Another weekend, another flight out of LAX for another race. This time I would be taking a red eye flight out to NYC, so I timed it to arrive at the LAX Economy Parking structure at about 8 pm. It was quite the crowded shuttle ride out to terminal 4. The shuttle driver was pretty jovial and was dishing out marriage advice to a soon-to-be married couple.
LAX Economy Parking
Maybe one of these days...
Prior to making an attempt to get some sleep, I finally caught the Ballerina. Having enjoyed all 4 John Wick movies, I was looking forward to seeing this movie. I thought Ana de Armas did well, but the John Wick cameo kind of didn't fit the story. They could've done without him being in the movie. The "final" battle or shootout was kind of hilarious. I had the curry sandwich meal while watching the movie. Having a meal served for a basic economy seat for a flight from LAX to JFK was probably one of the reasons why I would consider flying in and out of either airport.
Ballerina
Curry sandwich meal
Saturday 9/20
The plane landed on time at JFK Airport at just before 6:30 am local time. Apparently, the guy sitting in the middle seat next to me was really ready to get off of the plane. He was pretty short in asking me to let him out into the aisle where he pushed his way forward past a few more rows. I guess that's pretty typical for a New Yorker. We deplaned into terminal 8.
I skipped the first available restroom and continued walking through the terminal until I got to the next restroom. I then made my way towards the AirTrain station. I waited for the next available train which was headed towards Howard Beach. I prefer going there over Jamaica station. For some reason, I still had to pay for the AirTrain and subway separately as the turnstiles for the combo was still not working. They continue to have an employee positioned there to make sure that no one tried to use those combo turnstiles. There I waited for the next A train into Manhattan.
AirTrain to Howard Beach
I got off at 59 St-Columbus Circle station. I walked over to the Brooklyn Diner on 57th St to get some breakfast. After I was seated and given coffee, I ordered my usual steak & eggs. It was good and never disappoints, but it looked like they're skimping on portions. However, the prices keep going up without fail.
Coffee
Steak & eggs
After I was done with my meal and paid my bill, I used their restroom before heading out. As with my normal routine, I walked up to the Target to buy some drinks for the weekend. I skipped on buying any snacks as I still need to lose a few more pounds. I bought a gallon jug of water and a bottle of Gatorade. I paid for my items using one of the self-checkout kiosks. The mobile app had logged me out and I had forgotten my password again, so I had to enter my telephone number instead.
Gallon of water
Midnight Ice Gatorade
I then walked down to the NYRR RUNCENTER on 57th and 8 Ave to pick up my race packet. They weren't open until 9:30 am. When I arrived, there were already a few people waiting outside. After I was assigned a race bib, I went to the store area in the back to get my race shirt. I then sat and waited on the bleachers while I charged my phone up a bit.
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
While waiting, I received a hotel reservation confirmation email for the same dates as my current trip. Many thoughts ran through my head. Was one of my accounts hacked? Was someone screwing with me? It wasn't until about 30 minutes later where my timeshare rental for this weekend finally notified me that I had been walked to another nearby property. Normally, it would be due to being overbooked, but the email was quite vague as for the reason why.
I used one of the restrooms for my usual morning BM before heading out. Once again, I tried to access 6½ Ave off of 57th St to head down to the Urban Hawker, but the doors weren't open for access. Then when I reached 52nd St, they had blocked that section off with caution tape. I had to go around to reach my destination. Not sure if they were having some special event. Although all of the stalls were doing prep work, none of them looked to be opened at their usual hours for lunch. Eventually, I walked back up to 56th St to eat lunch at Shinjuku Ramen. The place was pretty empty. After I was seated, I ordered their Shoyu King ramen with pork and a side of edamame.
Shoyu King ramen with pork
After I was done with my meal and had paid my bill, I walked over to the Club Quarters Hotel, Grand Central to see if I could check in a bit early. At first, I tried to check in on the mobile app as CQ used to be one of my go-to hotels before I had bought into WorldMark. However, it wanted credit card information even though the room was already prepaid by my timeshare. I aborted the process and figured that I should just check in with a human instead. After showing him an ID, he was able to walk me through the check-in process at a check-in kiosk. I still needed to tap my own credit card for incidentals. I was given room keys for room #902 up on the 9th floor. The room was definitely comparable to what I had booked over at the Club Wyndham Midtown 45 property. In fact, it was arguably better. Since this would've been my 4th time at that property just this year, I would venture to guess that they really did not want a disgruntled timeshare owner at that property. Well, we shall see come November, as I'll be back for the NYC Marathon.
Club Quarters Grand Central
Hand soap
Shampoo and conditioner
Way overpriced snacks!
Kitchenette
I was able to get settled into my room and catch the interesting Man Utd v. Chelsea match. I saw that Chelsea was down to 10 men with goalkeeper Robert Sanchez making a stupid challenge to pick up a red card. As a Spurs fan, I guess I technically counted as a neutral. However, Sanchez was my GK for FPL. Even so, I couldn't care less if Chelsea was going to lose to an extremely poor Man Utd squad. Being 1 man up, Man Utd was able to score 2 goals. However, to make things interesting as if they really didn't want to win, Casemiro picked up a second yellow as the 1st half was winding down. Not sure why the pundits were calling that a harsh second yellow as Casemiro clearly pulled on the player's kit while bringing him down. That had to be one of the easiest yellow cards to call! I dozed off in the second half as it was a snooze-fest with it now being 10 vs 10. Chelsea was able to get a goal, but Man Utd ended up winning 2-1.
Man Utd v. Chelsea
I eventually took a nap and got up to get some dinner. I stuck with my recent go-to spot, GAI Chicken & Rice. I placed my order on their mobile app. I saw that they had a $1.65 off special for the roasted chicken salad for the month of September. I went with that and the Zaab wings with spicy mayo. I arrived a bit too early as the guy wasn't finished bagging up my food.
Zaab wings with spicy mayo
Roasted chicken salad
After finishing dinner, I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race and took a shower before calling it a night. Once again, I would be wearing my orange Team OAR shirt. In addition to securing a spot in next year's NYC Marathon via 9+1, this was one of my last remaining long runs before my charity race at the upcoming Chicago Marathon.
Flat runner
Sunday 9/21
I got up early to get ready for the race. Just like prior times when heading over to Central Park for a race, I took a walk from the hotel over to the Starbucks that was closest to the start/finish line. The walk was just under 3 miles and took around 45 minutes. Per the usual, I placed my order on the mobile app for my regular drink, grande blonde vanilla latte, before going inside to wait for my drink.
Grande blonde vanilla latte
With coffee in hand, I headed into Central Park. There were a few people here and there, but it was still dark. Once I had reached race central near 102nd St, there were plenty of fellow race participants milling about. After using a portapotty, I checked out the start line before heading back to my corral where I found a nearby vacant bench to sit and wait for the start of the race.
9+1 qualifier bell
Start line
Sunrise
The race started promptly at 7 am. For this race, I attempted to see how it would go if I tried to hold onto a faster pace from the beginning. The first 2 loops went okay. I think if it was a half marathon, I could've held it together better and not have that fade during the tail end of the 2nd loop. Unfortunately, about 15.5 miles in, I hit the wall much sooner than I had expected. I had to walk up cat hill on the third loop. At least I was able to cover Harlem Hill and the 3 bitches for all 3 loops. However, just to make sure I stayed humble, my left hamstring cramped up during the final stretch. I did manage to keep it under 3 hours, finishing in 2:55:14 which was a little over 25 mins faster than when I had last run this back in 2018.
Finish: 2:55:14
Click here for my Garmin data.
One of the things that I like about this "race" was that it was a training run, so there were no participation medals passed out at the finish line. After getting a quick selfie with Coach Ben, we got our post race goodies, before we both started heading over to the east side. From there, he had other NYRR duties to attend to, so we went our separate ways.
Coach Ben
Post race goodies
9+1 status update
For some reason, I thought that it would be a great idea to not take the subway and walk back to my hotel. I was running or walking on fumes with about 20 blocks to go! A security guy stationed at the entrance to the Lotte New York Palace had a question for me. With all of the heavy police and secret service presence, I was caught a bit off-guard. I thought he was going to give me the third degree as to where I was headed. Instead, he saw my bib and wanted to know more about the training race. I told him it was just a 3 loop, 18 mile run in Central Park to train for the upcoming NYC Marathon. He said that he asked because he's an ultrarunner. Then 18 milers and marathons would be kid stuff to him! It was pretty cool chatting with him as he also had a very typical New Yorker accent.
Back at my room, I turned on the TV to get caught on today's EPL matches. In lieu of a proper lunch, I just ate the pretzels and apple. I then discovered that I had recently switched over to the Peacock Select annual plan for $79.99 which didn't have live matches. I had to switch my plan over to Peacock Premium for $109.99. Supposedly, they'll refund me the unused portion on my annual plan which should take about a week for them to process. All that so that I could watch the Arsenal v. Man City match. I tried to cast the stream onto the room TV. After a couple of failed attempts to get it to work, I gave up and just watched it on my cellphone. The Gooners were clearly the more potent team offensively, but they conceded a rather early goal to Haaland. Then it would appear that City was content on just defending that 1 goal lead. I was pretty wiped out, so I actually dozed off and missed the late stoppage-time equalizer by Martinelli. Not that I cared too much, but for some reason, the Gooners continued to lack that killer instinct. Unless something changes, they won't be winning the league again this year.
For dinner, I decided to just stick with GAI Chicken & Rice. I ordered the same exact food as yesterday. However, when I got back to my room, I noticed that he had given me the Thai sticky wings instead of the Zaab wings. They're not bad, but I much prefer the Zaab wings.
Roasted chicken salad and Thai sticky wings
Monday 9/22
I got ready and checked out of my room at about 8:30 am. While planning out this trip, I could've opted to take a super early red eye flight out of JFK Airport. Instead I went with a noon flight out of LaGuardia LGA Airport with a layover in Indianapolis. That way I wouldn't need to be taking the subway at dark o'clock. However, I still had to deal with the morning rush of New Yorkers getting into work. First I headed south on Lexington down to 42nd St to catch a 7 train at the Grand Central-42 St station. Once I got through the turnstile, I headed down to the lower level. Boy, the platforms were packed! Honestly, I wasn't used to there being so many people. Thankfully, most of the people were headed in the opposite direction towards Hudson Yards and not towards Flushing. I got off at the 74 St-Broadway station to go catch the Q70 bus over to the airport.
I got off at terminal B. I then headed up the escalator to the check-in level to head for TSA security screening. Once I got through there, I went over to Starbucks to get my morning coffee. On the mobile app, I ordered my usual grande blonde vanilla latte. With coffee in hand, I started heading over to my gate. Once I plopped myself down at an open seat, I noticed that I had scrapped up my left knee. It don't recall, but it must have occurred while I was going through the turnstile.
Grande blonde vanilla latte
Banged up left knee
Tomato juice and Biscoff cookie
It was raining when the plane landed at Indianapolis IND Airport. Thankfully, the weather wasn't an issue. I did a walkthrough of the terminal to check out my food options. Eventually, I decided to just get food at Starbucks. On the mobile app, I ordered one of my favorite breakfast items, their bacon, sausage, and egg wrap. I thought it would be quicker and cheaper to get their Pike Place medium roast coffee. However, there was a lot of orders and everything was slow to come out. Eventually, the guy making most of the drinks asked if anyone was waiting on drip coffee. For some reason, he didn't have my order sticker, but he still poured the coffee for me. I then found a vacant table to eat my food.
Bacon, sausage, and egg wrap with Pike Place medium roast coffee.
On the second leg from IND to LAX, I watched A Working Man. It was your typical Jason Statham kick ass movie. It was another rescue movie where he kills a lot of bad guys with relative ease. The fight scenes were well choreographed and entertaining to watch, but quite predictable. Unfortunately, there was very little substance so this wasn't a movie with a whole lot of rewatch-value. It certainly helped with passing the time on the flight home.
Ginger ale and mini pretzels
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