New York Marathon

NY was very nice. I stayed in Jersey City. Subways were a little confusing but on race day found 2 people who helped me get to the Staten Island ferry. The ride over was fun. We wait a short time for the bus and off to the park to wait for the race.
I met people from the UK, Denmark, Germany, and Italy. They made the announcements in about 20 different languages. That was really cool. I'm glad I had several plastic bags with me to keep warm. I got a space to lay down on the grass.
The race was a little frustrating; it took 18 minutes to get to the start and I ran past people the whole race. But it was FUN the entire way. The bands were awesome!!! The Verrazano-Narrows bridge was cool; a great start to the race.
Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx and then back to Manhattan to finish in the park. Running into the Bronx I talked to a guy from New Zealand. Very cool.
When I got to the Park I was running strong and ran past 100's of people. The picture is of me in Central Park. I finished in 3:48 which was a little slow but overall a great time. We ate at Virgil's after the race. Great food and reasonable prices. It was recommended by 2 friends.

Chicago Marathon

Chicago was great! Everyone was sooo nice. From the minute we met up at the airport. A women who worked for the MTA helped us buy a pass and wished us well in the race. We got into town and I was confused where to go to get to our hotel. My son realized we had to go down to the subway. I asked a young women directions and she gave us a map. She said she was flying to Miami and she helped us find our exit point. We came up from the subway and took the bus to our hotel. We arrived at the Marriott and was informed it was the wrong Marriott. There are at least 7 in Chicago. The young women who helped us said not to worry our hotel was just a few blocks away. She also wished us good luck in the marathon.
We got to our hotel and settled in out room. We went out to eat next door at a bar. Many TVs lots of sports and some good beers. The patrons were into the jukebox; a lot of good tunes. We told them we were running the marathon and I asked if they knew of any place we could get whole wheat pasta for dinner Saturday night. The waitress said you would like whole wheat? She came back a little while later and said they had ordered it and they would have it for us tomorrow. They had flyers made and several of the runners from our hotel were there to eat on Saturday night. That was so nice of them.

My son ran his first marathon here. It was extremely hot. It hit 91 by mile 13. My legs stared to cramp at mile 17 even though I took water/Gatorade at every stop. 1/2 of a banana 3x's too! The picture is of Chinatown. My legs were totally cramped by then, but I was having a great time. Finished in 3:42 with both legs cramped up to the waist. Fabulous metal.
Both my son and I had a great time running and a great time in the city.