16th – 20th – The Iberian Lynxn’t

The following morning at 0915 I was picked up by a guide, and after picking up a Norwegian pair elsewhere in Malaga we were off on a 3-hour drive north past Cordoba and east to Andújar. Arriving at around mid-day we grabbed lunch packs and went on. 

 Fox.

The goal for the next four days was to find the Iberian lynx which roams the area. There isn’t a national park where you have to register somewhere and enter the area; instead the natural park Sierra de Andújar north of Andújar is protected and otherwise freely accessible by public roads. It is worth noting that the roads around here are mostly gravel and very windy so unless you are coming here to look for lynx (or any other wildlife) you wouldn’t venture into these parts. There are places where chances to see them are higher than others, so there are parts of the roads where you see cars parked with people carrying cameras around looking out into the landscape. These places were mostly places you have a good view of rock formations where the lynx comes by to rest on, or view points covering a large open area where you’ll be able to spot the lynx even from a long distance. It is worth noting that the large open area is still hilly and full of shrubs, bushes and trees so seeing a lynx is still very much depending on luck and timing. Especially also because their territories are fairly large and there will only be one mail and (maybe) one female in each. So the density is very low in a hard-to-see environment. Good luck!

Having picked up lunch we drove for another hour or so along windy roads before reaching the area to spot the lynx. The procedure was such that we found a place, left the vehicle and walked along the road for a bit seeing if anything interesting would appear. An hour or two later we would return to the car, drive somewhere else and repeat. Maybe confer with other camera-carrying people to hear if they had spotted anything (they hadn’t) before continuing the slow wander or silent watching of the landscape.

Red robin.

When it started getting dark we returned to Andújar and checked in at our hotel. The hotel was owned and run by a couple and we received a very warm welcome on arrival and we were soon seated in their basement previously used to storing wine and olive oil where we every evening were served a 3-course dinner. It was delicious including the wine and local olive oil and the atmosphere was warm and cozy. Breakfasts were also served here, being more of a buffet with the usual cereals, yoghurts, breads, danishes and cakes and eggs. Being very early in the lynx season and not summer (lynx season is mainly January) there were only a few other people staying at the hotel so it never felt crowded having our meals in an otherwise slightly limited space.

Common redstart.

Armed with our lunch packs we left in the early morning while it was still cold and dark, so when we arrived at the lookout points the sun had come out and we could get the most use of the light. So today – Tuesday – we stayed around the rocks and lookout points; spending the early morning at the rocks and later we moved on to get a wider view where also quite a few others had positioned themselves. And suddenly there was a yelp from one of the others, and far out in the distance, walking up a hill away from us a lonely lynx was moving. And a few seconds later it was gone. That was it. We were looking eagerly into the distance where it had disappeared, but it was completely out of sight again. And the rest of the day was spent looking without finding anything.

One far-away lynx-butt being presented to the photographers. 

Iberian ibex.

The following day we went to the Encinarejo reservoir as lynx sometimes is spotted there and the chance of seeing otters. There were no lynxes (surprise) but a few otters swimming around in the lake and plenty of birds. We also visited La Lancha, the town where people lived when the damn was built at the reservoir, now a ghost town. Walking around and sitting having lunch we were met by a small group of Iberian ibex, something that isn’t guaranteed at all so we had that going for us. In the afternoon we returned to the usual overlooked area, and meeting some of the other people there we were informed that they saw two lynx in the morning and could follow them for almost 45 minutes crossing the road and wandering around in the open. I was genuinely happy for them but... damn.

Kingfisher.

 

Otter.

The last day we spent the morning back at the usual lookout points with out seeing much. While the mornings and evenings had been chilly the middays and afternoons reached above 20 degrees with very little clouds so it got very warm. Around 11 this morning it started raining and we decided that it was the signal for us to pack up and return to Malaga. With lunch along the way we retuned in the afternoon, dropping off the Norwegians and then me, saying goodbye to our excellent guide promising him that I’ll be back some day to have another go at seeing the lynx.

On the lookout.

Dinner was had near the hotel, checked out the following morning, took the train from the nearby station to the airport, checked in and flew home without a single issue.

 

 Out there, somewhere, there's a lynx.

I enjoyed the trip, despite not seeing much of the lynx. Not having visited Malaga before this trip was new to me, and despite the downpour on the first day the weather was excellent to walk around the city. A couple of colleagues also did the run so meeting up with them on the Sunday evening was nice – especially because I take joy in the fact that I was far from the sorest from the run. And funny enough I don’t feel too bummed about not really seeing much of the lynx; I assume it was/is a combination of the ease of returning (don’t have to go far like to India or similar), the tour was cheap and probably also because I just needed some time off and away from work, so even staring idly at some rocks for the 4 days out of the city would have felt rewarding. In any case, I feel that I may be back at some point for another attempt.

Full album can be seen here.

15th – Malaga marathon

The marathon was to start at 0830 and the starting corrals would be opened 0745-0815. Staying at a hotel overlooking the starting area leaving at 0730 I was in very good time. On time we started flowing into our designated corrals, and at around 0800 the pacers starting entering, and “my” pacers (4:00) took up position in the back of the starting group. Perfect – as long as I keep them behind me I’ll be fine. 20 minutes later all pacers moved ahead and positioned themselves from the rear to the front of their starting groups. WTF? As a registered 3:55 finisher this was very confusing and I was far from the only runner being confused by this.

The front group (elites etc.) were sent off on time and a few moments later the rest were sent off in a steady flow and 6 minutes after the start I crossed the starting line. There was a fair amount of variation in the width of the streets during the run, even in the beginning which is arguable the most critical part due to the congestion of the runners. With great difficulty it took maybe 5km before I managed to pass the 4:00 pacers and put a bit of distance to them – together with several other runners.

The start was at a comfy 8-ish degrees with only a few clouds and a breeze so very comfortable running conditions. We started off westward where we circled through a bit of the central part of the city (though not the old part) before coming out to the waterfront in the opposite direction of the start, where we after a few kilometers reached the waterfront area near my hotel and turned out towards the cruise terminal. Here we circled back (not really any other option out there unless you want to go swimming), returned the same way back and continued eastward before we once again circled around and ended up near the starting area hitting the halfway point of the run.

At this point we were split in two; half marathoners were led into their finishing area while the rest of us were led out westward, along the same street we were on before turning out towards the cruise terminal. At around 28km we turned away from the water and ran around in what mostly looked like an industrial area until at 30km exactly we entered Malaga Athletic Stadium where we did a round before leaving again and continuing through the industrial area and towards the city center.

With maybe 4-5km left we reached the east side of Rio Guadalmedina north of the center, and from there we entered the old city, in the end getting back out on the main street and after 800 m crossing the finish line.

Along the way the weather did get a bit warmer reaching around 13-15 degrees, but fortunately it never reached the same humidity levels as yesterday. From the halfway point the streets still varied between nice and wide, and fairly narrow with sharp turns, but with only marathoners left if wasn’t really ever a problem at this point. I was honestly surprised how little support there was for much of the run, the last 3-ish km when we were running through the old part of the city were wild, but other than that there were only few places you felt blown away. Running in the industrial area and on the long stretches along the water (we weren’t even that close to the water so it would probably be more accurate to say “parallel with the shore”) it was almost just you and the other runners and it honestly did make it feel a bit uninspiring and boring at times. 

 

The last few kilometers through the central part of the city.

There was a girl the last 10-ish km who was switching between running and walking. When she was walking I was passing her, and when she was running she was passing me, and like that we leapfrogged along during the last part of the run. Because we were passing each other every 2-3 minutes it was easy to keep track of her: she had fairly thick thighs that rubbed against each other and wearing very short tights. At the hem of her tights, due to the rubbing (and the presence of sweat probably didn’t help, either) she was wearing herself raw. For every pass we made just a bit more blood had spread out on her tights and thighs. I can’t imagine how sore and itchy she has been, but she kept going and didn’t show any signs of wanting to give up. And that was amazing. If you’re not bleeding during a run are you really having a hard time?

As usual I was aiming for a sub-4 hour run and at no point was I worried that the goal would be endangered. I did note around 30-32km that I should probably keep an eye on my pace and make sure that I didn’t slow down much more until closer to the finish line – and I managed that with great(-ish) success: an official finish time of 3:58:14. I did lose quite a bit of time towards the end while hunkering down and focusing on my pace, trying to ignore the many runners overtaking me, but at this point it felt like it was pure routine that got me through with the satisfactory result.

It turned out to be a fairly fast run though the time limit for the run is only 5:30, the shortest I have experienced so far. That meant that out of 5748 runners (which meant that there were more than 9000 halfmarathoners) I came in as 3691 (top 64,21%), 3185 out of 4625 men (top 68,86%) and 464 out of 622 in my age group (top 74,60%). Definitely not a good relative placement despite my time being in the same neighbourhood as many other of my runs (second worst overall placement only behind Boston at 69,79%) but overall I was happy with my result. And as an added bonus, as the finish area was the same as the starting area I only had a few minutes’ walk to get back to my hotel.

12th – 14th of December – Welcome to Costa del Downpour

The plan was originally to fly out on the 12th early morning directly to Malaga, but a few weeks after booking my flights I was informed that my flight to Malaga had been cancelled and I was moved to a departure on the 10th instead. With a bit of back and forth with the airline I ended up getting a ticket on the 11th in the evening – to Stockholm and on the following morning I would then get a connection to Malaga at 0600. Easy! Having to get up at 0330 to catch a flight should be illegal, but otherwise the trip to Malaga went without a hitch.

We arrived in Malaga a few minutes ahead of schedule and were met with pouring rain. I collected my bag, walked outside and managed to find a covered spot while waiting for the airport bus to get to the city. Getting onto the bus all the windows instantly misted over as everyone, even those that managed to only be in the rain for a few moments to get to the bus, were completely drenched and thereby humidified the entire bus. Luckily the bus’s last stop was a short 5 minute walk from my hotel, so I managed to get there without completely drowning a few minutes before noon. Official check-in time was at 1400, but fortunately they already had a room ready for me so I was able to check in early.

Sitting in my room looking out at the rain I realized that despite napping on the flight I was completely exhausted and couldn’t muster the energy to go out and dressing to handle the weather. So I waited. And waited. It wasn’t until around 1800 there was a break in the rain for more than 5 minutes, and at around 1830 when it was still dry I got my stuff and went for a walk. I wandered down to the harbor front a few minutes away checking out the restaurants before turning around and going up to the central old part of the city that turned out to be filled with restaurants. I found a place and was seated outdoors under a tarp with a plate of paella. And maybe half an hour of sitting there we got a couple of extra buckets of rain but at least I stayed dry while eating and seeing people running around trying to find cover. Fortunately it didn’t last too long and had stopped when I had finished eating and left the restaurant. But the temperatures had dropped quite significantly since I had arrived so I decided to just head back to the hotel.

Pathways at Alcazaba.

 

The following day I went down to the runner’s expo at the cruise terminal and picked up my kit for the brunch run and marathon. I successfully managed to changed my L shirt to an XL – the shirts were quite smaller sizes than I had expected, relatively to the sizes you were handed for the Valencia half.

View of the old part of the city from Gibralfaro castle.

From the cruise terminal I left the harbor area and walked up to the Gibralfaro castle which gave some nice views of the city and surrounding areas despite some dark low-hanging clouds around the nearby mountains. The castle itself was ok – it isn’t much more than a slightly bent rectangular shaped outer wall with the occasional tower so after the walk along the walls there wasn’t much else to see. It does sound a bit boring but the views you had from up there were quite nice. From there I descended to the central part and entered the Alcazaba, another castle further down and closer to the harbor. The two are connected originally – and still are with the walls going all the way – but the ground conditions between the two are so poor that you have to visit them separately. While Gibralfaro didn’t have much to see, Alcazaba was significantly more interesting to walk around in. There were a lot of different buildings, narrow walkways and gardens so it was fairly easy to get confused about where you were in the moment. It wasn’t much of an issue, though, as there was plenty to look at, and only paying €5,5 for a double ticket it was hard being unhappy with the experience.

Alcazaba with the roman theater outside.

I spent the remainder of the day walking around in the area before getting dinner. Following this I wandered around enjoying the Christmas lighting and having a walk up to the castle to see mostly the harbor area by night.

 Two towers in Malaga.

 

Christmas lighting.

The following morning at 1030 I left for the cruise terminal where the brunch run would start at 1100. A short 4,5km run along the harbor front back and forth was a nice shakeout but at this time of day it had gotten quite warm and humid, and it made me worry that the end of the marathon tomorrow would be as bad (relatively speaking). Crossing the finishing line we got a banana and a bottle of water. Amazing brunch! Too be clear; I don’t expect a complete buffet but calling it a brunch run you can’t not get some kind of expectation – otherwise why not just call it a morning or shakeout run? I remember the end of the Berlin and Paris breakfast runs, and especially the latter’s challenge wasn’t completing the run but rather balancing all the stuff you were handed afterwards without dropping anything. 

Returning to the hotel I went out for a short walk, intentionally staying outside of the old part of the city, but honestly those areas didn’t seem particularly interesting. I definitely preferred walking around in the old part. Dinner was had at the water front near the hotel so it was quick and easy to get done and return to the hotel afterwards.

SuperHalfs pt. 2

I guess it was just a matter of time, but the SuperHalfs added a new participant in the group of runs. I was happy to complete the original 5 (Copenhagen, Prague, Valencia, Cardiff and Lisbon) in 2022 and getting the "final" medal, assuming I by doing that finished this challenge. 

But alas, that was not to be. A new run has been added to the group, increasing the number of SuperHalfs to 6. It also means, though, by running the 6th I get another fancy final medal. The old 5-run medal is rmeoved from circulation so there is only one final medal, making the original a rarity. Fancy! Also, I'm making all this sound like it's a bad thing.

4th-5th of April
Flying out to Berlin on a Friday planning on only a short extended weekend. I had actually looked into taking the train instead, but realizing how long it'd take and the number of changes needed I realized it wasn't worth my time - especially considering the price difference on top of that. I'm glad I have been fairly quick at booking hotels as the one I ended up booking at close to the start and finish area is already sold out half a year in advance.

6th of April
The Berlin half marathon has very similar - if not identical - start and finish like the marathon; we start off in Tiergarten going west past the Siegessäule and finishing coming through the Brandenburger Tor. On the way we will be passing Schloß Charlottenburg, crossing Lietzensee, passing Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche and crossing Potsdamer Platz before passing Berliner Dom before reaching Brandenburger Tor and the finish line. The runners get sent off past 10 so at least it's not an too early start.

7th of April
Flying back home, hopefully not too sore considering it's "only" a half marathon and having more runs planned in the following months.

Remembering back to the marathon in 2019 I'm expecting plenty of support along the way and a very well-executed event. It'll be a nice trip.

4th – 7th – Post race and return home

There was a diner only a few streets away from the hotel so that was the obvious choice for dinner after the run. Why walk further than absolutely necessary when your legs have a hard time cooperating?

The following two days I spent being a tourist and visited the National History Museum and the Bronx Zoo. I had visited the National History Museum before but it’s quite extensive so I wanted to visit it again and maybe check up on things I may have missed the last time. And dinosaurs are always fun looking at. 

Stegosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The Bronx Zoo was quite the experience; it’s basically a very large park in which they have installed multiple large cages or fenced areas where most animals have a lot of space to move around in (relative to the fact it’s a zoo). I think the only thing I had a real issue with was the collection of semi-exotic birds outside that were placed in fairly small cages. I feel like every zoo has a setup like this, regardless of where you are. It was otherwise nice to see the seemingly good conditions the animals were living in. Unfortunately this also meant you had to do a lot of walking to get around – minor unfortunate downside of an otherwise good experience. There is always the “eek” about having animals in cages for our entertainment, but if you do it this was the way to do so.

They had this wheel of fortune thing to show what you could experience as a penguin. 

For a child friendly zoo, some of these are very dark. I loved it.

 

 An excellent visual way of showing the fragile life of 100 robins. 100 eggs, 74 hatchlings, 52 fledglings and 10 adults. 

And descriptions for why those gone disappeared (cold, eaten, etc.).

I spent more than 5 hours at the zoo and when they closed at 1630 I had to rush the last parts before leaving. It was a ½ hour ride with the subway from the hotel, and leaving the zoo I took the subway south for an hour ending up in Brooklyn to check out the night views of Manhattan before crossing Brooklyn bridge with all the other tourists having the same idea as me.

 

Dinner at Katz's Delicatessen: a Reuben sandwich. Even better than it looks!

A place known by most without knowing it. "I want what she's having" should give you a hint.

The Wednesday was the last day in the city with a flight out in the late afternoon. I didn’t want to plan much so I did a late checkout from the hotel, went down to the pizza place further down the street and used my last cash on a slice and soda, before having a walk around midtown and ending up back and Penn station and returning to the airport. Got there a bit earlier than planned – but better too early than a bit late – so I hung out in the lounge seeing it slowly completely fill until my departure. Wasn’t such a bad thing getting there early after all.

The flight home went well and arrived back the next day in the early morning, had a long nap and finished off the day with a port tasting. I slept very well that night. Overall this had been a nice trip back to New York and running the marathon there again, but I do not expect to return again for that purpose. I would rather spend my money and time on different destinations, and while I didn’t reach the goal of getting a sub-4 hour run I did improve my time enough to get my average down below 4 hours. And that was good enough for me.

Full album can be seen here.

3rd of November – New York marathon

The alarm went off at 0430 and I met up with a couple of people in the hotel reception and left at 0520 to go to the pickup location where we got onto a bus that took us to the starting area. As opposed to Boston they used tourist busses and not school busses so there was plenty of leg room available for the 1½ hour drive. It wasn’t because it was far away but the last half hour we were stuck in a queue of busses letting runners off. Getting there around 0730 meant there was quite the wait until my wave started at 1020. The wait time was spent walking around in the huge starting area trying to stay warm; while the temps would be around 10-12 degrees during the run it was barely half that as long as you weren’t standing in the wind, so a lot of the time was spent trying to find a place where you’d be in the sun but out of the wind – but when you found a spot like that it was quite nice. There were free handouts of bagels, coffee, teas, water and energy drinks. The New York marathon is the one I have experienced with the most of such things and plenty of similarly large runs would be very welcome to feel inspired by this.

At 0945 the corrals were opened, 15 minutes later they were closed again and a few moments later we were all channeled from the corrals forward to the starting line. With 5 starting waves there would be an average of app. 11.000 people getting ready to run at this moment.

Crossing the Verrazzano bridge.

With the national anthem sung (of not for that and all the flags, how would we even know we were in the US?) we were finally let go at 1020. We started by leaving the first borough (Long Island) by crossing the Verrazzano bridge from where we had an excellent clear view of the south end of Manhattan. The was a slight cold breeze but barely a cloud, so conditions were nice. After the bridge we passed a 2-mile sign and I couldn’t help myself proclaiming “don’t worry – only 24 miles to go!”. The woman running next to me gave me a look that showed without a doubt that she was not nearly as enthused by that comment as I was. Tough crowd.

Crossing the bridge we entered Brooklyn and from there it was mostly just a straight line north, passing through Queens, before crossing Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan. Even if there was a unitedness in the boroughs themselves, styles, visual expressions and the level of support changed on an almost street by street basis. It was constantly changing and plenty for a runner to look at and take in, especially for someone who wasn’t local, but what they all had in common was at times overwhelming support for the runners.

With few exceptions there were water stations at every mile which meant it was easy skipping half. This seemed to be a common theme among the runners, and it also helped take some of the pressure off the stations with the numerous participants. I noticed in the beginning that the stations seemed quite short relative to how many people ran, but considering most people skipped a few here and there it made sense. Towards the end the temperatures had risen enough that getting a sip of water at every station seemed justified (and appreciated), but at least the humidity never got to the level as it had been on Friday morning. That would have been horrible.

Reaching Manhattan we were met by a wall of noise. A mile on the bridge made you get used to the silence except for the footsteps, but reaching 1st avenue you were met with countless loud spectators welcoming us to Manhattan – an almost shocking experience if you weren’t prepared for it. Running up 1st avenue all the way to the Bronx is rough; mostly mentally because you can see very far ahead and it’s hard to ignore the fact that you can see an incline almost all the way. It isn’t steep at all and you probably wouldn’t feel it if you couldn’t see it under normal circumstances, but it just keeps going forever. You just have to dig down, grab the occasional water and let the support and routine carry you forward. You crossed the 25km mark on the middle of Queensboro Bridge so there was still a bit to go from here.

Crossing the bridge back into Manhattan after the Bronx.

Reaching the Bronx we basically did a few miles large 180 degree turn before returning to Manhattan where we now were running south, reaching Central Park and running through the southern part of it, ran along the south end, coming through Columbus Circle before reentering the park and running the last 400 meters before crossing the finish line.

Running through Central Park 2km and change before the finish.

Reaching the finish line.

From there there was still a bit of walking left to get our medals, snacks and ponchos before being able to find an exit and leave the finishing area. From the finish line and to leaving was probably a few kilometers and getting to the hotel was another 2ish kilometers. I could have taken the subway but that would have required me to walk on stairs, and in this case I preferred having to walk a bit more instead. Back at the hotel I had a shower followed by collapsing onto the bed. It felt good not doing much for a few hours.

Anyways, numbers! I finished in 4:03:14. So my usual goal of sub-4 hours wasn’t met, but to be honest this wasn’t expected, either. But it does mean that I improved my time from the last time I ran New York with more than 8 minutes which was nice. This also means that the average finish time for my 6 completed marathon majors is 3:59:28 which is an extra bonus. I can’t be disappointed with that. I ended up finishing as 20141 out of 55530 overall (top 36,27%), 14304 out of 30702 men (top 46,59%) and 2147 out of 4287 in M40-44 (top 50,08%). Also 57 out of 111 Danes (top 51,35%). Overall a result I am happy with. The average man ran it in 4:17:48 and average woman in 4:48:29. The fastest was a Dutch guy who did it in 2:07:39, the slowest an American woman in 11:47:55, youngest a Danish 18 years old women and oldest an 88 years old New Zealander man.

30th October – 2nd of November – Return to the Apple

As expected the flight to New York went without a hitch. We left on time at 1300 and arrived at Newark a few minutes early around 1630. I’ve heard of less than flattering stories about the airport but within 25 minutes after leaving the plane I was standing out in the arrival hall, half an hour later I had located the airport train and arrived at the train station, and from there I grabbed a train to Manhattan Penn Station from where I walked to the hotel where I checked in at 1800. The entire process ended up being much smoother and problem free than I had mentally planned for.

On my first full day in the city I went to the runners’ expo to pick up my bib and race kit. As usual it was big and extensive. It was quick to pick up my stuff and afterwards I spent some time meandering among the numerous booths selling various running-related (and less running-related things, too). It’s always weird seeing people selling jewelry and old-fashioned watches at a runners’ expo. 

My name on the World Marathon Majors list!

From there I had a walk around in Central park before moving south and wandering somewhat aimlessly. I ended up having dinner at a small pizza place with way too much cheese on the pizza, so I decided to spend the next 1½ hours walking back to the hotel instead of taking the subway, just to feel not too bad about having that dinner. But reaching 6th avenue I was stopped in my tracks as the street being completely blocked off due to the annual Halloween parade that was about to start. I decided to stand and wait to have a watch instead of trying to find a way around – something that would be near impossible as there were no bridges across the avenue so the only other option would be to take the subway. It was 2 hours of floats with a bit too much spacing in between so there was a fair bit of waiting involved. I was glad I ended up seeing it, but it also felt like if I had missed it, it wouldn’t have been the greatest tragedy. 

The following morning at 0700 a small group from the travel group at the hotel did a morning run to the finish area in Central Park and a short detour into the park to see the Lennon memorial before returning to the hotel. A nice 7km run – but at this time of day it was already 20 degrees and filthily humid. Yesterday it reached 27ish and today seems to end up being similar. Fortunately the humidity seemed to have topped in the early morning.

The day was spent getting all the way south down to and around the 9/11 memorial, circling the south part of Manhattan before wandering back north towards the hotel along the Hudson River. Dinner was had at a local smash burger place before visiting Edge – a new panorama view at 101st floor located next to and on top of Hudson Yards. Almost in the middle between the financial district down town and south end of Central Park giving a good view of both clusters of tall buildings. The platform was outside with 3ish meter tall glass walls but with limited reflections so everything considered the conditions weren’t bad. I did get pretty stressed out by people leaning up against the glass. I know they are durable and stable, but why tempt fate like that?

The following day, Saturday, I walked along the Hudson River before reaching the north end of the High Line which I went onto and followed to its south end. A subway line now closed made into a green walking path at around 3rd floor. With the weather as it was and leaves still on the trees it was a really nice walk in spite of the crowds who had gotten the same idea. I recall doing this on my previous visits, so I’m not winning any points for originality, but this is probably the greenest walk I’ve had on the line.

I ended up at the 9/11 memorial again and this time I visited the Oculus – a modern building that’s a mall and subway station. Style-wise it doesn’t feel like New York at all; bright, white and clean – almost clinically so. Felt more like something you’d see in an oil state where you build flashy buildings. Absolutely no personality at all. 

 The Oculus.

 The Oculus from the inside. Looks fancy and all, but does fit with the surrounding buildings, I think.

 

For dinner I visited a restaurant in Little Italy and arriving at 1800 for my reservation it was complete mayhem. But waiting for a bit I got my table and getting seated things seemed to settle down a bit. Until when I was about to finish my dinner where a large party was seated next to me. I quickly finished up, paid and got out of there and returned to the hotel in an attempt to have an early night before the run tomorrow.