November 3rd 2024 was the NYC city Marathon which saw a total of 55,638 finishers. After four attempts, Abdi Nageeye from the Netherlands won the race in the males division and first timer, Sheila Chepkirui from Kenya finished first in the women’s race.

Though the NYC Marathon is a competition, its a feat of human strength, determination, and support.

I was lucky enough to have attended the NYC Marathon this year as one of my childhood friends, participated in the event raising money for Team for Kids, a group of adult runners commited to funding NTRR youth and community programs.

I am so proud of all she was able to accomplish. I could not help but think all day how incredible this is and how much it takes to make this day happen, for both the city and the runners. That all being said here is the day from my point of view and how we spent the day in NY.

Morning

My boyfriend and I got up nice and early, 7:30 was our go time. He bought us both coffee and bagels for the hour and a half drive into the city. We would start our day in Brooklyn for parking. Since we had some time to kill we decided to head into REI to grabs some needed climbing gear (living by the beach gives us very limited access to this heavenly store).

Afternoon

By the time we made it back Nicole was running fast, already at mile 9 and we were planning to catch her at mile 12. So since she was keeping a steady pace we made our way over to our spot and walked a little marathon to get there. At the marker there were more family and friends cheering on their runners, there were food trucks and coffee pop-ups, bathrooms, music, and a lot of police officers. We managed to squeeze our way to the front and caught Nicole running by. I screamed her name as she waved.

My boyfriend lived in NYC for a few years so he knew all the cool spots to hang out. It’s a general rule that every time we go into the city, he will pretty much plan everything. He used to sell record vinyl art at Artist and Fleas in Williamsburg. So we had to go check out some cool art in the area.

The walk to get around the marathon took a while, we couldn’t just cross at any street like normal so we had to walk a few blocks in order to cross the street and walked down a few more blocks to get to the subway and to Chelsea on time to meet with Nicole as she was running a quick pace. By the subway stop there was Martha’s Country Bakery. They truly have everything, cakes, macaroons, pies, gelato, cupcakes, and more. we treated ourselves to some sour cream apple pie, and strawberry chip gelato. After, we headed into the subway.

Evening

We wanted to eat a little lunch before meeting up with Nicole, and it seems like the best place to get food when you can not decide what you want is the Chelsea Market. This market is HUGE, it just keeps going. It is like a big indoor mall but for flea, art, and of course all the food imaginable. As we were walking to the bathroom my eyes focused in on some Berlin curry wurst. When I went to Germany a few years ago I went on a foodie tour in Berlin. One of the popular street food menu items was curry wurst and it was amazing. I have thought about it everyday since, and here it was right in front of me in NYC. It wasn’t much of a meal as it was a snack but it did hit the spot. To be completely honest, curry wurst hits like a hot dog covered in spicy ketchup. So amazing really.

As mentioned my boyfriend would sell art here and we found his old booth, the Wrecords by Monkey.

By this time Nicole had finished the race with a time of 04:26:28 and we were amazed by her performance. We walked toward the restaurant where all of her fans planned to meet at, Copper Still in Chelsea. We however stopped for some Holal street meat on our way over. It was so cheap, convenient, and absolutely delicious. Once at the restaurant, the sun was starting to go down and the city was getting chilly. So we all as a group decided on some hot spiked apple cider as our drink. We all took some pictures with our star of the day, chatted, and some of us ordered some food. We wrapped up around 6:30 and went our separate ways. Nicole was headed straight home for a good nights rest.

To wrap up our night, we would get dessert at Rice to Riches, a placed shaped like a grain of rice that only sells different varieties of rice pudding. For those who do not understand, I love rice pudding and had no idea that there could be different kinds. We tried a bunch, caramel, tiramisu, rocky road, French toast, and much more. We settled on the Oreo and Butterscotch as our choices. After that we hopped back onto the subway back to Brooklyn and to the car to head home and enjoy our rice pudding.

It was an exciting day filled with many twist and turns and I am so proud of my friend for achieving such an incredible goal in her life. Congratulations Nicole I am so proud and honored to have witness this moment.