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Ahh... the day before a race. Always such a joyous day filled with mixed emotions. Anxiety, excitement, nerves, questions, last-minute plans, carb-loading, Broadways plays...although the latter may be specific to races in NYC :)
The moment I woke up I began thinking about the race! I looked outside and admired the view from our hotel room again.
Then I continued carb-loading and ate an entire bagel {gluten-free, of course}. It was glorious. Then the hubs and I were on our way to the race expo to pick up my packet!
On our way, we stumbled across the Ed Sullivan Theater where they film The Late Show with David Letterman! Pretty exciting for this media teacher :)
Then we continued our journey to the race expo by way of Times Square.
I looked like a complete tourist, but I was okay with that.
The hubs was searching for a small, non-chain coffee shop. It took us forever, but we eventually found Gregory's.
I'm not a coffee drinker, but this place made me want to be. It looked awesome. But let's just say, despite my distaste for coffee, we still became Gregulars on this trip.
Finally, we arrived in Javits Convention Center for the race expo!
You could feel the excitement at the expo! It was amazing!
Of course I had to take my picture under the "Get Your New York On." sign! I WAS going to get my NY on!
First things first, we headed to pick up my race packet!
Then we went over to pick up my race shirt! Emphasis on the "marathoner" - hence the pointing :)
Then we walked through the official Asics gear. I may or may not have cried just before taking this picture. It was so overwhelming knowing that I was about to accomplish something I never dreamed I'd be able to do. The Lord really blessed me with this opportunity.
So excited to show off my race bib (wearing my new official NYCM race jacket!) in front of the model starting line! (funny story - on race day I never actually saw the starting line, or a sign for the starting line... good thing I got my picture by this one!)
The hubs had been so good to take pictures of me (or to not be annoyed by my abundance of selfies) that I wanted to make sure we got a picture together at the race expo. This sign was really cool!
Then we went upstairs and found this super-awesome set of stairs! Again, encouraging me to get my New York on!
Then they had these cool little medal replicas of the five boroughs we would run through.
We couldn't pass up an opportunity to get our picture made at the fake finish line! Which, by the way, the actual finish line didn't look anything like this.
I created a poster to show who I was really running for:
"I run for those who can't."
One more picture as a final reminder to get my New York on...
Then stepped out to see this amazing view of the city.
Then we headed back to the hotel to change clothes and head to lunch with my parents and my brother at Don Antonio's pizza!
I had a delicious gluten-free, carb-loaded pizza. I may have eaten the whole pizza. No shame. Carb loading is no joke.
Then the hubs, my brother and I went to see The Lion King on Broadway! My first Broadway show!
I'm not ashamed to say I cried multiple times.
The Lion King was AMAZING! All of the animals were played by people, which was very impressive! The giraffes were my favorites though. The people were on all fours while on stilts!
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We had to take our pictures with the wooden version of the characters, because when in New York...
The Minskoff Theatre had an AMAZING view of Times Square!
One more picture together in front of the poster...
Then we stopped by our dear coffee shop, being the Gregulars that we were, then went back to the hotel to get dressed for dinner!
We had reservations for the whole family at the legendary Carmine's to continue the carb-loading adventure. The family needed to carb-load for all the work they had to do chasing me around the city next day!
Pasta for everyone!
Including my gluten-free pasta! I ate about half of this on my own. Family-sized servings...psh.
Back at the hotel I had a dress rehearsal to get everything organized, laid out (and pinned on) and ready to go for the next day! And good thing too because in my dress rehearsal I noticed I was wearing my ear warmer backwards... totally had to fix that before race day. I love pinning my race bibs on my tops the night before to save time and relieve stress on race morning.
All layers were ready to go!
Even the runner girls on my toes were ready to start running!
Then climbed in bed to watch Saturday Night Live! It was fun watching SNL knowing I was a few blocks from where they were filming! It might be nerdy, but I'm a media teacher, so it's okay.
As I dozed off into sleep I thought, "this is the last night I'll be a non-marathoner!"
Let's chat!
- Do you prefer pizza or pasta?
- Coffee or no coffee?
- yuck... no coffee
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