Day 21

Oh my god it's freaking early! I'm hating life and the people who think it's ok to do work travel on a Sunday. I get to the airport and am surprised there are so many damn people. It's going to be a long day.... I get through security and have about 10 mins to get breakfast and pee. Starbucks was the closest so I grab a scone, water, and grande iced caramel macchiato. I'm really getting this grande thing down! And I know how much flying dehydrates you so gotta keep up on the water. I make it to the plane and I'm seriously the last person on. Thankfully, it's empty and I get a whole row to myself. Now THIS is the way to start an early flight!

I settle in with my new book, "Run Less, Run Faster". Which is all about training for races while running 3 days a week. Basically you have 3 key runs: speed, tempo, and long run. I've read some stuff on the internet, but really wanted the I depth knowledge so I bought the book. 

We fly into La Guardia and then drive to NJ. Our hotel is down the street from Novartis' headquarters. The drive was ok. Obviously we hit some traffic, but that's typically, we were in the middle of NY! I navigated for my coworker and kept her calm. Before the hotel, we stopped at the grocery store for snacks because my coworker wanted room snacks. I fended off all the suggestions for candy and got some fruit, veggies, hummus, and pretzel chips. I was determined to be healthy dammit! And it was hard considering I was starving at this point.

After check in, we decided to just head to the train station and get into the city. We all just ate some snacks.....so after some fruit and pretzel chips, I just pressed on. Well.... We missed the first train and I learned that our 4 Indian associates that were with us, have a very different concept about time. Since the next train was in an hour, we decided to get food. I'm starving and starting to get a headache at this point. We ate at a pub and I had a beer, buffalo turkey burger, and sweet potato fries. I didn't eat half my meal. The idea of a turkey burger with buffalo sauce? Sounds good....tasted gross. So we rush everyone out of the restaurant and make it on the train. Thank God! 

Once we get into Penn Station, we decide to go to Times Square. It the closest and easiest place to get to since it's down the street. Plus after the train, I wasn't even trying to deal with herding all this people on a subway. So we walk around and go into little shops. The street vendors smell delicious, but I didn't stop. We went into one store though and they had moon cakes. Moon cookies are something from my childhood and I don't think I've ever seen them anywhere, but the east coast. What's a moon cookie? A soft white cake-like cookie with half frosted in chocolate and half frosted in vanilla. I had to get one and I enjoyed every bite. 

About halfway through our walk back, they had a vendor selling ice cream. It was muggy and I was soaked in sweat so ice cream just sounded divine. I got a small and it was pretty damn amazing. Then we hit the train. I realize at this point, as my coworker is freaking out about trains, that I had to take the lead on directions. It was quite the adrenaline rush trying to get one frantic coworker and 4 slow Indians on the right train to New Jersey. We made it though.

After navigating back to the hotel, I went straight to bed. It was 1030pm and I was planning to get up and work out. Business trip or not, I wanted to stay on the right track!