Mark and I had a wonderful, albeit short, weekend in NYC. We went up for the More Fitness Women's Half Marathon, held in Central Park.
I signed up for this race in a bit of a spastic, oh-my-gosh-I-have-to-register-now-before-I-get-locked-out-of-it kind of way back in February at the start of one of our winter storms.
We had been released a half day early due to the pending snow storms and Mark and I were sitting on the couch just relaxing before going for a run. The snow hadn't started yet but there was "doom" in the air, via the news and radio forecasts.
I checked the website for this race since it was on my radar to find out that it was all full, unless you entered a special code from February's More or Fitness Magazine.
So what did we do?
We ran out to the bookstore so I could pick up the magazine. I was a bit irritated to learn the special code word was simply morefitness....but the adventure was fun. And the magazine provided me with some good reading for the next few days once we were snowed in.
I registered for the race and waited.
Mark and I booked a Marriott at 3 East 40th Street and we bought Bolt Bus tickets. My brother had taken the Bolt Bus to NYC from Boston for the marathon back in November and had good things to say about it so I was eager to try it.
The Bolt Bus was indeed comfortable and we got there in a timely fashion after getting work done on the bus, thanks to the wireless connection. This was the scene from Mark's seat on the way into the city:
We walked to our hotel, about a mile away, checked in and headed to the expo, also about a mile away.
We stopped for photos by the Public Library (very near our hotel).
The expo was well organized and fun to walk to...along the way we saw the Naked Cowboy.
I've seen him on TV but never so close. Walking through Times Square was great!
At the packet pick up we met Kathrine Switzer---who was the first woman to officially enter and run the Boston Marathon in 1967. One of my students, Essence, did her National History Day project on her and was at that time, CityWide in DC sharing her website project about Kathrine Switzer.
Essence had blogged back and forth with Kathrine and when I introduced myself she immediately remembered Essence's name. It was pretty cool. I bought Kathrine's autobiography and she kindly wrote in it for Essence. Essence was thrilled to get the book when I gave it to her on Monday. Definitely a highlight of our trip!After the pick up we returned to the hotel to drop the gear off---there were a lot of goodies we had accrued!
We decided to walk to Central Park and take a stroll through it.
There were tons of people out and it was beautiful.
We took a picture by Strawberry Fields.
We cam out around 72nd Street on the West Side of the Park and walked to Columbus Avenue. After the marathon we wandered that way and discovered that part of time. I was eager to explore it again. So, we went that way and really enjoyed the area.
We walked up and down the street and it was getting to be dinner time so we picked a restaurant Pappardella right on the sidewalk so we could people watch.
The food was ok, but the location and company were terrific.
We then went in search of a Tasti D-lite frozen yogurt. We walked all the way down Columbus to 42nd Street and then over to Times Square because all of the sites that came up on our phone weren't there.
It was worth it once we found it though and we enjoyed sitting in the window at Times Square watching people go by.
We walked back to our hotel, just a few blocks away and stopped to admire Bryant Park on the way back.
It was so green and well lit--we really enjoyed it.
Somewhere in the middle of the night the temperature plummeted and the rain started. I awoke at 6:30 am to a steady rain, a slight wind, and a temperature in the 40s.
We left the hotel at 7:15 and were to the park with thousands of other runners by 7:30. The start was at 8 am. The race was two and a little more times around Central Park which made it nice for my chief cheerleader to find me on the course....he spent the time crossing back and forth on the path.
Although it was pretty cold at first, and definitely miserable waiting for the race, it was the perfect running weather for a half marathon.
It rained almost the entire time and was 47 degrees at the start according the race results.
While I didn't have a fantastic time, I did finish just under 2 hours and absolutely loved the experience.
I think it's something about running in NYC. :)
We took a cab back to the hotel, showered and got into some warm, dry clothes. We had a late check out so took our time, walked to Starbucks and then came back and packed up. We checked out around 12:15 and took a cab back up to the Upper West side and had brunch at the City Grill, basically across the street from where we had dinner the night before. 
We were two of many race finishers and supporters there.
We had time to kill until our bus left so after brunch we meandered to Le Quitoidien and had another coffee and split a brioche, which I love more for the spreads than the brioche itself.
The ride back was uneventful but the entire weekend really rejuvenated us. It was a terrific race and definitely one I would recommend.
