This is part 1 of my NYC recap trip. I figured I’d write first about the weekend – excluding the race – and talk about what we did on Friday and Saturday.
On Friday, Ben, Ashley and I flew out of Richmond to Laguardia, NYC. Our plane was delayed – as was Sprad’s – and we didn’t get into the airport until 9:30pm (an hour later than expected). Sprad’s trip was even worse, as he didn’t get in until 10:30pm. After finding Sprad, we got a taxi to the hotel – we didn’t check in until midnight. We stayed in the Marriot Residence Inn in Times Square. It was only a block off Broad Street, and it was a great hotel. We had a great view on the 31st floor.
Alex and Atul met us at the hotel – it was great to see both of them. We then went to a bar called Snitch (it’d be cooler if it was Snatch) and met up with Ali and Emma. The bar was interesting, to say the least, but played good music. Atul and Alex then took us to a really neat bar called B.Bar. It was huge, more laid back, and had an awesome outside seating patio. We stayed out until about 2:30am and then called it a night (Unfortunatley we had to take it easy because of the race – but I definitely want to plan a trip to NYC to party!).
Sprad and I woke up at 7am Saturday morning – we wanted to make sure we could fall asleep early that night. After a free hot breakfast at the hotel, we went to buy Broadway tickets. We ended up buying standing room tickets to Monty Python’s Spamalot – we’ve wanted to see it for some time. I highly recommend standing tickets for the youthful – for only $20 (compared to $100+), you get a good view. If you’re any fan of Monty Python, you’d love the play. It was hysterical.
We checked in and received our race packet on Saturday as well. The registration was at Chelsea Piers, a really cool sporting complex on the Hudson River. If I lived in NYC, I’d definitely join this place. After the play and registration, we fulfilled Ashley’s needs and shopped for a good bit – although I shouldn’t really say “we” as Ashley did most of the shopping.
After walking all over Times Square, Baggio met up with us and we had a huge pasta meal at Simply Pasta – what better pre-race meal? By the end of dinner, it was 10pm and we were all exhausted. We all went back to the hotel and passed out for what would be an early (and long) morning..