New York Marathon 2011 ( Saturday before The Race )

Sat 5 Nov was the day before The Day. the NYRR organized a 5 km in the Central Park called the NYRR Dash to the Finish Line. It is at 830am and temperature was 3 Celsius. I didn't signed up for that race. My Singaporean friends went to collect the bib and I brought my group to the Top Of The Rock.

This is the observation deck on the 66 floor of the GE tower at The Rockefeller Plaza at midtown Manhattan. From there we can take nice shots of The Empire State building, central park, New Jersey, Queens, Brooklyn and even Staten island. Anyway,One can't snap empire state when one is in then empire state! And we took the walking tour that goes in and out of the 14 buildings of the Rockefeller Center plus the famous skating rink too. Yup, it's already a skating rink by Nov. Or else it's just a foot court. Sadly, they haven't installed the giant christmas tree yet.
Empire State Building from Rockefeller Center

Then we walked to Times Sq and I got us tickets to watch the matinee for Spiderman Turn Off The Dark musical at Broadway. At least I get to sit down for the next 3 hours. I was enchanted by the grand Foxwoods Theatre. Loved the new and most high tech Broadway musical with the technology from the Beijing Games opening. Humans are held by 4 tight ropes so that they can fly around the theatre, seriously . In actual fact there 9 spidermen in the show because they appeared from all corners of the theatre. Of course, only one is seen at any given time.
Spiderman on Broadway

After the show, I felt a need to have a herbal drink..where else but Chinatown! So we took the train no 1 to Canal St and found a Taiwanese honey lemon bubble tea. The closest to herbal drink. Eventually, Esther did got me herbal drink and she brought it back to me at night.

My New Yorker friend Will organized a pre marathon carbo loading dinner at the 85th st upper west which is very close to where I stayed. We met at the Standard Chartered KL Marathon this year. I was pacing the 5:30 group and he followed us. Met his wife, Karen plus 10 others marathon maniacs. Will has been most helpful in my preparation to NYC , from describing the NYC marathon route to teaching me to use the Baltimore DC Parkway. I sat next to a Thai who worked for ING in Seattle.
Dean's Pizzeria & Restaurant 85th St

Dean's Pizzeria & Restaurant 85th St

After dinner, i went back to the room and saw Aileen, Wen Wen and Oscar busy preparing for our big day tomorrow. As usual, it's almost like preparing for war! Set my alarm to 3 am. I tried to sleep at 11pm with butterflies in my stomach ...