After the Race

The night after the race was kind of rough. I had so much caffeine during the race that I had a hard time falling asleep, and once I did fall asleep my knees were hurting. I got up in the middle of the night and had some Advil (I was hesitant to take it too soon after the race). That helped me get a few hours of sleep, but it was still a restless night overall.

When Alison and I finally gave up on trying to sleep and decided to get up she went and got me a bag full of ice for my knees. I also foam rolled and used the theragun to loosen up my muscles. I felt sore, but I was actually feeling better than I expected.

 

By the time we left the hotel we were hungry. We went to a deli across the street from our hotel. I had my favorite NYC breakfast - a ham and cheese omelet with potatoes and toast. Blake and Debbie joined us. They were also a little beat after walking all over New York for the past few days so we sat and talked for about 90 minutes. I told them all about the marathon. 

We met up with everyone else at the Charging Bull. After taking a few pics (in a very efficient manner - we took pictures of each couple/family and the whole family in about 2 minutes flat) we headed to lunch. 

We had lunch reservations at Fraunces Tavern. This is the spot where George Washington bid farewell to his officers after revolutionary war. It was fun to show Skylee the plaque talking about it on the building and tell her about the history. The food was pretty good too. 

After lunch we all walked up to Wall Street to check out the fearless girl statue. They moved it over to Wall Street a couple of years back. When we were done at Wall Street, it was time to bid most of the family farewell. Kristin, Dan, Skylee, Anna, Blake, and Debbie were all headed to the airport to fly home. 

Alison and I took a subway uptown. We were headed to Columbus Circle, but we grabbed an express train and overshot our stop. Instead we got off at 79th street and walked to Levain Bakery to get our favorite cookie. We tried the new double chip - it was almost too rich, but still quite good. We meandered over to Central Park where we found a bench to sit down and enjoy or cookies. 

After we finished our cookies, we went to the post-race expo. It was set up by the finish line. I was planning to get my medal engraved, but the line was 2 hours long. We decided we could come back for that tomorrow. Instead we browsed the merchandise. I ended up buying a finishers jacket and beanie. I put on my jacket right away and began wearing my medal again. This made Alison really happy. She didn't understand why I didn't want to wear my medal all over New York. Now that I had my jacket I would wear the medal for the rest of the trip. It felt weird to wear my medal with a random sweater. I liked it better with the jacket. 

When we were done with the expo we went for a walk around Central Park. I told Alison more about the race and we enjoyed this unseasonably warm NYC weather. 

We walked across Central Park and up 5th avenue. We stepped inside Tiffany's to take a look at their special NYC Marathon 50th anniversary collection. They were out of quite a few of the pieces. It is good we ordered the paper weight before the race - they didn't even have one they could show to us. 

We continued walking toward Rockefeller Plaza. At the plaza we stumbled upon a cool skating exhibition. There were professional skaters in the rink skating to music. We found a spot to watch. You never know what interesting things you will stumble upon in New York City. While we were here we decided to walk through FAO Schwarz. It is a fun store. 

All of our walking made us hungry so we got halal food at a food stand in front of Radio City Music Hall. We love eating halal food in NYC. It is always tasty. 

We had tickets to a show so we walked to Times Square. We sat on the red steps and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the city around us. 

We met up with Jake and Meg and headed to the show. We saw Freestyle Love Supreme at the Booth Theater. We loved it. The show features talented performers spinning suggestions from the audience into humorous bits, instantaneous songs and riffs, and fully realized musical numbers. The theater does not get more live than this as the cast builds a show from the ground up. And they do it at a Broadway quality level. They are uber talented. There were many funny moments, but there were also emotional moments that drew us in. In these emotional moments you could have heard a pin drop. It was such a fun show. We will never think of Dora the Explorer, cats and priests, and digging in quite the same way. 

After the show we headed back to our hotel. The next morning we woke up and checked our bags. Then we had another great New York breakfast at the deli across the street. We headed back uptown to Central Park to visit the expo again. I wanted to get my medal engraved. There was a longer line than we expected, but today we decided to wait in line. It took us about an hour. 

There was a little snafu with the engraving. I paid and filled out the form and handed off my medal. We waited while the were engraving and then a lady, hesitantly, called out "Reric Troff" I walked over and told her there was a mistake. She looked down at the sheet and confirmed they added an extra R. Not to worry they got me a new medal and corrected the mistake. 

Here I am standing by Fred Lebow - the namesake of Fred's team

After getting my medal engraved we walked to Levain bakery to get more cookies. Alison had the chocolate chocolate cookie and I had the chocolate peanut butter - they were so delicous. These are our favorite cookies.

Then we took the subway to Grand Central. This was my first stop in Grand Central this trip, which is unusual for me. I love Grand Central. We spent some time watching people come and go. 

We decided to walk to the library. I love the NYC library. We walked up library way. Along the way one of the quotes caught our eye,

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,                                                                                              And nodding by the fire, take down this book,                                                                                              And slowly read, and dream of the soft look                                                                                               Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;                                                                                        How many loved your moments of glad grace,                                                                                            And loved your beauty with love false or true,                                                                                               But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,                                                                                                 And loved the sorrows of your changing face; 

William Butler Yeats, From "When You are Old"                                   

We walked around the library. Behind the library in Bryant park they had already set up the Christmastime market. It is a cute little market. We walked around and enjoyed the ambiance and then we sat and watched the ice skaters for a few minutes. 

We were hungry so we went looking for a pizza place. We found one nearby. This hole in the wall place had excellent New York pizza.  The cheese pizza was particularly good. We were glad we found this place because a trip to New York wouldn't be the same without sampling great pizza. 

Then we headed further downtown to Battery Park. We found a bench and sat and enjoyed views of the statue of liberty until it was time to leave. 

This has been an amazing trip to New York. It is easily one of our favorite New York trips. We can't wait to come back. We love NYC and we missed it. We will certainly visit again before too long.