NY and Dublin Part 1

Back home having had a grand time, both in NY and Dublin.  As promised, posting some photos, didn't take a lot but Rose is sending more so will post those when they arrive too. On the left the post race shot, on the right the glamourous attire I wore for the mile walk home - heat sheets may not be the warmest thing in the world but they do, at least, keep the wind off! Bottom left.....yummiest glass of wine ever!  Also included a shot of the first bridge at the start of the race (1 mile up hill, didn't feel a thing.....and yep, seriously it's that crowded and then some!).
Rose and I didn't really do a lot of sight seeing in NY, it was all about the marathon.  But the one thing we did do was the entire route on a bus as part of the Friends and Family tour.  The great thing about this was it allowed Rose to see exactly where I would be running.  The weirdness being spectators have to be very selective about where they are on the route as it's really challenging to traverse the crowds.  The bus trip was totally fascinating, taking us past some well known landmarks and introducing us to new ones.  Both of us really enjoyed it.

The night before the race we also stumbled across this really fab Japanese restaurant.  A second floor venue we noticed it from across the street.  Gyu-Kaku is Japanese BBQ.  We sat at our table with a little BBQ inset and watched as food was rolled out to us (chose a set menu) with a range of delicious meats and fish and mushrooms, we then BBQ then one slice at a time.  Totally fab and the perfect pre.race meal for me.  I didn't have the wine but Rose certainly enjoyed it!
Monday morning I woke up feeling a little stiff but we had a leisurely start.  We set off to go and look at the marathon store post race but when we got there it was crazed so we both shrugged it off and started walking down 5th avenue.  While I did get my medal and my tee shirt I'd confess to indulging in something a little more glamorous as my remembrance.  Tiffany offer a line of commemorative items around the race. The whole collection is here, but I opted for the oval ring tag that you can get engraved.  Made me very happy I have to say.
Rose and I spent the day wandering the streets, good for my aching muscles and weary body, but I did, perhaps, over extend a little and we ended up needing to get a cab back to the hotel so we could catch (what turned out to be) our stretch limo to the airport!  Before you all groan we had ordered a town car (which isn't much more than a taxi cost wise BUT, for whatever reason a limo turned up).  Needless to say Rose and I giggled liked fools about the whole thing - it was a lovely ride though!!!!
Security done we settled in for the flight to Heathrow.  While we had a four hour layover most of it was sucked up being sent to the wrong terminal, all of which involved numerous security checkpoints....it was tedious and I was struggling a little with the amount of walking required (turns out marathons are quite wearying on the body).  Enough to say that bloody mary's at 10am in the morning ease many pains (well technically it was more like 1am NY time).  Of course that also meant that we were both asleep for wheels up and woke as wheels came down.
Meeting Pauline and Bernice at the airport was the start of our Dublin adventures.