World Trade Center Run to Remember 5k

This has been such a fab weekend! It started yesterday when my friend arrived and we did a little shopping and walking around. After getting ready we headed down to the East Village for some delicious thai food and then the highlight of the night, PDT. I’ve been wanting to go since I moved to the city so I am glad I finally made it!

Basically it’s a speakeasy style bar with innovative yet old fashioned cocktails. The trick is that you enter through a phone booth in a hole in the wall hot dog place. They take reservations for that night starting at 3PM so I called right at 3 and got through on my second try and successfully snagged a 9PM reservation. Even with the reservation we had to wait a few minutes once we got there but it was worth the wait. I had a mezcal mule and a bacon infused bourbon with maple syrup and angosturra bitters. Yum to both. I couldn’t finish the 2nd one it was so strong!

We had an early morning for the 5k so we headed out and got home around midnight and were asleep by 12:30! Luckily we were smart and layed out all our race clothes and packed our bags the night before.

My alarm went off at 6:30 and we hopped up, got ready, packed breakfast and were out the door by 7:05. We had to take the subway to Bowling Green and then take the ferry to Governor’s Island. It’s a quick ride and we were over there by 8:45 or so.

We picked up our race packets and did a little sightseeing before the race, which started at 10.

We had a great view of the Statue of Liberty

Governor’s Island itself was also really nice – lots of chairs, picnic tables, and adirondack chairs to relax in:

Of course Alaina and I needed a pic together:

The race started promptly and we were off. This was a flat, fast course and I wanted to try and get my pace for the race under 10 min miles. I was slightly disappointed that there was no timing mat at the start line, meaning your chip time would be from the race start, not necessarily when you crossed the start. Luckily I had my watch. We went around the outside of the island and passed mile one in about 9:45 (according to my watch, which I started when we crossed the start line.)

Mile 2 we made some turns and ran around a little of the interior of the island near where we got off the ferry. We passed mile 2 around 19:45. There were two water stations in the race which was nice. I had my bottle so I didn’t partake but Alaina did.

Mile 3 had a short out and back until we were back on the road we started on and could see the finish ahead. We passed mile 3 at 30:00 and I knew I would have to pick it up to come in under 31:00 and under 10:00 min miles. I was able to do it and finished in 30:55!

Alaina was right behind me and got a personal record (PR) of just over 31 minutes!

It was a great race for a great cause. We could personalize our bibs to run in memory of a 9/11 victim. If you didn’t know anyone personally, then you could have them pick a random person for you to run in honor of, which is what I did.

Afterwards, we walked around the island some more. Such great views of the city:

There was a Food Truck Festival going on, so we checked that out and each got something. I got edamame dumplings from Rickshaw Dumpling Truck which were delicious.

Next we headed back to Manhattan on the ferry and walked around Union Square for a bit.

Before we knew it it was 3PM and time for a blogger meet up at Stogo in the East Village for some vegan ice cream! A fabulous blogger, Meghann, was in town for the weekend and with the help of some others organized a great meet up. It was fun to meet up with a fellow blogger in person and along the way we met some other great people. I think Meghann got a picture of everyone so hopefully it will go up soon!

Phew…what a day! I just walked Alaina back to Grand Central and am planning on a quiet night in!

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