A Trip to New York City : Part 1

The other weekend we traveled to New York City to cheer Jesse on when he ran the New York City Marathon. He ran the LA marathon two years ago and when he entered for NYC he assumed he wouldn't get in because it's a lottery system. Well he won entry and was a little nervous because he wasn't able to train as much as he hoped but he did great! We were able to see him at 3 different locations and we had a great time cheering him on!

Sam and I took the train to the city at 4am. We woke up at a crazy early time (we woke up at 2am!), grabbed an Uber (we scheduled one to pick us up a few weeks earlier which worked out great. I hadn't realized they offered that option.) and headed to the train station. I read a little on the train but I was able to mostly sleep (unfortunately I don't think Sam got as much sleep as me). We checked our bags at our hotel, met my brother for bagels (he loves Pick a Bagel) and then grabbed some Blue Bottle Coffee (we had the New Orleans iced) at the Gotham West location. I was so excited to have Blue Bottle. I have heard so many good things about it but this was my first time getting some. The Gotham West Market was a great location and I would love to go back for food sometime. It's below some amazing apartments and has a bunch of different food stands (ramen, tacos, ice cream, charcuterie...).

After our breakfast and coffee we headed on to the NYC Marathon expo. I felt like a huge running nerd because I loved every minute of it. The expo was huge! We were there about two hours but I think I could've stayed another two! The best part was I met Shalene Flanagan!!!! I freaked out! I saw her cookbook on sale, Run Fast Eat Slow, and I commented to Sam that I heard good things about the cookbook and I wanted it. A woman was standing nearby and said "Did you know Shalene will be hear signing it in 10 minutes?" God bless kind strangers! I immediately freaked out, grabbed the book and jumped in line. I made one recipe from the book this weekend and it was delicious.

Jesse at packet pick-up!

After the signing we attended a session on "course strategy". I wasn't even running the race but I enjoyed listening to the advice they had for those running. For example, at one part you run on a bridge with no crowd support. When you get off the bridge the noise from the crowd can be so overwhelming that runners end up going way too fast for a mile. I loved that the presenters were so familiar with the course and had so much analysis for the race. There is so much that goes into a race, so much of running that I haven't even started to grasp. It made me very pumped for my next race. Last year I didn't get any PRs and my running really slacked off.

Once we left the expo I had my first authentic ramen at Tottoramen. I had the golden curry bowl and it was delicious. I need to find a good ramen place in Baltimore. We then went on to Jesse's apartment and spent most of the afternoon watching football. It was a good night of football for all our teams and we were pretty worn out from waking up so early. My parents got in sometime that afternoon. Eventually we headed to Southern Hospitality, which is owned by Justin Timberlake! The food was good and the service was great. Their rolls were really yummy with some honey butter on the side! Unfortunately, no Justin Timberlake spottings. Haha

That was Day 1 in the city. The next day and a half is coming up!