After eating dinner, I got dropped off at Ontario ONT Airport terminal 4 for my evening red eye flight to the east coast. Normally, I would book a direct flight into one of the NYC area airports when running the NYC Marathon, but I went with a cheaper flight with a layover out in Charlotte CLT Airport.
Ontario Airport
ONT > CLT
Friday 10/31
The flight landed on schedule in Charlotte where I would have a layover of a couple of hours. After getting off of the plane and using the restroom, I made a stop at the Starbucks to get my usual grande blonde vanilla latte. With my coffee in hand, I found a nearby empty seat to enjoy my morning coffee before heading over to my gate.
Grande blonde vanilla latte
Halloween socks
For my next leg into JFK, we were able to leave a bit early once we had everyone onboard the plane. I supposed that with the continued government shutdown, the flight crew would like to get in queue as early as possible to avoid any delays. During the flight, I watched a live TV stream from NYC. Besides the usual blitz of political ads, it was cool to see the weather forecast and news focused on the NYC Marathon!
CLT > JFK
After getting off of the plane at terminal 8 and using the restroom, I headed over to the AirTrain station to catch a ride over to one of the 2 MTA subway stations. Unfortunately, the first one to arrive was headed for Jamaica station. I much prefer heading over to Howard Beach.
AirTrain Terminal 8
The surrounding area of the Jamaica station was pretty much a shithole. From here, I could either catch a LIRR train or hop on an E, J, or Z subway train. After tapping to pay $8.50 for a very very short ride on the AirTrain, I tapped again at the subway fare gate and headed down to the platform to wait for the next E train. One year, I will ride the LIRR as it doesn't cost that much more. I got off of the train at the MTA 34th-Penn Station.
Jamaica station
From there, I headed west for the Jacob Javits Convention Center for the race expo. Per the usual, the queue to get in was spectacularly long and somewhat confusing for the uninitiated. As this wasn't my first rodeo, I knew that there would be several "lines" and got into the shorter one. They resembled more of a herd of cattle than an actual line.
Jacob Javits Convention Center
Queue to get inside
Once I got inside, I realized that I didn't have my runner info ready. I sort of remembered my bib number, but I needed to at least retrieve my NYRR QR check-in code. The recent changes to the Yahoo mobile app made it quite difficult to search for a specific email. I eventually updated the NYRR mobile app and got that info through there.
Bib pick-up
Official program & runner guide
After receiving my bib and an official program & runner guide for the marathon, I got in line to pick up my race bib for tomorrow's Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5k. For this pre-marathon shakeout race, we received a beanie as the race premium.
Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5k
Beanie
Next was where it started getting chaotic. I had to swim through a sea of people just to get my medium size long sleeve race shirt. There was zero elbow room as there was a huge bottleneck of people having to go through the New Balance official race merchandise area before going into the rest of the expo. The layout was designed to not allow people to bypass the official merchandise. Once I got inside that area, I made a beeline for the exit. My plan was to come back later to check things out when I don't have my travel bags with me.
Long sleeve race shirt
Back of race shirt
Just as I was texting my friends to locate them, one of them saw me. After saying hi to our pacer friends, I moved on to finding my name on the runner name wall. Then we went over to the NYRR area to pick up our member item. In the past several years, they had been giving out pint glasses with the year on it. They changed it up this year with a stainless steel version. Unfortunately, it did not have the year printed on it.
JC pacing 6 hours
Runner name wall
Found my name
Coach Ben!
NYRR member gift
For lunch, we walked over to a nearby French restaurant called, Steak Frites. It was my suggestion since I do love steaks and it was a restaurant that was participating in the AAdvantage Dining Program. I probably should've done a little bit more research as it was a pricey restaurant. It was listed as an acclaimed higher end restaurant. Also, I would find out later that Fridays were excluded from earning any reward miles. After looking over the menu, I went with their prix fixe lunch. For my hors d'oeuvre (starter), I went with the pâté de campagne. For my plat principaux (entree) I went with the steak frites for $8 extra. Finally for my dessert I got the chocolat ganache tarte. I believe it was either the manager or the owner that took our order. Well, it turned out that he messed up my order. Instead of the pâté, he put me in for the salade verte. When the salads came out, my friends that had ordered a salad rightfully went ahead and ate them. I waited and waited for my pâté. It didn't seem like an item that would take very long to bring out. Eventually, I checked with the waitress and she asked if we had received the salads. I told her that we did, but that I had ordered the pâté. She went back to the kitchen to fix that issue. The guy stopped by later to apologize for the mix-up. He jokingly said that he thought that I really should eat a salad instead. :) My friend who had the side salad gave that to me when her food came out.
Complimentary bread
Prix fixe lunch, steak frites and salade verte
Pâté de campagne
Chocolat ganache tarte
After we were done and had paid our bill. we started hoofing it over to the Club Wyndham Midtown 45 property to check into our units. They all were sharing one bigger unit, while I was in my own little hotel room with no kitchen. I was assigned to unit #906 which was directly across from the elevators. Per the usual, I had to make that mandatory stop at the dreaded concierge station. At the very least, they had hired a nicer guy to wrangle people into another owner review. I put up a weak effort to get out of attending another one. I just don't have the will or resolve to fight these people anymore. I reluctantly agreed to go to one and expressed my disappointment with past experiences at this location. At first I asked for a Tango gift card to which he said that the max amount was $100. I switched to a AMEX card as the max for that was $125. He then took a $60 refundable deposit and scheduled me for 2 pm tomorrow.
Mr Bones in a robe down in the lobby
After settling into my room, I had to decide whether to attend the Parade of Nations over at Central Park or go to the Meet & Greet back at the convention center. I decided on the latter. On the walk over, I stopped in at the Target to buy some drinks. I bought the usual 1 gallon of water and a bottle of Gatorade. The elite runner that we met this time was Stephanie Bruce. They had a raffle where each of us was given 2 tickets. We were instructed to place our tickets into the bowl associated with the item that we wanted to win. I put both of my tickets into the bowl for the medium sized NYC Marathon jacket. To my surprise, at the end of the event, I ended up winning that item! Thank goodness because it was pretty windy and cold outside. I ended up wearing it for the walk back. Before heading out, I got a pic with Steph Bruce. I asked her what her goal was for Sunday. She told me that she wanted to try for a sub 2:30! Awesome! I thanked her for the photo and wished her well for Sunday.
Gallon of water and Gatorade
Back to Jacob Javits Convention Center
Yakult sample
Autism Speaks button and Jerusalem Marathon flyer
Meet and Greet with Stephanie Bruce
Pretzels and some non-alcoholic beer
Won a NYC Marathon jacket in a raffle
Said hi to Stacy before heading out
Once I returned to my room, I dropped off my drinks and placed an order for some dinner at the nearby GAI Chicken & Rice. I ordered the roasted chicken bowl and zaab wings. When I walked over to pick up my food, the guy working there was quite aloof and didn't understand English all too well. I had game 6 of the World Series on while I ate my food. I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow, took a shower, and fell asleep before the game ended. Thankfully, I woke up to find out that the Dodgers had won to even up the series. It actually took a ball hit by Barger being wedged into the outfield wall to prevent the Blue Jays from having the chance to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th. The umps ruled it a dead ball aka ground-rule double.
Roasted chicken bowl and zaab wings
5k flat runner
Saturday 11/1
Staying at this location was super convenient with the start line of the race so close by over on 1st Ave. I met up with my friends in the lobby shortly after 8 am. After walking over together and taking some selfies, we went our separate ways as we had different goals for this race. While waiting for the start of the race, I started chatting with the 2 volunteers that were in charge of the corral. It was cool to hear their reasons for volunteering and why they wanted to run the NYC Marathon via the 9+1 program.
UN Building
Race volunteer
The race started heading south on 1st Ave with a very quick right turn onto 42nd St to follow. Even with the wide Manhattan streets, the course was incredibly congested during that first mile. My goal was to run with an average pace of 7:45 min/mile. For the most part, I just followed other runners that were running at about the same pace. The next turn as I approached mile 1 was a right turn onto 6th Ave, heading north towards Central Park. I was able to speed up a bit during this stretch up to 59th St where I made a right turn. At Grand Army Plaza, at about mile 2, I made a left turn into Central Park and headed north along East Dr. My pace slowed a tad as I ran up to a left turn onto Center Dr. That road would become West Dr for the final stretch to the finish line.
1: 7:49
2: 7:35
3: 7:54
3.1: 1:22
Abbott Dash for the Finish Line 5k: 24:40
Click here for my Garmin data.
After crossing the finish line, I congratulated a fellow runner that finished right around me. She asked me to take a finish line photo for her. She assumed that I was Chinese and spoke to me in Mandarin Chinese. With my limited Mandarin, I asked if she happened to be Taiwanese. It turned out that she was, so we switched to Taiwanese. She told me that she had travelled alone from Taiwan and didn't want to get to the marathon too early tomorrow. I told her that from experience, she should get there as early as possible.
We received a post race recovery bag further down the finisher chute. It had way too much for only a 5k! Once we made our way out of Central Park, we wished each other luck in tomorrow's race and went our separate ways. I headed south. Along the way, the most annoying thing that I saw was a bunch of douchebag Michelob Team Ultra runners taking up an entire lane of the walkway. The sidewalk was closed and the street was still open to vehicular traffic and they were running against the grain, forcing people into the other side of the walkway, where they should have been. Entitled much? Once I had gotten past that congestion, I bumped into my friend, Amy. I normally only get to see her at trail races. Eventually, I reached the Starbucks at Columbus Circle. I skipped the line and placed my order on the mobile app for my usual drink, a grande blonde vanilla latte. I found a little corner near the entrance to wait for my friends.
5k post race recovery bag contents
Amy!
Grande blonde vanilla latte
When my friends showed up and also got their drinks, we started heading down to Times Square to eat brunch at the Junior's on 49th St. I used their restroom while our group waited for a table to be ready. Once seated, I ordered coffee and my usual steak & eggs. Our waitress was nice, but was MIA after spilling coffee which almost got my friend. I supposed our group was large enough to get the automatic 18% tip included on our bill. We had to track her down just to get our bill. She must of had a bad day as she managed to mix up my bill with my friend, so now I'll need to remember that I owe my friend about $15.
Junior's on 49th St
Coffee
Steak & eggs sunny side up with grits and rye toast
After that, we headed down a few blocks to meet up with fellow Marathon Maniacs for the obligatory pre-race photo at the bleachers near the Father Duffy statue. Per the usual, JC and his family was there waiting for all of us with the Marathon Maniacs/Half Fanatics banner. We all dispersed shortly after taking several photos. I had to get back to my timeshare to attend my dreadful owner review.
Marathon Maniacs photo in Times Square
Holy shit, I seriously detest having to deal with this sales team at this particular location or any Club Wyndham property for that matter. For this particular update or review, English was definitely not the guy's first language. He was regurgitating the same shit that I had heard numerous times before. Yet he's there trying to get me to convert my WorldMark ownership over to Club Wyndham. As I had mentioned in my recap for the Marine Corps Marathons, Club Wyndham will be closing out 14 properties by the end of the year with more closing down the pipe. Their seemingly silent announcement or update was quite vague and lacking any details. It was a bit of an eye-opener when the sales rep at WorldMark Portland wouldn't even suggest purchasing a deed at Club Wyndham's so-called flagship Bonnet Creek property. I will give this guy some credit. At just under 40 minutes into the one hour obligation, he pretty much told me that I could leave.
Spending our maintenance dues on some fancy pants coffee machine?
Once I was done wasting my time with that useless sales pitch, I went back up to my room. I normally would lay out my flat runner just before going to sleep, but I did so before proceeding to veg out and watch a bunch of TV. This year, I went with my Harry Winks' Spurs jersey. He was number 8 when he was playing with the club and tomorrow would by my 8th NYC Marathon.
Marathon flat runner
Almost like clockwork, at about 5:30 pm, I placed my order on the mobile app for a roasted chicken bowl and roasted chicken salad once again at GAI Chicken & Rice. Unfortunately, the solo employee that was "working" there was hiding somewhere in the back when I stopped in to pick up my to-go order. Not sure what he was doing, but he didn't come out until his friend came in and shouted for him. Also he first tried to give me someone else's order. Good thing that I'm in a habit of checking my food before leaving.
GAI Chicken & Rice
Roasted chicken bowl and roasted chicken salad
Later that evening, it would be game 7 of the World Series. Even though the Dodgers managed to win game 6, I knew that it would be tough for them to win again tonight. There was plenty that happened to make this worthy of a game 7. From the very beginning, the Blue Jays' manager was bitching to the umpire about Ohtani taking extra time getting ready to pitch. The Blue Jays struck first with Bichette hitting a 3 run home run in the 3rd inning. In the top of the 4th inning, Teoscar Hernandez hits a sacrifice fly to score Will Smith. In the bottom of the 4th, Giménez took his hand off of his bat in an attempt to get hit by a pitch. Since he wanted to be a little bitch, Wrobleski obliged and hits him on the wrist with the next pitch which led to both benches clearing. The Dodgers got another run with a sacrifice fly by Edman to score Betts in the top of the 6th. I thought the game was pretty much over when Ernie Clement came in to score in the bottom of the 6th, putting them up 4-2. I guess he thought so too since he slid in with a cocky ass slide and a shit face smile on his face. However the Dodgers would mount a comeback. In the 8th inning, Muncy hits a home run. In the 9th inning, Rojas hits a game tying home run to extend the game. Then Will Smith hits a go-ahead home run in the 11th inning. Also the clear MVP of the series, pitching with no rest, Yamamoto pitched the remaining 2.2 innings to close out the game! The Dodgers became the first team to win back-to-back World Series since the NY Yankees back in 1998-2000!
Back to back World Series Champions!
Will Smith hit the game winning home run in the 11th inning
Miggy Rojas hit the tying home run in the 9th inning
Yamamoto pitched great!
Very deserving of the World Series MVP award!
Sunday 11/2
Oh my goodness, I was pretty tired from staying up to watch the Dodgers win the World Series! Thank goodness for the extra hour of sleep that we got from going back to standard time! I got ready and met up with my friends at the lobby at about 5:15 am. It didn't take us too long to make it over to the bus pick-up spot at the New York Public Library. For some reason, for this year, 42nd St just north of Bryant Park remained open to vehicular traffic. In years past, that had always been closed and used for the bus queue. We couldn't tell where the line started or ended. We were yelled at when we tried to join the line at 5th Ave. We were told to head in the other direction towards 6th Ave. There was a rather small sign at the corner of 42nd St and 6th Ave that said the line for the bus started at 40th St and 6th Ave. So we ended up doing a lap around Bryant Park as we boarded the bus along 5th Ave. As if luck was not going to be on our side, we ended up with a bus driver that did not know the route to take to get to Staten Island! He had to pull over so that he could follow the bus behind us! He ended up driving so slow that we were no longer following that bus by the time we had reached the battery park area. Then he thought that we needed to take another route when he saw signs that the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was closed. A few of us sitting near the front had to sternly tell him that those bridge closure signs were not meant for official buses headed to the start line!
Bus loading at the NYC Public Library/Bryant Park was very chaotic this year!
Once we finally got off of the bus, the fun wasn't over just yet! We had to wait in a long queue just for the metal detectors before entering into Fort Wadsworth. A few of our fellow race participants really needed to pee. I told them that their best bet was to find a bush off to the side of the road and hope it wasn't against some law.
A quick selfie at the pacer tent
Dunkin' beanie souvenir!
Coffee!
Inside the corral
Met a soon-to-be-dad, Lithuanian named Lukas while waiting in the corral
Walking up to the start line
Here we go!
I made sure to take it as easy as possible during the first mile on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. However, I might have gone a bit too fast on the second mile after reaching the downhill half of the bridge. I felt the right hip flexor a bit strained. Thankfully, that discomfort went away after the course flattened out in Brooklyn. I will have to keep an eye on that body part as I have a couple of double race weekends coming up! I settled into about a 9:30 min/mile pace where the miles clicked by and felt easy. Then at about mile 11, it started to become not-so-easy. My goal for this race was to finish in under 5 hours, possibly at about 4:30 without hurting any body parts. Since I was well ahead of those goals, I gradually slowed down the pace a bit as I reached the Pulaski Bridge and the halfway point.
1: 9:45
2: 8:11
3: 9:04
4: 9:16
5: 9:28
6: 9:20
7: 9:27
8: 9:34
9: 9:42
10: 9:26
11: 9:58
12: 9:40
13: 10:10
13.1: 3:03
1st Half: 2:06:03
After reaching the halfway mark, I took my first walk break as I entered into Queens. Once I resumed running, I continued on at a slower pace as I knew that the Queensboro Bridge was just ahead at about mile 16. Per the usual, I had sped up a tad while coming down off of the bridge into Manhattan onto 1st Ave. This year, I stuck mostly to the right side of the course. While the energy of the course pushed me along through mile 18, the leg cramps were starting to creep in. It took me about 2 miles of walking and eating to try and let my legs recover as I crossed the Willis Ave Bridge into Bronx. I was able to find a pace that was more maintainable as I crossed Madison Ave Bridge back into Manhtattan. I held onto that pace as I made my way down 5th Ave and around Marcus Garvey Park. I made a quick selfie stop when I saw Berni of Bayern Munich at about mile 23.5! As I entered Central Park at 90th St, I had started picking up the pace with about 2 miles to go. There were mostly encouragement from the crowds, but there were the occasional Chelsea or Gooner fans giving me crap! That kept me going until my leg muscles started to cramp up again. It was touch and go, during the final stretch up to the finish line. Thankfully, I was able to muster up a jog across the finish line!
14: 11:51
15: 11:19
16: 12:19
17: 10:45
18: 11:52
19: 15:00
20: 14:12
21: 12:22
22: 12:59
23: 12:54
24: 12:22
25: 10:48
26: 11:50
26.2: 6:44
2nd Half: 2:44:14
Mia san mia! Berni at about mile 23.5!
TCS New York City Marathon: 4:50:17
Click here for my Garmin data
This was my 5th marathon in as many consecutive weekends, so I couldn't be too disappointed with my result today. I felt that I had trained my legs to be strong enough to endure successive weekends of completing a marathon. I was just hoping that I had enough to stay ahead of the leg cramps and challenge last year's result. This was my 8th NYC Marathon finish. I only need 7 more finishes before I can join the Streakers and 15+ group and get guaranteed entry.
Stats
Shortly after crossing the finish line, I saw a familiar face. It was coach Ben. I got a quick selfie with him before continuing down the finisher chute. Next I received my hard earned finisher medal. Then it was the poncho and a drawstring bag full of the same post race recovery items as yesterday. Although everyone else had their ponchos on, I was among the few that didn't put it on. It just didn't feel cold enough to be wearing it. I zigzagged my way out of Central Park. Unless you were a TFK (Team for Kids) runners, we did not exit the park until 77th St. After using a portapotty, I continued south along Central Park W until I got to the very end near Columbus Circle before exiting and heading towards Broadway. I actually bumped into my friends that had saw me near the Grand Army Plaza! I told them that I was headed out as I wiped out and no longer had the patience to deal with the endless crowds of people!
Coach Ben at the finish line
Finish line
Finisher medal
Close up of finisher medal
Poncho
Post race recovery bag
Portapotties
I made sure to take the 6½ Ave to avoid the crowds as I made my way down to the Urban Hawker to pick up some dinner. I went straight to the usual stall, Smokin' Joe, and ordered the #2 grilled chicken curry rice. I didn't stay up too late after eating my dinner and getting cleaned up. I was pretty tired and had to get to the airport pretty early to catch my flight out at JFK. I packed most of my stuff prior to calling it a night.
#2 grilled chicken curry rice from Smokin' Joe
Radio City Music Hall
Monday 11/3
I woke up early to take a shower and finish packing up my stuff. I checked out of my room at about 6:15 am. After dropping off my keys at the front desk, I walked up to the MTA 53rd-Lexington station to catch an E train. I waited on the platform to catch a car closer to the front. The car I entered had empty benches, but there were some sleeping homeless people and it smelled like shit. I wasn't too bothered by that so I sat down. As the express train headed east, more passengers boarded the train. Unfortunately, with about 4 stops to go, a strange person boarded the car and sat almost next to me. Everyone except for me and the guy that was sleeping got up and went to the other end of the car. Out of the corner of my eye, it would appear that the person was extremely unkempt, either covered in blood, shit, or both. That person actually didn't trigger my Spidey sense! It was actually one of the homeless that had gotten up and kept peering out of the door each time the train stopped at a station. I couldn't wait to get off once it had reached my station!
Next was to ride the AirTrain over to terminal 8. We were packed like sardines. One of my fellow riders alerted me that my backpack was open. I thought she was referring to the top broken flap. I told her that it was broken. It wasn't until I had reached my terminal and had come out of the restroom before I realized that my backpack was opened all the way! Once I got that taken care of, I had to find the back of the line for general TSA screening. That queue was extremely long. Thankfully, I get to the airport super early, so I still had about 10 minutes to spare when I reached my gate. Just as I was looking for an open seat to sit down, I heard someone behind me call out my name. It was my new fellow OAR friend, Chris. Then as we were talking about our races, my friend Sally who was also on the same flight recognized me. Well actually, she mistook me for Mitch. :) She wasn't the first to do that.
Super long queue for TSA screening
Think inside the box
Chris!
Sally!
My layover at Phoenix Sky Harbor PHX Airport was long enough for me to eat some steak & eggs at Matt's Big Breakfast. However with my disappointing experience with my last visit, I decided to just get my usual grande blonde vanilla latte at Starbucks.
Starbucks in PHX
Grande blonde vanilla latte
Once I boarded the plane headed for Ontario Airport, I thought we were good to go. Then there was some delay. The captain from the flight deck announced that they were having maintenance look at something. I did not catch the entire message. He mentioned that nothing was broken, they just needed to sign some paperwork and then we'll be on our way. That delay ended up being about an hour long. So instead of landing in ONT at around 4 pm, we landed at about 5 pm. That wasn't a hassle since my ride couldn't be there until about 6 pm. We stopped at NoodleMii to pick up dinner on the way home.
Christmas bush in ONT
Picking up dinner
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