Medal Monday

New York Road Runners arranged for several things to happen on Medal Monday. They had a pavilion set up at the finish line area where people could buy finisher gear (all FAR too overpriced, IMO - epecially since it would rarely be worn), a copy of the New York Times (which included a special section on the Marathon, including every finisher's time), and get your medal engraved. I chose to continue my active recovery by walking to each of the different things I was planning to do on the day. Having come out of Penn Station on 8th Avenue, I quickly got a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a bagel, my special copy of the NYT, and proceeded uptown past Port Authority Bus Station towards Central Park. I still crack up every time I see Ralph Kramden outside of Port Authority.

I arrived approximately at the time that the pavilion opened for the day, and the line to get the medal engraved was ridiculously long. 

Not only did it snake back and forth multiple times right outside the tent, but then once it hit Central Park West and turned downtown, it looked like it continued for several blocks. No thank you! I would much rather take advantage of the *free* medal engraving at the Volvo dealership near the Javits Center rather than wait 1-2 hours for the privilege of paying $27 for the engraving. (More on that below.)

I had an appointment to go to the recovery tent set up to try out the NormaTec boots. 

Those are neat! These inflate progressively up and down your legs to aid in recovery. (I'm glad I chose not to do this while waiting for medal engraving in Boston, as I would have been in excrutiating pain given the state of my feet at the time.) Shame we only had 10-minute sessions -- I can definitely see why some people swear by these. But $900 is rather a steep price. 

After my brief session, I went back towards the pavilion to see what the line was for taking some photos, to include with the statue of the icon and founder himself, Fred Lebow.

It was remarkably short (maybe 10-15 people?), so I decided to jump on it. While I was waiting, I decided to take a quick look at the Marathon section of the NYT, mostly at the photo on the front page. Gorgeous, iconic photo of a large wave of runners coming over the Verrazano bridge. 

I unfold the paper so I can see the full scope of the photo at one time, and almost instantly I key in on one person on the bridge. "Is it really? Nah. Look again, closer." Blink. "Holy shit! That actually *IS* me in the photo! Neat!"

OK, I'll make playing "Where's Waldo" slightly easier by showing only the below-the-fold portion of the photo.

To help you out even more, I was wearing my standard yellow Marathon Maniacs singlet and red shorts, and the Dunkin' beanie I got just that morning to help stay warm. Also, as I was in the Blue corrals, I'm in the left half of that photo. Go on, take a look. We'll wait...

So, naturally I was shocked and happy to have seen this prior to taking the photos in this area, since I now have something great to highlight in addition to my 50th marathon medal.

On to Fred:

What next? Well, it was around lunchtime, and I had a mission to get some baked goods at Zabar's, further uptown from where I was. Off I went. By the time I finally arrived, I was quite hungry and knew that it would be a mistake to go into the grocery/bakery section before satiating my hunger first. (Never go food shopping when you're hungry.) So, I got a Cuban sandwich (really tasty, especially on the herb bread they use) and a full-size black and white cookie. Oh! I could *so* eat tons of these cookies, they are so soft and sweet, and the icing is spectacular. Yes, I'm glad I got that out of my system before going next door to buy some snacks for the office, a couple of things for my mom, and black and white as well as rainbow cookies for a couple of my friends and their kids.

Some people buy overpriced merchandise that they will barely ever wear. Here, I prefer to buy good baked goods. Priorities.

Most of the errands out of the way, the last thing on my list to do in the City was to get my medal engraved. It's a good schlep to walk from Zabar's down to the Volvo dealership, but worth it to continue the active recovery and to help burn off some of lunch.

When I arrived, there was NO ONE in front of me at the medal engraving desk. They took my name and the time, and immediately had it on the machine. Within one minute, it was finished. Nice. Where hundreds (thousands?) of people were waiting for at least 1-2 hours in line to pay $27 for engraving, I was able to have a walk-in for free. Thank you! Proof that it definitely pays to be in multiple Facebook groups related to your marathons -- you can never tell what information will get posted.

At the same time, they had the pace car in the showroom. And a couple of NormaTec boots. This area, there was no one "running" it. So, the guys who were using the boots were likely going to stay in them ofr a prolonged period of time; c'est la vie. But the pace car -- it was an easy process to change the time on it to match the finish time. So I did, and had one of the other runners present take my photo.

Alas, I had the mask on. Too bad.

This brought my marathon week to an end. Back on the LIRR and over to my mom's place, and on Tuesday morning, it was back on the road to drive back down to Northern Virginia.

Now to wrap up any last-minute plans for my next marathon, less than 2 weeks away!