If you missed it (which we’re unsure how you could have!), Laura has been in NYC for the last few week’s with New Balance for the New York Marathon.

It was an absolute rollercoaster of a trip involving fun runs, meeting our NYC community and unexpected allergic reactions (IYKYK). But Laura’s here to dish out all the goss on how it all went down!

So… will you do another marathon?

To be honest, between the 35-42.2km point of the marathon, all I could think was “why the heck do people do this?! I am never doing this again!”.

But now all I can think is that I’d LOVE to do another one! My dream is to now do all the world major marathons. If you’ve been thinking of training for a marathon, do it!! The marathon program I followed is now actually in the Kic app!

It’s a 16 week program that will take you from 21-42.2km. You can choose to do 3 or 4 runs per week with a mix of short/slow jogs, intervals, and long runs. We currently have a 50% off sale for our monthly subscriptions if you wanted to check it out for yourself!

How did you stagger your intake of caffeine over the marathon?

I’m not having much caffeine at the moment (just one matcha a day) so I didn’t have any the day of the marathon – there was no matcha available at 5am when we left for our run obviously!

I didn’t have much caffeine at the health retreat I did a few months ago, prior to that I would have two coffees a day. I then cut it out completely when I had my panic attack becasuse my anxiety was so heightened at that time.

I’ve decided not to go back to coffee for now (except for the odd cup every now and then). I’ve noticed my energy is more stable across the day which is awesome. I still get decaf sometimes because I miss the taste and coffee in Melbourne is so damn good!

What was your favourite thing you did in NYC apart from the marathon?

There was so many things I loved about our trip but my favourite afternoon was spent sitting at a wine bar in Greenwich Village and people watching! Plus walking through the streets and shopping in Soho was incredible!

Is NYC a place you would return to?

Dalton and I would actually love to move to NYC someday in the future!

How do you go travelling with allergies? We know the pre-marathon incident was quite the scare!

I am usually okay but since with what happened pre marathon (check it all out here!) I have been much more anxious than usual about it. I know it will go away soon and I will continue to be super careful – plus it will be much easier when I am back in Australia to manage!

It’s always harder when I travel because there are so many new foods and we aren’t cooking them ourselves. I manage by taking a tiny tiny bite if I’m not 100% sure – I of course check before this or tell the restaurant! Then I wait a few minutes before I eat more in case I have a reaction.

On a positive, what were the best places to eat in New York City?

Oh em geee there were so many places, I cannot choose! If I had to pick, my fave place was definitely Leon’s Bagels. The ‘Lox’, a classic salmon bagel, and the egg and bacon bagel was soooo delish!

Lastly, favourite thing about New York?

Honestly it was the energy! It’s electric. I felt so inspired the whole time I was there. I literally have 1,000 photos of inspo on my phone and my notes on my phone is FULL. Plus the people! Everyone was SO nice. Like I knew they would be but New Yorkers are special people. Everyone was so kind and my favourite thing they said is “I got you”. So special!