No Marathon 2012 Sunday Tour(s)

For those of you in NYC without an ING NYC Marathon to run and for those of you who are in NYC by accident, you are cordially invited to join me for an early morning uptown walking/subway tour tomorrow, Sunday Morning at 8 AM.

My tour will meet near the steps in Times Square (you will recognize me by my red jacket and my vintage NYC Marathon Cap).

After a brief Times Square area walking tour, we will "take the A train" (running local) to 110th Street. (NOTE: You will buy your own MetroCards if you do not already have them. Helpful instructions will be given.)

We will briefly visit the Cathedral of St John the Divine - they will be having services - some of you might wish to stay and not continue with the tour. For those of you who wish to continue, we will walk along inside the North End of Central Park (the North Woods is closed because of Sandy storm damage this time).

Then, we will stay inside the Park along Fifth Avenue and visit the Conservatory Gardens. Some of you may wish to visit the Museum of the City of New York which currently has an excellent exhibit about Staten Island (BHS - before hurricane Sandy). Others may wish to visit El Museo del Barrio. The tour will continue on and off the Marathon route through the Park to 59th Street. You may drop off at the museum of your choice the Jewish Museum, National Academy, Guggenheim, Neue Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum of Natural History or NY Historical Society (both on the West Side), or the Frick Museum.

This tour will be more walking than talking. While I no longer run, I expect to be walking at a New Yorker's pace. I expect to be out of the Park before noon so you can head to brunch and/or a show.

This tour is "free" but (evidence of) Sandy recovery donations, feedback, referrals to your friends for future tours, and donations to my underemployment fund AKA gratuities will be graciously accepted. I and my fellow tour guides have lost a lot of work because of Sandy.  

If you are planning to join me please notify me by comment under this post or email. I will summarize any comments or emails that I receive elsewhere. I want my fellow guides to know that you are looking for things to do.

I will also put up a different Marathon Monday morning tour post soon!

Guide friends. If you would like to post tours as comments with your contact information etc Please do. 

Comments

[Steve Irolla]

Good for you, Sue. Ann Landers would be pleased that you took the lemon handed to you and other New Yorkers (though by dint of living Uptown, you fared better obviously than downtown denizens!) and made lemonade. I didn't see this till Sun. afternoon and in any event, I can't abandon my nonagenarian mother here in Monmouth County, NJ in a cold, dark apartment. Anyway, I hope a few folks availed themselves of what I am sure was an excellent tour, likewise tomorrow.

I had previously thought I was one of only four Gray Line guides (mostly former now!) to have run NYC Marathon, along with Howard Levy, David Nieves and Greg the elderly Boston native, but you would make five. What years did you run the event, may I ask? I ran the 1996 and '97 versions.

[Sue]

Thanks for the reply Steve. Take care of your nonagenarian mother. My brother is in AZ with my 91 year old father. My mother passed away in March.
Unfortunately no one took advantage of my offer this morning. I wish I was fluent enough to do tours in French. I could have had an army but from my wandering - especially in the Park - visitors were determined to do their miles any way they could. The Park with all its devastation looked like there was a Marathon going on.
I may or may not have encouraged people to show up for my tour tomorrow and I left the info with some concierges. I will head to the LES to see if I can help there anyway - tour or no tour.
I am the elder GL Marathon runner. I ran at 84,86, and 91. The TV coverage is showing how many runners went to areas in all 5 boroughs to help out. This is great to see. For more about my prior Marathons etc read here
http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/explorenyc/2012/10/nyc-marathon-and-me.html