New York, New York
State #18
Location: New York, New York
Half: Bay Ridge Half Marathon
Date: October 6, 2018
Finish Time: 1:44
Who’d I travel with? Mom
Pre-run meal? Italian
WELCOME TO NEW YORK
Ever since I saw the movie Enchanted, where the princess gets stuck in New York City and falls madly in love with some guy she barely knows, I’ve wanted to go to New York. AND I FINALLY DID.
But, like, what’s up with people in New York being on a completely different time schedule than the rest of the world? We landed in New York around 11 p.m, checked into our hotel, and decided to walk around Times Square for a few minutes before heading to bed. Being from Ohio, usually they stop serving dinner anywhere around 9 pm. But it was midnight as we walked into an entirely packed Italian restaurant. AND IT WAS A THURSDAY. SINCE WHEN DO PEOPLE GO OUT TO EAT AT MIDNIGHT ON A WEEKNIGHT? Anyways, I was baffled. But, also slightly appreciative, of the fact that we could get a Caesar salad at midnight.
The next morning we started the day with a walk around Central Park. CENTRAL PARK. I WENT TO CENTRAL PARK. It was absolutely perfect. Starbucks, Central Park, and 70 & sunny in the beautiful city. We strolled through, sipping our coffee, talking about life, and planning the rest of our day. With my half marathon the next morning, we couldn’t go getting into anything too crazy that night. So, in true Preschool teacher fashion, we went to see Frozen on Broadway. Well, first we walked about 10 miles around the entire city. We walked to the High Line, we walked through China Town and Little Italy, and then we got ITALIAN (of course). I had never been to a Broadway show, and Frozen did not disappoint. At all. It was breathtaking. The set, the characters, the songs; it was absolutely everything I could have dreamt of and more.
The next morning we woke up and took a taxi over to Brooklyn for the race. It was chilly, rainy, and not at all what I expected. The race course was a 3 mile down and back – meaning you had to complete the same down and back TWICE. WHAT KIND OF PERSON DESIGNS A DOUBLE DOWN AND BACK??? Still recovering from my hip injury, and not necessarily pumped up about the weather or the race design – it wasn’t exactly my best race. In fact, it was one of my absolute worst races. However, if you don’t have “downs,” you can’t have any “ups.” And I wasn’t going to let the time on the clock effect the rest of my trip to NEW YORK CITY.
My mom always finds the absolute best things to do – seriously. I don’t know how she does it. But, after the race, we took a ferry across the water, past the Statue of Liberty, and over to the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked across the bridge, back to the city, after narrowly avoiding being hit by several bicyclists that – in my opinion – shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the bridge. First order of post-half-marathon business: mimosas and carbs. Next, we walked around the World Trade Center before going back to the hotel room and showering for our second night out on the town (and this time we could actually drink)!
You know those fancy restaurants that serve a spoon-sized appetizer to cleanse your pallet or some shit? The kind of place where wine is like 30$ a glass and you can’t pronounce a single thing on the menu? That’s the type of place we got dinner at; wine, Ahi-tuna, dessert. LIKE, WHO AM I? It was, excuse my language, fucking awesome. After that, we went to our second Broadway show of the weekend: Wicked. And I thought Frozen was good…
It was absolutely the BEST half marathon trip I have taken thus far. I got to see, and experience, so many things in such a short amount of time. Although it wasn’t necessarily the best race course, or my best performance, it was the best experience I’ve had. And there is something special about each and every one of these adventures.
Race Across the States 