Hey! I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 26.2! (part one)

Thanks to a brilliant sign that I saw somewhere along the course, this entire 2 part race recap might be dedicated to Taylor Swift. Apparently I am a 15 year old girl with troubles in love....? After I saw the sign that, if nothing else, inspired the title of my blog today, I continued to sing that song for miles and miles and miles. Not really a bad thing, to be quite honest.

Anyway, I digress. Nothing new there.

My Fall race schedule reached an peak of insanity this past weekend when I headed to NYC to run the marathon. YAY!!!!
Despite knowing that achieving a fast race was doubtful I felt good in the days leading up to the trip, I was not nervous at all and was looking forward to the adventure with much gusto.

My loaded up race bags and my lucky charm cheetah.

We arrived in NJ where we stayed with Eric's family, to some of the nicest, warmest weather that we have had in weeks! What a lovely surprise. It's always great to stay with family because we are so well taken care of (thanks guys!!)
The excellent weather continued into the next day. There is nothing I like more than walking around on a nice day (this might have been a bad thing...)

We headed off into the city pretty early as we had quite a few things to do. I headed out the door first thing for a few shake out miles then got down to business.
My request was to take the ferry since I had not done that before, and I'm a geek who likes to see new places from all angles. I immediately decided that the seas were too high for my liking but I was brave and managed not to get seasick (reason #1 why I am not a pirate...)

High seas. Amazing skyline.

While walking to our Oiselle brunch date we went on a small detour thru Central Park to take a look at the finish line and take in the final 0.2 of the course (hilly.) I was pretty excited to get a look at the finish since at the end of a race I usually am too depleted to notice, or care!

Ohhhhh yay! The finish line!!!

The next stop was brunch with a large number of Oiselle ladies. So many, in fact, that is was impossible to say hi to everyone but I tremendously enjoyed the company of the woman I chatted with. We enjoyed some serious food and talked serious race strategy (like winning, duh...)
Incase anyone had forgotten how I fail at subtlety and coolness here is a good story to remind you... We walked in and who do I see but Kate Grace, who is one of my favorite runners and is pretty much my superhero. "Oh MY GOD!!!!! I squealed like the silly fangirl that I am "You are SO FAMOUS and I LOVE you!!!!!!" Yes, way to keep it cool Sara, way to keep it cool...... *sigh* She was incredibly nice though and posed for pics which made my day! I'll try to develop a more mature and chic attitude for famous athlete meetings in the future (this is a lie.)

Ahhhhh! My hero!!!!

Post brunch we caught a cab to the Expo, and were able to get in and get my bib much more easily than we had hoped for (lots of dire warnings about big crowds had us a little concerned!)

All signed in and ready to win a marathon! Oh, wait...

I am a huge expo fan so when I end up at a giant race with a big expo I really enjoy walking around and taking a look at everything (another great way to rest those legs!! ...not...) I tend to find some sweet deals and today was no exception, I scored the final pair of Wave 16's in the house (Mizuno for the win!), snagged new compression sleeves, found a shirt in my size on sale, and snagged the last xs pullover in the entirety of expo land. Go me!

Yeah I'm that girl who takes pics with her lucky charm. Admit it, you're jealous of my coolness!

After that, it was clearly time for food (which required a bit of walking) and then in an absurd stroke of luck we were able to locate one of my BEST friends up in Times Square! (a bit more walking...) The walk was completely worth it as she and I have not been within 100 miles of each other in months, then find ourselves in the city on the same day. What are the odds? It was awesome to catch up with her, get swept along in a sea of 60,000 other walkers as we abled down the street, then I scooted away as she was about to bring her kiddo into Toys R us (terror) A quick but excellent visit!

Wisely, at this point we decided to hit the road and roll on back to NJ. We went back to the Ferry terminal where I took a moment to show off my fabulous race swag! (and yes, the seas were still mighty high on the Hudson...)

$75 well spent. I am quite fond of my new pull over!!

We enjoyed a large family pasta dinner, I ate all the kids Halloween candy and proceeded to head to bed, with plans to get up at the ass crack of dawn.

And yes, this is a cliffhanger. To be continued!!!