After the hot and humid Newport half marathon, Eric and I soaked in the hotel pool and hot tub, showered and went to Chipotle for a late lunch. By this time it was only 2pm and we had plenty of day left and we both felt great so we went sightseeing in NYC. From our hotel, it was a 20 minute train ride to Manhattan. We decided to go to Grant’s tomb and Hamilton’s Grange since the were not open on Monday and Tuesday and we were leaving Wednesday. We got more stamps for National Parks book.

General Grant National Memorial
Our first stop was General Grant National Memorial, aka Grant’s Tomb. This is quite the tomb. The building looks like a mini capital building. Inside, in the basement were Ulysses and Julia’s tombs and surrounding the tombs are all of Grant’s generals of the civil war. It was a cool building. And it was a nice cool spot to relax before heading back outside into the heat and humidity.

Hamilton Grange National Memorial
Next stop was the Hamilton Grange National Memorial. I wasn’t exactly sure what this place was. I figured it had something to do with Alexander Hamilton but that was it. It actually was an interesting place. We got there just in time for the guided tour. This was the house that Alexander Hamilton built before he died. It has been moved a few times but it is only a few blocks from its original location. The rooms were laid out like they would have been back in the day and had some original stuff.

After that we made a pit stop in Time Square before heading back to New Jersey for the night. We had an awesome dinner at The Cheesecake Factory before turning in early (like 8pm), exhausted from the long, hot day. I had almost 40,000 steps this day.

More pictures can be found here: NYC

Half #13 in State #10. The hottest and most humid half marathon I have ran. It also was my slowest (non-injured) half marathon. 

Packet Pick Up
The packet pick up was a block away from our hotel. They were super strict that no bags were allowed in the packet pick up area. It really is strange. A lot of people must not have gotten the memo, i.e. the email they sent two days before warning that bags were not allowed. That even included hydration packs. Crazy strict!  It was quick and efficient packet pick up. There really wasn’t a packet, just your bib and shirt. The shirts are long sleeve and kind of nice. After we picked up our stuff we headed back to the hotel to relax since the start was still an hour away. I picked an awesome hotel.

The Start
The start line was literally out the hotel front door. The 12+ minute mile flag (corral) was 20 feet from the hotel. It was awesome. I got in the starting chute and waited and waited and waited. The start was at least 5 minutes late. Not cool when it was already 75 degrees outside and 150% humidity. Haha. 

After the national anthem and some words from various people including the mayor of Jersey City who was also running, we were off. The first couple miles took us to a warehouse area of town. Not that awesome. When I reached the half a mile mark, the front of the pack was already come back and closing in on mile 2. Crazy fast!

When I finally reached mile 2 we were back in front of the hotel. This part of town looks new. It is very nice area with tall pretty buildings. This was really the only area that had crowd support. After that it was a long straight run with not much support. And really for how hot it was, there were not enough water stops. I’m so happy I had my water belt with me. I would not have survived without. The first 5 miles were on par with my running lately. The first two miles were 12:30, miles 3-5 were around 13:00-13:30. So I was happy with that. My pace was well under what I had predicted considering the heat and humidity. The first 5 miles were not all the scenic so I’m glad I got through them fast-ish. 

The Middle
The best part of this race, as far as scenery goes, is the middle section. We entered Liberty State Park around Mile 5 and ran 4 miles in the park itself. There wasn’t much for shade, it was non-existent but the views of the Statute of Liberty and Ellis Island were cool. Almost everybody around me stop to take pictures of Lady Liberty. Granted she had our back to us, but it was still cool. Miles 6-9 were slower than I had hoped but between stopping for selfies with Lady Liberty and pictures of Ellis Island slowed me down. And of course it was just getting hotter and hotter. My times 14:05, 14:44, 14:51 and 15:32. Ugh. I knew then this was not going to be my day. On a positive note, I was still under my predicted pace. So that was good.

The End
During the end of mile 9 I met a guy from New Hampshire. He had trained 10 newbie runners for this half marathon. He was hanging out at the back because his last runner was just in front of me. She was struggling but he didn’t want to cause her any anxiety so he kept his distance. We got to talking and he is running the Twin Cities Marathon this weekend. He had no clue what to expect so I gave him a graphic description of the course, what to expect as far as weather and crowd support. We talked about logistics about whether he should rent a car or use public transportation. I love bragging up the Twin Cities so this was fun. When we got to 10 he stopped because we were gaining on his girl. So I bid him good bye and started mile 11. That walked must have really helped me because I came back really strong on Mile 11. And had another 14 minute mile. Woo Hoo!  But my legs were dune by mile 12 and mile 13 I was just trying to maintain a decent pace. Both miles were around 16:20. I had a friendly bike cop hanging out with me during mile 12. These miles were nice because we could see the Manhattan skyline. But the sun came out so it was just brutal. We ran along the river and I wanted to jump in and screw the race. But I pressed on and finally came in at 3:11:58. 

What went wrong?
Well the heat and humidity are top reason I didn’t do well. Also, I had to stop three times for their light rail trains…yep the cops made runners stop for the trains! I’m sure the elites did not have to stop but us slow, non-important runners had to stop. Crazy! Finally, this race was very flat with no noticeable hills. I realized that all my “flat” half marathon times have been terrible: Grand Forks, Vegas, Oshkosh, Chicago and now Newport. My hilly halfs have been better races and we are talking about 5-20 minutes faster. I don’t like uphills, but what goes up usually comes down and I love downhills. Who would have thought that I’m a hilly girl. :)

Catching up!

I realize it has been a while since I’ve blogged. We have been busy and I really haven’t had much to say.

Since I last wrote…

Labor day - We went to the Minnesota State Fair again, this time with DJ and Tim. We took the bus from Shakopee which unfortunately leaves every hour. We missed the first bus and had to sit forever waiting for the next one. Once at the state fair we headed to Salam’s diner for breakfast. We watched the dog show for a while and walked around the machinery. We took the sky glider back to the main area. DJ watched the Rodeo and Eric and I walked around with Tim. Overall, it was a nice day for the fair. But right before we left a storm came in and it was windy and kind of scary. We took refuge in the Horticulture Building before eventually making our way to the grand stand. Eric and I stood in the rain for almost an hour for Sweet Martha Cookies. They were of course delicious. We ended up spending more time there than I ever imagined!

Later that week – I meet my friends for happy hour and to pick up my new shirt I bought at her Cabi party. Afterwards I joined my friend Jenny, and her kids for Pizza Ranch. Eric had soccer game so he couldn’t come with. Jenny’s kids were sad not to see Eric.

September 9^th – DJ came up and we headed to the lakes to training for the Twin Cities marathon. DJ ran laps around Lake Nokomis. Eric was more ambitious and ran from Lake Nokomis to Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun and then back. Unfortunately, he quit after finishing up at Lake Harriet which meant I had to bike the 5 miles back to Lake Nokomis to get the car and find DJ. I got a nice bike ride in. Thankfully it didn’t take too long to find DJ.

That evening we went to our first MLS game. The Minnesota United Football Club (aka the Loons) had a game at TCF Bank Stadium. It was fun to watch the game and I like that it was over by 9pm. The first half was not that exciting even though that was when the goals were scored. The second half seemed to move faster. The game ended in a 1-1 tie. This is why soccer frustrates me…we are happy with a tie.

September 14^th – A very exciting game at Target Field. Twins were playing Blue Jays. I love when we play the Jays because I get to hear O Canada! It was an exciting night. It was a close game. We were leading 2-1 at the start of the 9^th. But our closer blew it and Blue Jay’s tied it up. We didn’t score in the bottom of the 9^th so it went into extra innings. In the bottom of the 10^th inning, Byron Buxton came up to bat. I was wearing his shirt so I knew he was going to do something magical…and he did. Home run, another walk off win for the Twins. It was awesome! This was the second night in a row that the Twins won with a walk off home run!

September 16^th – Early morning flight to Newark. We got on the plane around 10 am and landed in Newark around 2:30 local time. Newark didn’t seem too big. We had our first ever Uber ride. It was fine. It was cheap. Public transportation from Newark isn’t that great so it would have taken us over an hour to get to our hotel so I decide to try Uber. The ride wasn’t that interesting, the driver never really talked. We got to our hotel safely and dumped our bags and headed for lunch. Cosi, one of my favorite restaurants that sadly closed in Minneapolis was across the street. I had plans to eat here for dinner but after checking the hours, I realized we had to go now as it was closed later. It was delicious as always. Afterwards we just relaxed in our room. We went to 5:30 mass at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish, about a mile from our hotel. The church was huge but the congregation was small. There were only about 40 of us there!  After Mass we walked back to the mall across the street from our hotel for dinner. We ended up at Johnny Rockets for some burgers. Not my usual pre-half marathon dinner but it worked.