Pre-race recce and repast

There was little on my plate for Saturday. The day before the marathon should have as little activity as possible -- just rest (and eat).

I had decided that I would drive in to Manhattan and park near my hostel that I had reserved. Amazingly enough, through onairparking.com, I found a garage in the Times Square area where I could pay just under $20 for a full 24 hours of parking. (What?! Is this legit? Yes - it very much is. Highly recommend them.)

I arrived shortly before my reserved time, checked in, and laid out what I was going to need in the morning and pre-staged as much as possible. I even called the front desk to set up my wake-up call for 4am (to use as a back-up for my phone, just in case). I had dinner plans with yet another set of friends I hadn't seen for quite a while, so decided to do a little recce of the approach to the finish line on my way to meet up with them.

I made my way up to Central Park South and 6th Ave. and turned along the bottom side of the park.

Just after the 26 Mile marker, we are set to make a right hand turn at Columbus Circle.

And then make a sharp turn at the stage and into the park.

The last .2 miles comprise a couple of rolling hills and the final stretch is tantaizingly close.

Until finally reaching the goal:

Having gotten a decent look at what the last stretch of the race had in store for me (which certainly helped out as I neared the finish the next day), I made my way down to tonight's destination for dinner with friends: Mee Noodle (at 53rd & 9th). I hadn't been there for likely over 20 years, since I hadn't worked in that vicinity since CBS moved ATWT out of the CBS Broadcast Center on 57th St. and into AW's former studio in Brooklyn.

We had a great dinner and a fun time catching up with each other. We took a large amount of time - nice and relaxing. No, none of us even seemed to contemplate photos, not as a group nor of the food.

After about 2 hours, we made our separate ways. I walked back to my hostel room and finished setting up what I would need for the morning. Eventually deciding to go to sleep. Or at least try to.