My NBIN experience in New York City was a great one! New York is amazing, and I like all of the lights, advertisements, and tall office buildings. Maybe I was distracted by one of the skyscrapers when, on the first night, I dropped my phone in the cab and left it there. Searching through my back pack for 30 minutes, and realizing I left my phone in the cab, may have been the highlight of Thursday night. Or maybe it was watching the Louisville basketball game on TV while running on the hotel treadmill, or going out to eat with my teammates. Nevertheless, Thursday night was eventful, as well as memorable.
Friday morning, I woke up after a good night’s rest, ate breakfast, and then hung out in my room for a while. Around 11, I ate some lunch and then Vincent Stephen, Chris Saldana and I took the subway to the Armory to watch the races. From the outside, the facility looks like a rundown factory. From the inside, one can tell it is a fully renovated state of the art facility dedicated to Track and Field. I stayed there for a while and got to watch some really great races from my teammates and the girls from Assumption. Watching Zack Beavin challenge for the Emerging Elite 2 Mile Championship was really fun to watch, and I was amazed by how well Assumption’s two teams did in the 4x800. After a solid day of watching people race, it was a time to get back to the hotel and get ready for my race later that evening. So I took the subway back to the hotel for a while and watched TV. When I arrived back at the Armory, I realized the meet was running way behind schedule. So I adjusted what I normally do before races back about an hour and a half. By 9:30, it was time to race. I was in the slower of the two heats, so my race was right after the fast section of the Girl’s 5k. It was really cool to be at the finish line when Erin Finn shattered the Indoor H.S. 5k record. I don’t think she realized she broke the record at first, so the look of surprise on her face when someone told her was a sight to see. The 5k was a really different race, but I liked it a lot! I didn’t know what to expect going into the race, so I just ran whatever pace I felt comfortable with; I had splits in mind but it was hard to gauge my pace because of how many laps it was. I ended up winning my heat and placing 9th overall. I was really happy with my race, but I still had the 4x1 Mile on Saturday. Some teammates and I ate dinner, and then went back to the hotel to get some rest.
The next day, I woke up, ate breakfast and took the subway to the Armory with Zack, Sam and Vincent. We sat right behind the NXN National champions Christian Brothers Academy and watched some of the day’s races. We checked in and then warmed up. After we warmed up, we watched Assumption’s 4x1 Mile team get 3rd place. We were all really impressed with how they ran. After that, it was our turn. We were in the fastest heat and finished last with a time of 18:12. We finished 15th overall. On fresh legs, I think we could have competed with the teams in the fast heat, but I don’t think that any of us were fully recovered from running the day before. We were disappointed, but we were glad that we got the experience of running in that race.
After we left the Armory we ate at a New York pizzeria and ate a ton of pizza. Then we hung around Times Square and got an aspiring rap artist, Mustafa’s, autograph. That night, we all got tickets to see Louisville play in the Big East Championship game against Cincinnati at Madison Square Garden. Louisville winning was a great way to cap a great trip to the greatest city in the world. I’m really glad I got the opportunity to go there and experience a really fun trip that I’ll remember for a long time. Thank you KTCCCA!
