Saturday, Day 2 in NYC

Saturday morning we all met across the street at Starbucks so we could grab a quick bite before heading over to the Expo. We wanted to get over there early so we could get it out of the way and spend the rest of the day relaxing and trying to stay off our feet! The Expo was at the Jacob Javits Center which was quite a ways from our hotel. Luckily, the race organizers had a shuttle that picked us up about a block up from our hotel.

Linds and I outside Starbucks... it was a little windy and chilly

On the shuttle heading towards the Expo

The Expo was pretty big but not very crowded when we first got there. We headed through the entrance and lined up to get our bib, chip and then our race shirt (long sleeved technical fabric in a not-so-flattering shade of orange). After we got the business out of the way, we all split up to do our shopping :) They had a lot of really cute NYC Marathon gear for sale but I didn't end up getting anything other than a little fleece hat. The women's clothes ran too small for me and in the men's section they were out of the smaller sizes that would have fit me :( At a lot of the other booths like Nike it was the same. Part of the problem was that we were there on the very last day so many of the vendors had just sold out of a lot of the sizes :( I had really wanted to stock up on NY gear since it's such a big deal marathon, so I was a little bummed.

Getting my chip and bib

Linds, Claudia, Jeanette, Raji and I in front the marathon course map

I got this hat, but in black

After the Expo with our race numbers!

Rocky, Phil and I posing in our ING orange glasses

After the shuttle dropped us back off near the hotel, everyone headed to a deli for lunch and I went back to the hotel to wait for my friend Anne. Anne and I were roomies when I lived in NJ and since she still lives there, she made the trip up to visit with me for the day :D Once she got there we went down to Ben Ash, a deli about a block away. The place was PACKED! I knew deli sandwiches in NY were really big but I had no idea HOW ginormously big they could be. When my Chicken Club was put in front of me, I was honestly scared. I had no idea how to tackle this massive sandwich! I'm not a big meat person so after taking out some of the bacon and most of the chicken I got it down to a more manageable size. I only choked once, but that was due to all the laughing Anne and I were doing, not the huge sandwich :)

My Chicken Club was almost as tall as my gatorade bottle sitting next to it :(

After lunch Anne and I headed back to the hotel so I could start laying out all my race gear for the next day. After more giggling and catching up, it was time for Annie to go home :( It had been so much fun visiting and it felt like it had only been a few months since I saw her last, not a few years! THANKS ANNIE for coming all the way up to visit!

Anne in the Sponge Bob Square Pants hat I got at the Expo :)

After Anne left I went up to relax with Jeanette and Claudia before it was time for dinner. I think we all managed to get a little nap in too :) At about 6:00 the three of us met Amy, Lindsay, Bree and Petra down in the lobby and headed over the Angelo's on Broadway, where we hooked up with Phil and Rocky (who had been out gallivanting around the city), Monica, her hubby, and a TNT friend Ben who lives in NY. Angelo's is right next to the theater where David Letterman records his show. Only Phil and Rocky actually had the pizza... the rest of us were good little runners and had pasta, which was yummy. On the way back to the hotel after dinner we stopped a few places to pick up some water, bananas, and bagels for the next day. We also saw the fireworks that the race people were putting on near the finish line. In honor of the marathon, the Empire State Building was lit up in orange, blue and white, the colors for the marathon and ING, the sponsor.

You can see the "Pizza" sign for Angelo's in the upper corner

Trying to walk down stairs and text at the same time... not so smart the day before a marathon!

Once we finally made it back to the hotel, it was time for bed, even though it was only around 8:30. The alarm clock was going off at 3:50 am so I needed to get some sleep. While I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep, Phil was downstairs with Rocky being crafty and making signs for all us runners :D