Empire State of Mind

Days to Go: 1 (Excuse me??)
Money Raised: $18 013.70 (including $2311.00 offline)

Oh my. I am actually in mythical New York City! (How else would I be able to post this?)


Yes, I suppose I could have just downloaded it from the Internet. But I haven't. You'll just have to trust me on this one.  


I do not have superlatives superlativey enough to adequately describe what a knock-out, cool, groovy place New York is. I have fallen totally in LOVE with this city and have been a complete tourist the past two days, taking in the Empire State Building, the Flatiron Building, Grand Central Station, the Guggenheim and the Russian Tea Rooms. And I just want to take photos of every street sign I see. New York is every bit as amazing as I thought it might be.

But it's not all fun and games, peoples. I have a job to do! And to that end, on Thursday some of us headed over to the Jacob Javits Convention Center to pick up our race bibs. I also needed to meet with the guys from the New York Road Runners and pick up my official Social Media Reporter t-shirt. Woo hoo!



I picked up my bib from the VERY last booth. Coincidence? I think not.



The JJCC, if I may be so bold to call it that, is the site of the marathon expo and is filled to the BRIM with running paraphernalia of all sorts.  We were a bit pooped from hoofing around Midtown all day that we didn't hang around super long but long enough to stock up on power bars and a nifty little gadget called The Stick, which is hopefully going to sort out my playing-up-again ITB.

And last night, Team WorldVision Australia got to meet Team WorldVision US at the All Angels Church in Manhattan. We had a great dinner, shared some good stories and inspirational moments and I met a guy with the coolest name EVER. Rusty Funk. I am totally not kidding. 


Team WorldVision Global Division 

It was really lovely to realise we are part of something bigger and connected in to this amazing group of people all sharing the same goals and beliefs. Our orange t-shirts are certainly going to be out in force on Sunday. And we're even going to have our very own cheer squad at the 23 mile mark. Assuming I am not delirious and unable to recognise my own name at that point, I think that encouragement is going to be rather welcome.

The NYRR Dash to the Finish Line which is a 5km run, starting at the UN Building and ending at the finish line in Central Park, starts in a few hours (and yes, it is 4.30am New York time as I write. Boo for jetlag.) It's open to everyone but I'm not running in it - I'm thinking that 5km might come in handy tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to covering the race in my first outing as an NYRR Social Media Reporter. Ooh, and I've created a Twitter account for this weekend. My user name is #newwalkerblog so sign up and follow me (just not in a creepy way, ok?!). I'll be using my Facebook page, 'The New Walker' to post photos and updates as I go as well. More to come soon peoples!!