Unfortunately, the soundtrack to our New York City Marathon was LCD Sound System (New York I love you, but you’re bringing me down) rather than JAY-Z (Empire State of Mind)! But we had a great weekend in The Big Apple and checked off another major marathon!
Since Gill signed up via a tour, we stayed in a nice (expensive) hotel – the Sheraton Times Square – a great location just south of Central Park and far enough away from the madness of Times Square. We took it easy before the marathon with a few strolls in Central Park and around Times Square.
The trouble with the marathon started with the bus the tour company had organized to the start line on Staten Island. We got lost, or more specifically the bus driver did not know the important route to the drop off and we, like 100s of other buses, were stuck in a massive traffic jam a few miles from the start. Continuing the music theme, the chorus of The Strokes New York City Cops came to mind, “New York City Cops, ain’t so smart…” since they were absolutely useless and directed buses in circles. Pathetic. As the cops tried to send our bus down the same dead end road for the second time, the driver smartly asked if people could get off and jog to the start. Quite a few of us took up the offer and I legged it to the start area, arriving 5 mins before my coral closed, 20 mins before my start. Not ideal preparation.
The marathon for Gill and I was not our finest, but the crowds were great – especially in Brooklyn, Queens, and Central Park.
After the marathon we enjoyed beers with some of the other Mile 2 Marathon runners. The next day we headed out to walk the Highline – a great urban park! We enjoyed some good food in Greenwich Village – a great breakfast and an evening of cocktails and vegetarian Mexican food. We took a long recovery walk on Tuesday in Central Park, visited MOMA, and had milkshake floats at the classic 1940s Lexington Candy Shop.
Check out our Google Photos!
