NEW YORK MARATHON SERIES (Part 5/5)
I woke up at about 7am on the Monday after the race. There is a post race event in Central Park where you can get your medal engraved, buy the New York Times (which has a list of everyone's names up to finishers under about 4 hours 50 minutes), and buy all sorts of other merchandise.
I had been told that in order to miss as much of the crowd as possible you should head there at 8am when it opens. I took this on board and left Mum and Dad asleep and headed off on my own to check it out.
The line to engrave your medal was already probably 45 minutes long. Medal engraving was also not free (it was $25US). I made the decision not to line up for that and head straight into the merchandise shop. I figured I could get my medal engraved in Adelaide and possibly for less than what they charged there anyway.
I bought 2 copies of the New York Times and then spent a lot more on a couple of jumpers/jackets, gloves and arm warmers. There was a huge range of stuff to buy. The jumper and jacket that I bought state "Finisher 2018" however anyone could have waltzed in and bought those tops if they wanted to...
I headed back to the hotel where Mum and Dad were slowly getting ready. Breakfast was my choice and I had a craving for some bacon and eggs. I had seen a diner a couple of streets away so we headed there for breakfast.
The weather had deteriated somewhat and was now pouring with rain. I am thankful that this rain had stayed away on Sunday as the conditions would have been a lot more challenging and I doubt that there would have been as many spectators along the course. Mum and Dad were also pretty happy that while it was a bit cold, it wasn't raining so they were able to comfortably stand around waiting for me for most of the day.
The diner was nice, but very expensive and I don't think I would reccomend going back. The food that they offered was good, but you could get the same thing elsewhere for about half the price.
After breakfast it was time to do some more shopping. Mum had a couple of shops in mind so we headed to those. We walked in the rain and I was not moving incredibly fast either!
Lunch was destined to be at McDonalds. I had had this plan pretty much since I started training, even though I generally don't eat at McDonalds anyway... In hindsight I should have chosen one of the many burger bars around New York which I am sure would have been much more staisfying. Needless to say, upon returning to Australia I was told that one of the most highly rated burger bars in New York was in fact in our hotel...
McDonalds was underwhelming but the purpose of eating junk food was fulfilled.
We had tickets to the Ice Hockey at Barclays Arena in Brooklyn in the evening. Barclays Arena was on the same Subway Route as Coney Island (Coney Island was the end of the line) and Mum decided that although by the time we get there it will be dark and likely closed, it would be a good idea to at least go and check it out while we have time.
Catching the New York Subway the day after running the marathon really highlights how inaccessable most of the stations are for people with disabilities or limited mobility. Mum and Dad would walk done the stairs to the subway as any other normal person would, while I tried my best to grab onto both of the railings where possible and lift myself down the stairs with my arms rather than my legs! Even a slight incline on a ramp was slower than it really should have been!
We made it to Coney Island and got off on the stop before the end thinking we would walk to the end station and then get back on to go back to the Ice Hockey. This was a great plan and would certainly work however we got exited on the wrong side of the station which put us in an alleyway behind apartment buildings and their parking lots, and meant we had to walk about a kilometre further.
Eventually we walked along the Coney Island Boardwalk past all of the little amusement parks. We found the end station and got back on the train to get to the Ice Hockey.
The Ice Hockey match was between the New York Islanders and Montreal. We have very limited knowledge of how Ice Hockey works and spent a lot of the match wondering if there were 3 or 4 periods. New York got off to a good start and Montreal spent the remainder of the match catching up.
The match ended in a tie with extra time which was also tied so eventually went to shootouts. Montreal won the shootouts after about 7 shots each!
We headed back to the hotel with a short stopover for a snack in TGI Fridays at 11pm in Times Square.
Flying Home
Checkout for the hotel on Tuesday was at 10am. I was flying out from JFK Airport at about 6pm and Mum and Dad a similar time from Newark. We had some time to spare and had it not been pouring with rain again we possibly would have made use of this time to see something else during the day.
We had breakfast nearby then determined that we might as well start our journeys to the airport after checking out of the hotel.
I farewelled Mum and Dad who had a longish walk in the rain to their shuttle bus at the New York Library and I had a short walk to the nearest subway station.
Walking down the stairs was still an interesting exercise, made even more complex with a 28kg suitcase with me. What was really great though was that I had no cash and the ticket machines were "temporarily not taking card payments"... I was stuck and spent about 10 minutes trying to work out what on earth I was going to do to get to the airport. Luckily I had about 8 hours to spare so I wasn't too stressed.
I decided to trundle back up the stairs and head to the next station (which was close to where Mum and Dad had to walk to in the end!). It was wet and I hadn't prepared myself for that. Thankfully the next station had machines that did accept my card (otherwise I would have caught a taxi which is about $50US more than the train!). I still struggled with the machine as it asked for my "Zip Code" which was a 5 digit number - and I kept trying to put in my pin code which wasn't accepted. Eventually someone helped me and I got my tickets and got on the train.
I met up with another team member (Phil) at the airport who was on the same flights back to Adelaide as me and had decided to head to the airport early as well. We sat down and had a burger to pass the time and eventually got on the plan (which was also delayed).
My legs weren't too bad on the planes. I was able to get up and walk around a bit. The worst part of the plane ride was that between Los Angeles and Melbourne the journey takes 16 hours!
Finally on Thursday in Australia I arrived back home and that evening headed to the gym to catch up with as many people as I could who supported my journey to and run through New York City!
Nick
