NYC with PB

My sister has lived in Manhattan for a year now, and this was my first time visiting her there.  I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but my dad and sister are running the Disney Marathon with me in January.  They had wanted to do the Half, but it sold out in just a couple of hours, so they ended up relenting and going for the full.  They’ve been training since May.  My sister was scheduled to do her first 9 mile training run this weekend, so we would get a chance to train together!  

Since my dad got me into Geocaching (although I ended up trying it before he did, and we went together for his first time), I was excited to introduce my sister to it, too.  We decided to make the run a geocaching run, so I found good caches along the way.  The run ended up being a lot of stop-and-go because of the cache finds, so we were out twice as long as the time we actually spent running.  The first few miles breezed by, with the stops.  After several caching stops, we kind of wanted to just run, so we cared less about grabbing caches in the later half. 

The first cache was in a natural rock wall, and it took quite a while, but the hiding place ended up being way easier than either of us had imagined. I had climbed on some steep stuff for nothing.  I tended to find the caches first, since it was her first time.  I tried to let her find it after I spotted it, but I have a bad poker face.  She did end up finding one on her own.  There was also a virtual cache that we had passed while running, that we went back to look for, and she had recalled seeing this thing while running, not knowing it was a geocache, so that didn’t really count as her first find, but it was funny.  

In the geocaches, there's a paper log that people sign.  Usually, there's only enough space to write your geocaching ID and the date.  Sometimes, there's space to write more, but people don't really do that.  In one cache, we were surprised to discover this sweetest note.  One day, I hope to find love like this.

Both of our knees did get a bit wonky in the last mile or two, but we made it.  Even though the training effect of a stop-and-go 9 miler isn’t as big as going for 9 miles straight, I think there was still some special benefit in having that time on my feet.  It’s probably a bit more tiring to be out for 2.5 hrs, than to just get a 9 mile run over with in half the time.  In total, I'm counting 8.9 mi in 1:32:32, 10:24 average.

 

After the run, we went out to the Highline, an elevated metro that they’ve turned into a garden and walking trail, which is actually quite long.  We found more geocaches, met her boyfriend at a food court, went to a skyscraper rooftop bar, went into a pop-up art gallery, and stopped by Whole Foods to get some groceries and local beers.

The next morning, we went to see the Hunger Games Exhibition, and spent twice as long as people normally spend there, since we wanted to make the most of the $30/person entry fee, and we wanted to read every written word and take pictures of all the cool things.  I had actually seen an ad for it months ago and had considered a special trip just to see it, so it was nice that it was still there when I finally did visit.  We stopped by Times Square for an obligatory picture with Paddington Bear, then we went back to the apartment.  She made almond flour + honey + coconut oil & flakes + chocolate chip cookies, while we watched Mockingjay Part 1.  Flew out that night.  A nice, quick trip.