to catch a shuttle over to LAX terminal 5.
Parked at the Renaissance LAX hotel
Unfortunately, the food options were not among my favorites in terminal 5. A few of my fellow travelers were trying to order food from a self checkout kiosk in the Farmers Market, but it kept erroring out during the payment phase. Eventually, I got a pre-packaged sandwich and paid for it at a kiosk that thankfully worked.
Market club sandwich for dinner
I tried to watch game 5 of the World Series, but eventually opted for some sleep.
Red eye JetBlue flight
Friday 11/4
After landing at JFK at about 5 am, I got off of the plane at terminal 5 and stopped at the Starbucks to get some breakfast. The line was insanely long. One of the employees was shouting what items they were out of at this location. They were out of cream and breakfast sandwiches, so I got only a Caffé Americano instead of my usual salted caramel cream cold brew. I skipped that crazy long line and placed my order on the mobile app. Once I got my coffee, I found a spot to sit down and drink it before continuing with my trip into Manhattan.
Flying over Manhattan
Long ass line at Starbucks in Terminal 5
Grande Caffé Americano
After I was done drinking my coffee, I headed out to catch the Airtrain. The first train that showed up was for the Howard Beach station, so that's where I went. I always prefer going there over Jamaica station. It was $8 to ride the Airtrain plus $1 for the Metrocard. They've already converted the subway to accepting OMNY contactless payment with allowed me to use Google Pay, but I still needed a Metrocard to pay for the Airtrain. That's such an annoyance as a Metrocard only remains valid for about a year and a half.
I took the A train into midtown Manhattan and got off at Columbus Circle. I walked a few blocks south to eat breakfast at the Chick-fil-A on 8th Ave near W 55th St. On the mobile app, I ordered the usual hash brown scramble bowl with grilled chicken, Greek yogurt parfait with granola, and an iced vanilla coffee.
Hash brown scramble bowl w/ grilled filet, Greek yogurt parfait w/ granola, iced coffee w/ vanilla
After I was done with breakfast, I started making my way down to the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Once I got there, I used the restroom before finding a seat at the charging station to charge up my phone while I waited for the race expo to open.
When the expo was about to open, I hopped on the escalator and went upstairs to see a huge crowd of people all waiting to go inside. I found what I thought to be the end of the line. However when the doors opened, the line just completely disintegrated and everyone just started heading over to the entrance of the hall. It wasn't too bad getting inside, but they probably should come up with a better plan in case the crowd gets out of hand!
Massive crowd of people waiting for the expo to open
There was a long, but not very proper line which broke apart once the doors had opened
I first picked up my marathon bib, race packet, and long sleeve shirt. I honestly didn't think the color of the shirt was a good choice when it was first revealed online. I thought it looked better in person. I then went across the way to pick up my race packet for the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5k. One of the things that I like about NYRR races is that they'll give us items other than the usual race shirt. For this race, we got a beanie.
Marathon bib pick-up
Official program
Expo handouts
Long sleeve race shirt
Back of race shirt
Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5k bib pick-up
5k beanie
After taking care of that, I proceeded into the official merchandise area. I looked for things to buy, but nothing caught my eye. I definitely didn't need another shirt, jacket, gloves, or arm sleeves. I then made my way into the rest of the expo. I took pictures here and there as well as finding my name on the participants name wall.
Mastercard photo
Participants name wall
Found my name
Volvo pace cars
Once I was pretty much done with the expo, I found and caught up with my friend Ben and then found a seat a the NYRR Running Lab where their coaches will lead us through a mile by mile course strategy session. Sessions were held every hour on the hour. After listening to the one at 11 am, I went and got my free pint glass that was given to current NYRR members. I returned for the one at noon as Boston Bill Rodgers was speaking at that one. Once that was done, a few of us followed him back to his booth. I bought his book which I had him sign and got a picture with him. The book was $30, but his brother was only taking cash or check. Thankfully, I had exactly $30 cash on me as my emergency cash. After that I met up with my friends who had just arrived at the expo.
Listening to some sound race strategy
Free pint glass for NYRR members
Ben and Boston Billy
Bought his book
Latino Heat and Evil Twin
We left the expo together, but went our separate ways. They were heading up to the Fleet Feet at Columbus Circle for a meet and greet with Tommy Rivs. I headed over to the nearby Go! Go! Curry! on W 38th to eat lunch. I got the usual home run katsu curry with chicken and added fukujinzuke. After lunch, I started my trek up to Columbus Circle to meet up with my fellow Marathon Maniacs for a pre-race photo that was scheduled for 3 pm. I stopped in at the McDonald's at the corner of 8th Ave and W 56th St to get a large iced coffee for 99 cents.
Home run with chicken katsu add fukujinzuke
Large iced coffee for 99 cents
After snapping a few photos and we had the chance to catch up a bit, I started heading over to my hotel/apartment for the weekend. It felt like such a long walk all the way over to the east side while carrying my bags.
Marathon Maniacs at Columbus Circle
I arrived at the Beekman Tower at just before 4 pm. I checked in at the front desk and received my key cards for my room. I was assigned 12A2. It was so nice to finally put the bag down and take a load off! After relaxing for a bit, I went back out to go get dinner.
I walked over to the nearby Hide-Chan Ramen over on E 52nd St near 2nd Ave. It was located upstairs next to Totto Ramen. I've had ramen at the Totto in Hell's Kitchen before and wanted to try a different ramen shop. Since I was dining alone, they seated me at the bar. After looking over the menu, I order their deluxe ramen with firm straight noodles and edamame. It included pork slices, half-boiled eggs, kikurage mushroom, corn, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, and cod roe. I don't think that I've ever had cod roe in my tonkotsu ramen. Not bad.
Hide-Chan Ramen
Edamame with sea salt
Deluxe ramen with firm straight noodles
Prior to calling it a night, I took a shower and laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race. I decided to go with my London Marathon finisher shirt. I noticed that the bottom of the shirt was already sort of falling apart.
5k flat runner
Saturday 11/5
When I decided on booking my accommodations, I had no clue as to where the 5k race started and ended. I just figured that it was somewhere in midtown Manhattan. It would turn out that that the start line was just a block or so away from where I was staying, adjacent from the United Nations Headquarters.
I walked up to the start line to check things out before heading back to my starting corral. I bumped into Carrie Tollefson. I said a quick hi and asked if she was running. She told me that she was not and had a runner in the first corral. So after that, back I go with the slow runners. Without having run any NYRR races this past year, they were using one of my very slow virtual races as my best pace to determine my corral. I was in the last wave of 5 and in corral K which was second to last. It only went up to corral L.
5k start line
All the way in the back in corral K
That's a bold footwear choice!
5k finish line
Abbott Dash for the Finish Line 5k: 26:27
Click here for my Garmin data.
That was much more uncomfortable than I would have liked. While the legs held up with the modest 8:30 min per mile pace, the high humidity was brutal for me. I was sweating up a storm! I think this race helped me prepare mentally for the marathon tomorrow.
I got my post race recovery bag and continued along until I found a way to exit Central Park. Along the way back, I came across someone volunteering as Spider-man. I was a bit disappointed that no one cared about or even recognized the church and the building that was featured in Ghostbusters. I also noticed that there were a lot of runners from France.
Post race recovery bag
Spider-man was volunteering!
Nobody steps on a church in my town!
There were a lot of runners from France
I stopped at the Urban Hawker on W 50th St just east of 7th Ave to check the place out. They had opened up a few months earlier and I read about it in this article. I took a quick loop of the place. It was shortly after 10 am, so most of the stalls were getting ready to open for lunch. The one that was open and had customers was Kopifellas where they were selling Singapore coffee. I will definitely have to return here later for lunch.
Checked out the Urban Hawker
I continued my walk back to my room where I stopped in at the Starbucks on E 50th St near Lexington Ave to get my salted caramel cream cold brew. I had placed my order on the mobile app just ahead of getting here, so I went straight to the pick-up spot to wait for my drink.
Radio City Music Hall
Starbucks at Lexington
Salted caramel cream cold brew
Back at my room, I turned on the TV to catch the City v. Fulham match. City as to be expected scored a goal pretty early. However, things got interesting when Cancelo was given a red card and sent off for fouling Wilson inside the box. Pereira scored the penalty to equalize, but City continued to dominate possession even while being a man down. They would go on to beat Fulham easily 2-1. I then got cleaned up and walked back to the Urban Hawker to get lunch. I opted for food at the White Restaurant where I ordered their original white beehoon (rice noodle). Even though I was given a pager, I hung out in front of their stall to wait for my food. Once I got my food, it was time to go search for an open spot to eat my food. The place was pretty packed, but I was able to eat my food at the Sling Bar counter despite not ordering a drink from them. I felt bad and asked if they wanted me to leave, but they were cool about it and let me stay.
City v. Fulham
Original White Beehoon (rice noodle)
After I was done with my food, I went back to my room to veg out. I caught one of my favorite movies on the Pop channel, You've Got Mail! No matter how many times that I've seen it, I will watch it again if it's playing on one of the channels. I just might have the entire movie committed to memory. :)
You've Got Mail!
For dinner, I headed over to Nishida Sho-ten, which was practically just right across the street. As I walked up to 1st Ave, I saw a ton of police cars and fire engines. They had shut down several blocks in the near vicinity. Something was happening a few blocks north. I would later find out in the news that a high rise building just 2 blocks north of where I was staying was on fire caused by a lithium-ion battery connected to a micro-mobility device.
When I got to the restaurant, it was pretty much a hole in the wall. Per the usual, as I was dining alone, I was seated at the bar. After looking over the menu, I ordered their white ramen with straight noodles and edamame. This was more of the traditional standard tonkotsu ramen that I'm used to eating.
Nishida Sho-ten bar
White ramen with straight noodles and edamame
After getting back to my room, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's marathon and took a shower before calling it a night.
Marathon flat runner
Sunday 11/6
I was kind of dragging a bit while getting ready to head over to the bus pick-up at the NY Public Library. My friends were surprised that they had gotten there before I did. The line was very long and snaked a few times back and forth, but it was moving. Eventually, I found them and joined them in line. They were in line with a local chef guy named Jerome.
Long line to get on a bus at the NY Public Library
Spotted my friends
Caught up to my friends in bus line
Almost on the bus
We arrived at Fort Wadsworth just after 7:30 am. After going through the metal detectors, I took my friends over to the cache of portapotties that had the shortest lines. It was located right next to the Charity Village. You know important things after having run this race 5 times!
In line for metal detectors
After we took care of our number one priority, I led them over to the blue village to snag one of those Dunkin' beanies. They're arguably the best free souvenir to get when running this marathon! I've only ever started out of the blue village so I've become very familiar with the layout.
Coveted Dunkin' beanie
Therapy dogs
Doggy ready to be petted
Our faster friend was assigned to start in orange wave 2 which started at 9:45 am. We went over to corral B to send him off. Surprisingly, the portapotties just in front of his corral was all vacant. There were more inside the corral.
Orange wave 2
Sending off Latino Heat for orange wave 2 start
Since several of our friends were on pacing duty, we hung out next to the pacer tent. Our new friend, Jerome, started in green wave 4 which started at 10:55 am. We sent him off as well and went back to wait next to the pacer tent until it was time for wave 5 to start their race at 11:30 am. My friend was assigned to the blue start, but opted to start with me in the green start. This was my first time running on the lower deck of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Back in the day, they used to warn runners on the lower deck of golden showers from people urinating off of the top deck. Thankfully that did not happen since the race organizers for a while have stated that runners will be disqualified if caught doing so.
Waiting next to the NYRR pace team tent
It's Super-Sabrina!
Wave 5 pacers
First time starting in the green corral
Eviltwin
Here we go!
Welcome to Queens
Rawr!
Crossing the Queensboro Bridge
Ran into a small group of my fellow Spurs supporters #COYS!
Heading towards the last damn bridge and back into Manhattan!
Latino Heat spotted me as I was approaching Columbus Circle
Finish line
TCS New York City Marathon: 5:32:11
Click here for my Garmin data.
Early in the race, I had caught up to the 4:55 pace group and decided to run with them. The pace felt okay, however eventually, the humidity won out and I just knew that I had to back off or I would suffer tremendously in the later miles. Thank goodness that I was smart about it as I was able to speed up in the last couple of miles.
This was my 6th time completing this marathon and it's still my absolute favorite! It goes without saying that I love big city marathons. I still want to run this marathon every year even if I have to start from the last wave again. One of the things that I experienced while starting in the last wave was that some aid stations had run out of cups! Thank goodness I always run with a handheld bottle in all of my races that's longer than a 10k.
After collecting my finisher medal, a recovery bag, and a poncho all within the finisher chute, it was time to exit the park. There were people looking out for Team for Kids runners. They were there to provide any assistance and to direct us to the post race area. TFK runners got to exit a bit early using Terrace Dr. Since I was on a deferred entry and did not re-register with the charity, I wasn't really part of the team. So once I exited the park at W 72nd St, I headed south along Central Park West to meet up with my friend. He was spectating near the corner of 59th St and 6th Ave. After we saw Eviltwin come through, we went our separate ways.
Finisher medal
Post race recovery bag
As I was headed back to my room, I was stopped by a couple of strangers asking me where the finish line was located. After I told them where and that they probably wouldn't be able to get close to the finish line, one of them wanted to take a picture of my medal. She didn't think that she would ever be able to finish the NYC Marathon or even get into the race. I encouraged her to keep entering the drawing or perhaps go down the charity route and run with Team for Kids. It's a great charity and they have one of the lowest fundraising obligations at $2,620.
Random stranger wanted a picture of the medal
Along the way back to my room, I decided to just get dinner at the Go! Go! Curry! on E 53rd St near 2nd Ave. Once again, I ordered the home run katsu curry with chicken and added fukuzinjuke. For some reason, this particular meal always hits the spot after running a marathon.
Post race dinner
Once I got back to my room, I got my marathon stuff in order and photographed before getting cleaned up. I noticed that there were pieces of disintegrated paper cup stuck to the back of my calves. Apparently, Gatorade made for a great adhesive as it was kind of hard to get off!
Monday 11/7
Since I had a somewhat late afternoon flight, I took my time in getting packed and ready to check-out of my room. I wore my finisher shirt for the trip home and man was that shirt form-fitting! It fits, but it was tight. I could barely roll up the sleeves.
I dropped the keycards at the front desk and left shortly after 10:30 am. I hoofed it over to the Urban Hawker to get lunch before heading to the airport. The weather was too nice and warm to be wearing long sleeves. Since I was carrying my bags with me, I was definitely overheating on my walk over. For this visit, I checked out the Prawnaholic Collections stall. I ordered their #1 special prawn dry ramen. It was a bit too salty for my liking, but very flavorful. I would like to come back and try one of their noodle soups. As I was about done, an employee, perhaps the owner came by to get some feedback from me. It was a thumbs up for me.
#1 Special prawn ramen
After I was done with my meal, I gathered my belongings and headed over to the 7th Ave Metro station a couple of blocks north to catch the E line. I got off of the train at Sutphin Blvd - Archer Ave station in Jamaica. As I exited to go catch the Airtrain, I came across the usual people asking for your Metrocard. Unfortunately, I still needed it to pay for the Airtrain. I used one of the kiosks to load $8 on the card and rode it over to terminal 5.
The TSA general line was very long, but pretty well organized. They had many many lines running everywhere, but it was well managed. After I got through security screening, I walked over to the Starbucks to get a drink. This time they had cream. I cashed in some of my stars for a venti salted caramel cream cold brew. I then headed over to my gate to wait for my flight. I received a notification that my flight was delayed due to the inbound plane being late. It ended up not causing much of a delay as the pilot was able to make up some time on the flight into LAX. During the flight, I got a bag of Chifles plantain chips. They were very good! I wasn't familiar with the brand, but I'll have to look into purchasing a bigger bag.
Venti salted caramel cream cold brew
Time to go home
These were very good!
Almost time to land at LAX
After getting off of the plane, I headed up to the departure level to catch a shuttle back to my car at the Renaissance LAX hotel. Per the usual, I stopped at the valet station to show that I had prepaid for parking via SpotHero and get my parking ticket validated.
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