New York Marathon

Charlotte and I on the Staten Island Ferry!

Well, after going back and forth trying to decide if I was really doing this marathon I did it!!! AND I am SO glad.

I flew up on Saturday morning at 7am with my friend, Charlotte, and flew back at 8pm on Sunday night! Sounds like such a short time, but we had a Blast!!! We met other Austinites running the marathon on the plane to NY and shared a taxi ride to mid-town where we stayed at the Yale Club. It was even fun riding the taxi...there was such an energy in the air. We saw flower and farmer's markets on the streets, pizza shops, china shops, and tons of yellow cabs. We arrived at our hotel after a very short ship from JFK. We then walked over to a little pizza shop and had a couple slices of pizza. We watched the locals hanging out in the pizza joint and enjoyed real NY pizza. We then walked over to the Hyatt to catch a shuttle to the NY Marathon expo. We picked up our race packets and looked around the expo and then headed back to the hotel. We then walked over to meet our friends from the airplane for dinner at Giovanni Ristorante. The meal was tasty but not my favorite from our trip!

We then headed home early (about 7:30) to get ready for the marathon and get to bed. We also watched Texas Tech beat UT. We were so upset!!!

We slept very good and got up at 6:15 for the marathon. Now for the real fun!! We then headed over to Grand Central Station, grabbed coffees and hopped on the subway to the Staten Island Ferry.

Grand Central Station-I couldn't get a good picture of clock!!!

The weather was crisp (37 degrees) and sunny. The ferry ride was beautiful. Here are a few pictures I snapped...

My friend (and neighbor), Amy, who ran a 3:33!!!

The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry!Charlotte and I waiting in the runner's village for the marathon to start...Charlotte and Amy , right after we got off shuttle bus. There were so many port-o-potties!

We finally started the race with a smile on my face. Charlotte and I started out together on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

This is view from the bridge...I ran over to the edge and snapped this!

This is my attempt to take a picture with my sweaty phone on the course. I was running through Williamsburg.

This is me after the race. I know I look hilarious. I was a little embarassed trying to take a picutre of myself!! AGH!!! But, I had a 3:38 finish time, with no goal in mind. I just ran for fun, so I was so excited!!

After the marathon, Charlotte (who had a great finish of 3:47 with only one long run!!!), Amy and I walked through Central Park in a daze after we finished. We were also freezing. I think the high was about 44 degrees.

Amy went back to her hotel. Charlotte and I tried to get on the subway unsuccessfully along with 30,000 other people!!! Charlotte and I then tried to get a taxi with no luck, so I talked her into riding a rickshaw. I had so much fun on the rickshaw, it was so crazy!!!

This is our view from the rickshaw. Our driver was a college student from Istanbul, Turkey.

This is our view of Times Square from the rickshaw.

We then stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and then went back to the hotel and showered! We then went to a Japanese Restaurant called East and had sushi. It was so cheap!!! and good! This was my favorite dinner and my second was the pizza!

This was my favorite marathon by far and I can see why everyone loves New York City. It was so much fun!!