2012 New York Marathon Trip - New York Part 2

This is part two of my New York Marathon Trip post. 

After we had checked into the Lucerne in Manhattan as part of our marathon package that we booked through travelling fit, we went out for a shopping spree. The sales at this time of the year were just amazing and I was able to get a Calvin Klein suit for work for just USD $60! Of course I found a few other things that I had to take home as souvenirs for myself (*cheeky grin*).

Later that day when we came back to the hotel and picked up the key to our room we found out that it had just been announced that the marathon had been cancelled. We were in shock and disappointed. There is no question that it was the right decision given the state that the city was in but in my opinion it was announced way too late. Especially after they had continued to tell everyone that it would definitely go ahead throughout the week.

This is a picture of people charging their mobile phones on the street. I guy had opened his "own business" supplying a charging facility to people without electricity in exchange for a fee.

Even though our dream had not worked out according to plan we still had a great time and enjoyed all the decorations for Halloween. Loved this spider I found hanging from a tree!

 

Isn't all that decoration just cool?!

There was a whole row of horse carriages in the city.

Even though the marathon had been cancelled we decided to go for a early morning run around Central Park. The views were just breathtaking and no pictures could ever do the beauty of the park justice. It was quite chilly with only about 2 degrees in the morning but for sure one of the most beautiful runs we had been on so far.

This was my buddy that we met at the park. He or maybe she came up to me and was very curious.

In the meantime we have received an email from the New York Road Runners announcing the options available to the runners that missed out in 2012 due to the cancellation of the marathon and we have decided that we will be running the 2013 NY marathon! Both Manuel and I are very excited and looking forward to the trip next year!

2012 New York Marathon Trip - New York Part 1

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it has been a while since my last post. We got back from our trip a bit longer than a week ago and it was quite a trip. Not as expected or as planned but we had an amazing time!

First of all we were lucky enough to make it into New York on Sunday night before Hurricane Sandy hit the following day and before they actually closed off all airports. We stayed at the Sheraton Lincoln Harbor in New Jersey for the first five nights. Monday was a quiet day because Sandy was expected to hit the coast late at night. The winds were very strong and we couldn't really go out. Once Sandy hit later at night we saw the water literally flow past our hotel and one of a sudden during dinner the lights went out; we had lost electricity!

Shortly after the generators were going which meant the hotel had just enough electricity to light up all corridors. I think there are so many things we take for granted every day; electricity or even our warm showers. Well after we lost electricity we literally had none until we checked out on the following Friday which meant no warm showers. I tried the cold shower thing a few times and let me tell you the effect was way better than any coffee out there! We left the door to our room open a lot of the times so we at least had some light. Lots of early nights and we got to catch up on sleep.

Many of the people that had been rescued in our area because their homes had been flooded stayed at our hotel. There was even dogs and cats. Lots of people had lost everything and many streets around the corner from us were under water where only the top levels of some houses had been spared.

Luckily on the Thursday the ferries were going again (before the water levels had been too high and even the tunnels were flooded for days) and we were very keen to check out New York. What an amazing place from M & M World (can you imagine three stories high of M & Ms and merchandise?!), Rockefeller Plaza with it's amazing views and NBC studios!

We also went to Madame Toussands and went crazy posing with all the wax figurines where so many of them look so real. We saw this lady and my mum and Manuel started walking behind her so that they wouldn't ruin the pictures she was taking; until they realised that she was also a wax figure!

Most morning we would have breakfast at Greens Market with all it's organic foods; custom omelets, smoothies, juices, fresh soups and warm foods with lots of fresh veggies; I absolutely loved this place. It also had quite a few raw foods available and we even tried Mango Kambucha there; so good and healthy!

There are so many big department stores and shops around; you could literally shop for days! It was funny one day we went into a shoe shop, Designer Shoe Warehouse, and we ladies went off and the guys. When we met up later we discovered that my husband had found even more than I had ;)

 
To be continued...