NYRR Emerald Nut Run: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy Happy New Year’s everyone! Last night at the stroke of midnight, I was with 6000+ people in Central Park for the Emerald Nut Run.  This is the 4th or 5th year I’ve gone out for the run and I get to go to NYC for at least 24 hrs.  I drove to Philly with my parents on Friday and yesterday, my dad drove us in to NYC (I was pro megabus or bolt bus but somehow driving with 3 people was cheaper).  My parents headed over to the NYRR store to sign themselves up (I’d be signed up since September) and pick up bibs, shirts and hats.  They kicked me to the curb around Times Square to see if there were any cheap Broadway Show tickets at the discount ticket stop.  We found nothing good so I met up with my parents at the South Street Seaport for lunch.  Fast forward through seeing the Picasso drawings at the Frick Collection, mass at St. Joseph’s in Yorkville on the UES, dinner at Intimo and watching some of the bowl games on TV, we changed and started heading to Central Park around 11:15.

My parents are training for the Surf City Half in February (I’m jealous as they’ll see some sun and warm temperatures) so mom wanted to try and get 7 miles total.  Our hotel was 1.5 miles from the race start so we did a 1.5 mile warm up to Central Park.  Dad told me to ‘run slow’ which didn’t really work too well so I would run intervals and wait for them.  I got a really good picture of the art museum though. We made it to the start in record Guenther time, arriving a good 25 minutes early.  We were going to try and get the foam 2012 hats, but the line was so long and congested, it wasn’t even worth trying to get them.  We made our way over to the start which was chaotic (as it usually is).  We couldn’t even hop fences to get into the start because there was no room (I would have also run into the ‘I’m too short’ issue too.  We got to a point were we could at least get into line.  We did the traditional count down to the New Year with fireworks and we were off. After waiting for a good 9 minutes.

We were behind a lot of random walkers, people who didn’t know what they were doing or who were stopping to take pictures.  There was a lot of weaving in and out, but then again, this is a race that’s just for pure fun and not even timed officially by NYRR.  I saw some guys dressed up as bananas, a couple dressed as Prince William and Kate Middleton, people with New Years Hats and tutus and a whole bunch of other things.  At mile 2, we got champaign, if by champaign I mean sparkling cider.  I found a bunch of people (some who were probably a little more than drunk) giving out high 5s which I gave them and others shouting Happy New Year’s.  I ended up finishing in 39:50 according to my RunKeeper App on my phone. I made it through the end of the chut and headed to the porta potties to take a bathroom break while I waited for my parents. There was water, bagels and of course Emerald Nuts (they sponsored the race).  When I finally saw my parents, I had to signal my mom that I needed water (I missed that detail when I dashed off to the bathroom!).

I always like this race because it’s just for fun, there’s music and tons of costumes and the cops are nice (I’m convinced they’re glad they don’t have to work in Times Square, which I would be too).  To boot, it’s always your best run of the year!!  We hopped a bus back to 92nd street and showered in the hotel. Before heading to bed, we enjoyed little single servings of some good Martini’s.  By 3 AM, I was finally asleep (my parents were lucky and passed out before me).