Category: Marathon

New York Food – Part Two

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The second list of my favourite places to dine out in New York!

  • All the Irish pubs! – And there are many! They serve good food at good prices. We liked Langan’s 150 W 47th St, which was opposite our hotel and Brendan’s 42 W 35th St, which is where we went before the hockey at Madison Square Garden.
  • Bond 45 154 W 45th St – A great Italian restaurant where we had breakfast and dinner, close to Times Square. My husband’s best pancakes for brekky apparently! No extra sides needed, as he found out!
  • Trinity Place 115 Broadway – If you go to 911, this is a really cool place to eat as it is an old vault and still has the big vault doors!
  • Buddakan 75 Ninth Ave – The restaurant from Sex and the City, modern asian and amazing! Next door to Chelsea Markets. Make sure you book way in advance!
  • The Little Beet 135 W 50th St – for quick, healthy, tasty, gluten free brekky or lunch.
  • Untamed Sandwiches 43 W 39th St – for a proper NY sandwich – not healthy!!
  • Mole 57 Jane St – Great Mexican restaurant that is so popular but you can’t book, you go in and put your name down and they tell you when to come back, so go off for a drink! The best Mexican food I have eaten! If you go off for a drink, don’t accidentally go to the cigar bar down the road…..
  • Sea Grill Rockefeller Center – nice view of ice rink but food was a little disappointing.
  • Blue Bottle Coffee Rockefeller Center and other locations in NYC – You may know it is hard to find a good coffee in America! I don’t like coffee but my parents were in need of a good one and a friend who lives in NY took us to this one in the Rockefeller Center. It passed the test, and they have good green tea too!

Enjoy!

New York Food – Part One

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You are not just in New York to run a marathon, you are going to want to fuel up on some delicious meals! There are some amazing restaurants in New York and this most recent trip over, we found some great ones! We used an app called OpenTable to book most of them as some of them are so popular you have to book way in advance. Here is part one of my favourites, stay tuned for part two!

  • Don’t Tell Mama 343 W 46th St – A piano bar where you can have a meal and then go next door and watch people playing and singing, the bar staff get up and sing too! I don’t really like that kind of music but it was a great atmosphere and experience and the food was pretty good. The whole road is called Restaurant Row so a great place to find somewhere to eat!
  • Butter 70 W 45th St – One of my favourite restaurants, apparently featured on Gossip Girls. Amazing food, great atmosphere, close to Times Square.
  • Chelsea Markets – Great to look through and lots of nice places to eat.
  • Gramercy Tavern 42 E 20th St – Had an amazing lunch here. They have bar food or restaurant. The restaurant is amazing, great food and you may spot some celebs in there – we saw Yoko Ono and some guy from Heroes!
  • The River Cafe 1 Water St, Brooklyn – Very expensive set 3 course menu, mostly paying for the view, which was amazing as it is right next to the Brooklyn Bridge with perfect city views, but the staff are a bit up themselves and looked down on us because of the way we dressed. We didn’t know we had to dress up so were just in jeans and jumpers. They made my husband and Dad put on a dinner jacket!! Don’t recommend unless you want to frock up and have a huge bill!
  • Burke and Wills 226 W 79th St – Australian bar/restaurant with great food, if you are missing home!
  • Prohibition 503 Columbus Ave – A pub that plays live music near to above restaurant, we went for drink there after.

My New York Marathon Tips

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I’m starting to see a lot of people for massage who are running the New York Marathon this year, and as I competed in it last year, I have lots of good info and tips to share to help prepare you for the day!

  • Be prepared for the cold, long wait before you start – I left my apartment at 5.30am to get on the subway, a ferry and a bus to arrive at the starting village at about 7am. I was in wave 1 and started at 9.40am, so it is a very long time to be out in the elements on Staten Island! It was freezing and extremely windy, I had 7 layers of clothes on and a thermal first aid blanket!
  • Take a cushion – Once on Staten Island, there is grass or concrete to sit on for your 3 hour wait. I went to Jack’s discount store the day before and bought a cushion for a few bucks!
  • The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is long – The first bridge across to Manhattan is about 2.5k! It’s not as steep as the Gateway bridge but it’s definitely longer!
  • Try and run down the middle of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge if you are on the lower level – The nice guys on the upper level decide they need a pee in the first kilometre of the race and kindly do it off the side of the bridge! If it is a little windy, as it was last year, you may get a face full!
  • The race is not flat – I thought it would be but there are lots of sneaky inclines in there, even through central park at the end.
  • Don’t go for baggage option – If you check a bag in you won’t get out of the place for about 90 mins after crossing the finish line! I didn’t take a bag and it still took about 40 mins to exit! If you don’t opt for a bag, they give you a plastic bag when you collect your number, to put your bits in that you might want for the wait like water and snacks. If you have a bag they assume you will have a jumper so when you cross the line you will be given a foil blanket. If you have no bag then they also wrap you up in a lovely, warm, stylish (?) poncho!
  • When you cross the finish line, you have another 5k to walk! – You are so happy to cross the line, get your medal, get your photo taken and get your bag of snacks and drinks . . . then they make you walk for miles to exit central park at certain streets according to your name. You can’t stop or sit down or stretch, you just have to “keep going, you’re nearly there”!!! I thought I had finished the race but I was wrong!! In hindsight, moving and not just stopping after a marathon is good for the legs!! 
  • Enjoy the crowds and atmosphere – there really is nothing like it! The whole of the city come out to cheer you on, there is no part when you are out there alone. I usually run with an iPod in races for distraction, but I actually took it out of my ears to take in the experience, it’s pretty amazing! Enjoy!
RPTM