Day 2 - Saturday

Today started early, although we’re still very much on GMT, so getting up at 6am didn’t seem too hard. Kathryn was able to stay in bed, but I had arranged to go to the nearest parkrun to NYC.

Funnily enough, it’s quite far, about 40 miles away. Usually the organizers of the event recommend that you get the NJ transit train to a station. This is still 3 or 4 miles away, but they will pick you up. However, fortunately for me, the NYC maratahon is tomorrow, and there happens to be a tonne of UK runners at NYC at the moment.

One of the better side of social media, the facebook page had been very active about a week ago. Once it was known that about 20-30 people wanted to go, this guy called Rhys arranged a bus to pick us all up and take us. If we shared the booking fee, it would be cheaper than getting the train.

Leaving the apartment at 6:15am

So it was on, I had paid my £20 for the bus, and all I needed to do was get to New York City Library for 7:30am. I was thinking there is slightly less frequent subways on a weekend morning so I left at 6:15am. The subway was deserted, there was a short wait to get the train uptown to Times Square. I then had to walk a few blocks over.

Smith's subway station, too early for anyone else!

Sure enough, I walked past Bryant Park and round the corned of the library and there was about 6 people already waiting. It was obvious that this was the group as there was no-one else at all about, spare a few other runners. I arrived shortly before 7am, and by 7:15, the group had swelled to over 30. The bus arrived and we all got on. A quick name check and were waiting for 3 other people, who quickly turned up. We left just before 7:30am.

View approaching front of library. The runners are the small group ahead.

Sunrise coming up

Front of library, no tourist here yet! (except us)

Getting on the bus

We had a quick journey across Manhattan and out of the tunnel. The view back across the Hudson as we drove away was spectacular, the rising sun over the city skyline.

Sunrise over Manhattan skyline

I sat at the front, and next to a nice lady from Sidney. We chatted most of the way, I heard about her work with a homeless charity. That’s how she had a marathon place for tomorrow. We drove along the motorway for quick a while before turning off. We had to travel a while on rural roads before eventually we pulled into the car park at the place the parkrun was.

Almost immediately, another truck pulled up and out jumped a guy who got on the bus. It was the event director, a very chatty guy who told us we could get off and where to go for the start of the run. We’d noticed as we arrived, that the ground was frosty. And sure enough, the temperature was around freezing when we got off.

We huddled around the bus for a quick photo before heading down to the start. It turned out the run was down a trail path alongside a river. There was a beautiful mist coming off the river due to the cold air temperature. The sun was rising through the trees, the leaves a beautiful fall colour.

Photo of the group

Start of the parkrun

I chatted to some more tourists, before then warming up. Just before 9am we were giving a briefing. Rhys was giving a certificate as an honoury member of their team for organizing the bus.

Bridge over the canal

View of the canal

Photo of runners at the start

Path and canal

A photo of me running!

The run was a flat course, and the surface was pretty good. Unfortunately there was a faster runner than me. Me legs were still a bit sore from taking the luggage throught the station yesterday so I couldn’t keep up. It was pretty uneventful really, there was a gate at the far end which you turned around at and came straight back. The nice thing about out and backs is you can talk to the people going the other way. I came second in the end.

At the finish, there was a left turn over a bridge to the finish. I quickly got my barcode scanned and went back out for another lap of the course. I am doing the Brooklyn Half Marathon on my birthday so I wanted to do a little more running. The bus was leaving for the café at 10am, so I knew if I did another speedy 5km I’d be fine for time. By the time I finished it had got a lot warmer, I spoke to some runners from Roundhay (which is in Leeds).

The café was a short drive from the run. The bus driver did really well to park the bus in the small car park. Having played a lot of hockey, and been for teas after, I knew to get to the front of the queue and eat first. The organizers had been great and arranged for a buffet as there were 50 of us. They also had put some chairs and tables outside for us to sit at. By now it was really sunny and warm. I had some eggs, bacon and French toast with coffee.

Deli where we had breakfast

Sitting outdoors for out breakfast

Rhys presenting the left over money to the parkrun

Breakfast

It was quite easy to talk to other people, as they were virtually all doing the marathon tomorrow. Predominantly, people were from the UK, but there was also a few more from Australia, some from Europe and some from Ireland.

At about 11am it was time to go back. The bus ride was pretty uneventful, quick back to Manhattan and then really slow after we got to the Lincoln tunnel. Thankfully we were let off the bus early at Times Square, which was the right stop for me to get the subway straight back.

Full bus of runners!

View from the front onto the New Jersey Turnpike

After we got back, I showered and we went out to for a walk along the new shopping mall at the World Trade Centre. We also went through to the other side and down to Hudson river. It was lovely and sunny. There was a lot of people out, walking their dogs and with their families.

Freedom Tower

Inside the mall

View of the Hudson River

We stopped by for a drink at a bar we knew was good, before heading back to have some dinner in the apartment. We watched Men in Black, before going to bed fairly early again.

Home cooked pizza by Kathryn

Activities: parkrun

Coffee: Deli

Travel: Subway from Fulton Street to Times Square, Subway from Times Square to Fulton Street