I had an evening flight out of LAX. After eating dinner and taking a quick shower, I headed out to the airport. Traffic wasn't too bad. I pulled up to the LAX Economy Parking at about 7:30 pm. Thankfully, the license reader was working this time around and automatically raised the gate. After finding a suitable parking spot in the EV section, I headed over to the bus loading area. They had moved the loading spot to the other side.
LAX Economy Parking
Loading spot was moved
For this trip out to NYC, I had booked my airfare through Hawaiian Airlines. Since they had been acquired by Alaska Airlines, I had to head over to Terminal 6 for my flight. I supposed that I could've booked my flight directly with Alaska Airlines. For the amount that I had paid, they treated me as a Saver Fare passenger. I was assigned a seat at check-in and had to board with the last group. Thankfully, there was still overhead bin space when boarded the plane. I was assigned an aisle seat. I think the last time that I had flown out of this terminal was with Delta Airlines. They had since moved to terminal 3.
Terminal 6
I tried watching Wicked, but it was so unnecessarily long! Honestly, I dozed off for a good majority of it. Both the singing and acting were okay, but nowhere near as good as hyped by movie reviewers. I would easily prefer a live musical performance any day! This was only part 1?
Wicked
Friday 5/16
The flight landed at Newark Liberty International Airport a bit early at about a quarter before 6 am. In the week leading up to this trip, the news had been reporting about radar screens going black for air traffic controllers. Perhaps the news deterred people from wanting to fly in and out of this airport. I was pretty confident that they would rectify the situation before my trip. Thank goodness they did. Everything went pretty smoothly. I did take me a while to locate a restroom. As I was headed to catch the NJ Transit train, I came across a dog being scolded by his/her owner because he/she was taking a shit inside the airport. The dog looked malnourished and was cowering as if he/she had been beaten before. Scumbags like that absolutely do not deserve to have a dog as a pet! Well, just as I came up to the kiosk to purchase a train ticket, there were signs as well as an employee there telling me that the trains were not running. The employee informed me that the locomotive engineers were on a strike. There had not been one in over 40 years! She told me that I could take the AirTrain over to P4 parking where I could catch a free bus ride over to Newark Penn Station. From there I could catch a PATH train over to Manhattan.
Newark Terminal B
The unplanned detour wasn't too bad. After reaching the World Trade Center at about 7 am, it was still too early to do anything. Ultimately, I headed over to the Starbucks in the North Concourse of the Oculus to get my coffee. I place my order on the mobile app for my usual drink, a grande blonde vanilla latte. This was one of the most expensive Starbucks that I had ever visited. My drink was $7.24 versus the usual $5.95!
Starbucks
Grande blonde vanilla latte
Instead of taking the subway over to Brooklyn, I decided to get in some steps and hoofed it over the Brooklyn Bridge. It was early enough that the bridge was empty. There was the occasional runner or tourist. Once I reached the other side, I took the stairs down to Prospect St and headed for Brooklyn Bridge Park via Old Fulton St. From there, I walked over to Pier 2 for the race expo.
Brooklyn Bridge
Manhattan Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1
Race expo at Pier 2
After using the restroom, I found a place to sit down as the race expo was not scheduled to open until 9 am. The amount of people waiting to go inside slowly grew to the point where it was a decent size crowd. They had participants' names on the entrance wall. I decided that I would find my name on the way out. I went inside and found an open volunteer to get assigned a bib number. I then picked up my race shirt and an event guide. The rest of the expo was mostly official merchandise, a huge course map with key locations, and a stage for the speakers. I didn't stay for any of that. I took a quick picture of lower Manhattan before heading out.
Participants name wall at the entrance to the tent
Found my name
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Event guide
View of lower Manhattan
I headed out to Clark St to catch a subway train. This time around, I took the Squibb Park Bridge to get up to Columbia Heights. Along the way, I bumped into my friend, Coach Ben. We chatted briefly and took a selfie before we went our separate ways. FYI, he's a Manchester United supporter. My Spurs have the Europa Final against them in Bilbao, Spain on Wednesday! #COYS!
Coach Ben
I took the subway over to Columbus Circle. From there, I walked over to the NYRR RUNCENTER to use their restroom. I had to make use of my NYRR membership, right? It's usually where I hang out if I have time to pass or needed to charge my phone. After I took care of business, I walked over to the Brooklyn Diner to get some brunch. I was seated at the bar where I ordered my usual, coffee and steak & eggs. After I was done with my meal, the bartender and I actually chatted about the NYC Marathon in November. He wasn't a runner, but he told me that they get a ton of business during that weekend.
Breakfast at Brooklyn Diner
Steak & Eggs
After paying my bill, I walked over Central Park to finally locate the NYC Marathon finish line plaque. It was installed on West Dr back in 2019 between W 67 St and 68th St, near the Tavern on the Green. I will see you again later this year in November!
NYC Marathon finish line plaque
From there, I walked over to Target to buy some water and snacks for the weekend. As always, I looked to see if they had Mallomars. However, it's a seasonal item, usually only sold during cold seasons. I ended up only buying a gallon jug of water for $1.69. I went with the Target brand, Good & Gather, as it was the cheapest option.
Gallon of water from Target for $1.69
I went back to the NYRR RUNCENTER to relax a bit. By the time I had left at around 1 pm, it had started to rain a little bit. I really didn't want to get out the umbrella, so I went down 6½ Ave to reach the Urban Hawker at W 51st St. I wasn't too hungry, but I could still eat. Since I wanted to keep on earning American Airline miles, I decided to eat at Smokin' Joe. I ordered their grilled chicken curry rice with the curry on the side.
Grilled chicken curry rice
Unfortunately, on the walk over to the Club Wyndham Midtown 45, the rain was coming down hard enough that I needed to get out the umbrella. I timed it so that I would get there after 2 pm as that was the last hour slot of their useless owner updates. Thankfully, my room was ready. They put me in room #502. As for stopping at the concierge desk, I could not get past them. It was the same shit. They had a sob story that they absolutely needed me to go in order to fulfill their quota. I was so tired with trying to talk my way out of it that I ultimately committed to attending for $100 AMEX gift card and $25 Uber voucher. I tried to get all $125 as an AMEX gift card, but she wouldn't budge. I will definitely need to up my game next time. It's either $200+ for the incentive or I won't be attending.
Committed to another useless and unnecessary "owner update"
I got settled into my room before going through my usual routine for a Saturday morning race. I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow and watched some WWE Friday Night SmackDown. Then I took a shower before calling it a night.
Flat runner
WWE Friday Night Smackdown!
Saturday 5/17
I got ready and left my room at about 5:15 am. I walked over to Times Square-42 St to catch the first 2 or 3 train out to Brooklyn. Just as I was about to head down to the train platform, I made eye contact with a fellow runner. He made a comment, "you look like you know where you're going." My response was that it was pretty straightforward. We just needed to hop on a train headed for New Lots or Flatbush. If not, you can always just follow the group of runners. It would turn out that he's friends Geoff Smith, the guy that Rod Dixon had beaten by seconds by running the tangents back in the 1983 NYC Marathon. Per the runner instructions, waves 1 and 4 should get off at Franklin Ave while waves 2 and 3 should get off at Grand Army Plaza. My new friend was in wave 1. While I was in wave 2, I planned to get off at Franklin to get coffee at Starbucks. After a quick selfie, I wished him a good race before we went our separate ways. While he headed for the gear check and security screening, I looked for an opening to get to the other side of the street to get to that Starbucks. I ordered my usual grande blonde vanilla latte. While waiting for my drink, I saw some race participants come inside looking for a restroom. I'm certain that stored in NYC have issues with homelessness, so public restrooms are hard to find.
Fred
Starbucks
Grande blonde vanilla latte
With my coffee in hand, I started walking over to the Grand Army Plaza. It was about time for wave 2 people to start loading into the corrals. The weather was actually a bit too warm for me to be drinking hot coffee. After getting through the metal detectors, I discarded my coffee cup into a recycling bin before heading over to corral A. While waiting, I got to see wave 1 walk up to the start line on Washington Ave. At about 7:15 am, it was time for wave 2 to start loading.
Metal detectors
Brooklyn Museum
Wave 2, corral A queued up at the start line
I crossed the start line at 7:24 am. I ran with the 1:50 pacers for about the first 5k. The course was pretty crowded as we ran the lollipop route on Flatbush Ave with a loop around Grand Army Plaza. Once we got onto East Dr, I started to pull back on the pace as I was sweating more than I would have liked. Once we reached a steeper climb near mile 5, the pacers pulled away from me and I was dropped. The nonstop rollers through the park wore me out where I finally pulled over to walk on the last climb at almost mile 7 before exiting the park. I was thinking that the worst was over as we got onto the Prospect Expressway. What was left was pretty much a straight shot down to Coney Island. However boy did I get on the struggle bus at about mile 8.5 when my left leg and foot cramped up. I was hoping to cruise to the finish line in under 2 hours, but that went out the window really quick. I tried my best to get the cramping to subside, but I was definitely overheating and had to take frequent walk breaks.
Finish: 2:03:22
Click here for my Garmin data.
While I was just wanting to finish in under 2 hours, sometimes I have to be content with just finishing as the weather conditions were not conducive for a fast finishing time. I'm notorious for crumbling in warm humid conditions. It's just how my body was built. Once again, I was a bit worried about the lump on my right knee, but it didn't bother me during the entirety of the race. This was my slowest time in the 4 times that I have run this race.
2019: 1:56:46
2018: 1:58:16
2017: 1:55:05
Shortly after receiving my finisher medal, I came up to the volunteers passing out cold wet towels. Man, that felt good to put around my neck! I also used it to wiped off the salt from my face. After that, I got my recovery bag with some post race goodies and drinks.
Finisher medal
Close up of back of finisher medal
Post race recovery bag contents
It got a bit chilly in my wet clothes. I didn't feel like sticking around, so after using a portapotty, I headed for the exit. I had thought about getting a Nathan's hot dog, but the lines were insanely long. Instead, I headed for the Coney Island Stillwell station to catch a train back to my hotel. Pretty much all of the lines would take me back to midtown Manhattan. I opted for the F train. However, the conductor informed us that he did not have a signal and the wait could be indefinite. He advised us to take another line. A bunch of us all walked over to the Q line. Thankfully, this train was running. It was one of the older trains and it got really packed! I got off of the train at Times Square-42 St.
Post race party at Maimonides Park
Nathan's
For dinner, I was too lazy to go anywhere far, so I ordered food from the GAI Chicken & Rice across the street. I ordered the roasted chicken salad and zaab wings. This just might be my go-to meal after running an electrolyte depleting warm humid race! That was a good salad and there was a lot of meat on those wings!
GAI Chicken
Roasted chicken salad and zaab wings
Sunday 5/18
At about 7:15 am, I walked over to Times Square to eat breakfast at Junior's on 45th St. Once I had arrived, I found an empty seat at the counter near one of the TVs. Eventually, they had the Everton match on one of the screens. Unfortunately, it was on the screen that was the furthest from me. I ordered coffee and my usual steak & eggs. While drinking my coffee, the waiter brought me a single Rugelach. Not sure why, but I thought it went well with coffee.
Coffee at Junior's on 45th
Rugelach
Steak & Eggs
Back at my room, I caught the remainder of the Everton v. Southampton match. It was a pretty significant match as it was the final one at Goodison Park. They had played there since 1892! They are still giving out tours and it will be the new home for the Everton women. Honestly, it wasn't a very impressive stadium from the street when I ran by it during the Rock n' Roll Liverpool Marathon back in 2014. Their new stadium will be the Hill Dickinson Stadium located at the Bramley-Moore Dock.
Everton wins their final match at Goodison Park
Just as I was about to leave my room to go down for my owner update that was scheduled for 9:30 am, I got a courtesy call to remind me to bring my ID. Once I reached the lobby, the lady walked me over to some office building just around the corner on 3rd Ave. She gave the guy at the front desk my information and a QR code was generated for me. I scanned the QR to gain entrance. The guy told me how to use their fancy pants elevator to get up to the 2nd floor. After checking in and getting my gifts, I found a seat to wait for my assigned rep/salesman to come get me. Holy shit, this update seriously pissed me off. For the past 3 updates, I've gotten 3 different stories as to what was wrong with my ownership. This particular one felt like they were trying to convert me to a Club Wyndham member. He tried to explain to me that while the maintenance fees will initially go up, it will increase at a pace of 2% per year vs. 9% with my current WorldMark ownership. He kept reassuring me that I wasn't buying anything. However, when he wanted my SSN. I asked why he was doing a credit check if he was not going to be selling me anything? Oh, it's just part of the process. When it showed that my credit was frozen, he asked if I could unfreeze it. My response was, "no, are you crazy? My info has been exposed and I'm not going to unfreeze it right now." He kept saying that I won't be paying a down payment and taking on a new monthly loan payment. However, ultimately, I got him to say that I would be leaving with a higher payment per month. That's when he knew that there was no change that I would be upgrading and let me go.
Here to waste another hour of my life
At least they had free WiFi
After wasting another hour that I'll never get back, I started heading back to my room. I shared the elevator with a group on the way down. One guy noticed my Tottenham cap. Turned out that he was an Arsenal fan. He actually wanted the Spurs to beat Man United in the upcoming Europa League final. Back at my room, I resumed watching EPL matches. I caught the remainder of the Brentford v. Fulham match. Then followed that with the Arsenal v. Newcastle match. After that I watched whatever was on the History channel as they show my favorite series on Sundays. I was pretty hungry by about 4 pm. Since I didn't want to go anywhere, I decided to place an order with GAI Chicken again. This time I went with the fried chicken bowl and the sticky Thai BBQ wings. Not bad, but the zaab wings were better and not as messy.
GAI Chicken again
Fried chicken bowl with sticky Thai BBQ wings
Monday 5/19
Holy cow, I need to stop booking early morning flights just because they're cheaper. I woke up super early and checked out of my room at about 3:15 am to go catch my flight out in Newark. Although the NJ Transit rail strike ended, services would not resume until Tuesday. In the past, I had always opted for a NJ Transit train out of NY Penn Station to get to the airport. This morning, I took a 4 train from Grand Central-42 Station down to WTC to catch a PATH train over to Newark Penn Station. While waiting for the PATH train to leave, there was a person on the car that was standing, but was hunched over. He was moving like a zombie and occasionally crashing his head into the side of the train. Thank goodness, eventually, he straightened up and got out of the car. He definitely was strung out on some kind of drug. Once I had arrived at Newark Penn Station, I caught a bus ride over to the P4 parking lot at Newark Liberty International Airport. Then I took the AirTrain to get to terminal B.
Early flight out of Newark
I had a window seat in the row just in front of an exit row, the seat did not recline. That was perfectly fine with me since I hardly ever recline the seats. Also this might have been one of the seats with extra leg room. Sometimes, during my travels, I will come across some really weird people. The person sitting next to me was shaking his legs for the majority of the flight, except it wasn't up and down. It was side to side, so occasionally, he'll bump me and wake me up. He would also rapidly go from app to app on his phone and swiping through everything. I'm pretty sure he has ADHD. Now for the guy in the aisle seat, it would appear that it was his first time on an airplane. He came across the barf bag. He opened it and examined it. Then he started stuffing some of his trash in it. Then when the flight attendants started beverage service, he would not wait until she had gotten to our row. He would stretch out and tap her on the shoulder to get in his drink order as if his life depended on it. It wasn't exactly a pleasant flight home.
Biscoff and ginger ale
View of downtown LA
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