The Finish

My right leg is not so sure it wants to play the game any more. My quad is doing this funny thing, where I step on my right foot and the quad holds for a second and then gives way. I catch it before totally collapsing, so it looks pretty funny.

First thing after crossing the finish line:

MY MEDAL

There are numerous volunteers standing in the pathway that we get funneled to. I am just trying to stay upright and look like I am not going to collapse. I get to the volunteer and she attempts to hand me my medal. My little voice says to me "No freakin' way after running this am I gonna put my own medal around my own neck. NO FREAKIN" WAY." I also really appreciate volunteers, so I know they have probably been standing there for hours, dealing with runners who are in various moods. So, I look my volunteer in the eyes as she is holding my medal out and I just slightly bend at the waist and offer her my head.

God Bless this woman - SHE GOT IT!

The medal got placed around my neck and I heard congratulations from all of the medal distributing volunteers around. I was so proud of me. I didn't know my time for sure and I did know I finished in under 5 hours. Did you hear that? I finished in under 5 hours.

Let's be clear - I was going to be proud that I finished. My starting and finishing was not an "of course", given what my body went through. I was going to brag and be puffed up that I finished. That I finished in under 5 hours was "sky writing worthy" as far as I was concerned.

There was a smile on my face that would not stop.

Next stop, the post finish photo:



I Did It!

Then the mylar blanket thingie got put on me and then someone taped it on so I didn't have to hold it on. I was starting to get the shakes from being so sweaty and starting to get cold.

From there we inched, and I mean inched, our way to the UPS trucks. On the way, we got our post finish fuel and fluid bag. I drank the entire bottle of water and started on the pretzels. They stayed down very nicely.

I spoke with a woman from Finland. She came to NYC just for the marathon. Seems that is another way one can get a bib. She was so happy. She actually had fun....... tried to wrap my brain around having fun running the marathon, couldn't do it, but I got that she really had fun. She couldn't wrap her brain around that it was not fun for me. I loved doing it. I loved that parts that entertained me, I loved the parts I hated. I loved it all and, let me tell you, it was not fun.

Finally got my UPS bag and inched closer and closer to getting out of the park.

Steve called to find out where I was and where I would be exiting. I was still a bit 'out of it' and told him the signs I saw.

The Blur Continues

The truth is, the rest of the marathon was just one big blur.

I was physically not well. My quad hurt, my knee was screaming and my ankle was starting to make the whole thing into a trio. I thought I could throw up at any point. I even tried to drink some Gatorade at a Fluid Station.

At some point, I saw the time clock. I did some math and knew that if I stayed at this walking pace, I would not finish in under 5 hours.

Time to Be Bold and Dig Deep, Lynnie. This is it!

I tried various strides and various 'forms' and finally found one that had me moving and the pain was tolerable.

It was ugly - I saw photos of it and I laughed, right out loud. My shoulders are up around my eye lobes, my elbows are way far out and my back is curved. I just needed to get to the finish line.

The crowd did not bail on me. I heard my name more than I can count. There were comments about my power walk. People were so awesome, I was forced to raise my head and smile at them. The crowd got me through the last 2 miles.

One guy totally pissed me off.

After passing the 25 mile marker and trying the Gatorade (it did no harm and did not help), some spectator on my left yells out "Only a half mile to go." Okay, I say, at this pace, I bet it's 100 right foots per tenth of a mile. This is a game I would play with myself while training. My 'good stride' was 80 right foots per tenth. So, I say, you can do 500 right foots. You can.

I start counting.

Son of a Bitch! at 170 right foots, there is the .5 mile official marker.

I was crestfallen.

I did not slow and I did not stop. I started counting again.

There was the finish line.

IT Band Starts To Play

My father likes to say something like this: "I was perfectly healthy until I went to the doctor and then suddenly I had all these problems."

I went to Dr Gennaro because of the pain in my quad that was preventing me from running. I have never, ever been more thoroughly examined. He checked things and measured things that I didn't even know mattered.

He discovered that I had bursitis in my hip and IT Band irritation. He kept asking me if my right knee bothered me. It never did. When he or Heather touched the IT Band, it was tender, but my knee never bothered me while running. It was my right quad all the time.

So, here I am, somewhere on the Willis Avenue Bridge and my right knee starts to talk to me. My quad was already on the verge of yelling but that was a conversation I was accustom to. It was not a shock or jarring. When the right knee decided it wanted to talk, I was "You wanna talk now?" "Really?!"

When we hit the decline of the bridge, both the quad and knee were yelling and yelling loudly. I was in tough shape. They quieted to an 'outside talking voice' once we were on level ground.

Somewhere around this time, Danielle had to use the PortaJohn. I was running alone. Then..... there is Michelle, Kyle and Melissa and Melissa jumped in to run with me. She is training for the Vegas Half-Marathon in December. It was so perfect for me. Once she jumped in, my knee and even my quad shut up. I mean, not one peep out of them. She loved that people were calling me by name - I gotta say that continued to be very cool - she talked about how she enjoyed this blog and other things. She was a joy to run with and she made my injuries shut up for a mile or so.

At some point after Melissa peeled off, Danielle caught up to me. It was like the angels came down from above and started that harp music and all was right with the world.

That is until somewhere, I do not know for sure where, a red hot knife came out of no where and stabbed me in the right knee. I almost fell over, it hurt so badly. I stopped running and it was all I could do to keep moving forward, some how. Danielle was gone and I was all by myself with my knee not playing fair and somewhere around 2 miles to go.

Just Keep Putting One Foot in Front of the Other

Soon after getting rid of my nagging thought about my Pigskin Pool Picks, Danielle says to me "There is your sister again". Michelle was wearing this purple t-shirt:





And, of course, in true Big Sister form, she had my FuelBelt bottle and it was full. I quickly grabbed it and went on my way.

I was starting to get nauseous. I never got nauseous during my long runs. This was odd. I had cut my PowerBars up into bite size pieces, as I learned in my long run in Yorktown how hard a PowerBar is in 48 degree weather. I had bite size pieces and just popped one in my mouth. A few minutes after swallowing it, my tummy was not happy. I tried more water, my tummy was still not happy.

Then I remembered that Carrie was going to be at Mile 15 and she was going to have a banana for me. I could make it to Mile 15.

I saw Kevin and Steve again at 14, this time they got video. I saw it later and anyone can tell that by then, all form was gone, my hip was compensating for my quad hurting. I did not know then that I was hurting, in my mind, I was still moving well.

Okay, not much further and I can have that banana and stop this awful feeling in my stomach.

I saw the 15 miler marker and started looking and looking for Carrie, I looked and looked and looked and then, then looked some more. Okie dokie, I say, no banana in my future.

By this time, the subways had thrown all of my peeps plans out the window. I knew this was possible, as last year Jimmy and I missed Doreen at mile 18. I just kept moving, allowing all of the peeps who did not know me, but knew my name, to support the crap outta me. Every time I heard someone yell "Way to go, Lynnie" I grinned from the inside out. My feet felt the grin and moved faster.

The Queensborough Bridge is sorta mile 15 and 16. We had already traversed the Verrazano and the Pulaski - I have zero memory of the Pulaski but it is there on the map, so I must have crossed it. After we cross the Queensborough Bridge, we come into Manhattan for the first time. I read all this stuff about the roar of 1st Avenue, about how it stays with people forever and blah, blah, blah. I gotta say - it was nothing for me. I heard nothing any different than any other place on the course.

Can I just say, I hated 1st Avenue. The spectators were in cages. I know they weren't cages, but the were behind silver bars. They were pushed back onto the sidewalk so far that they were not within reach. No high-fives, nothing personal. The only possible people to make human contact with were the cops and they were so busy keeping people in their cages that the whole avenue just sucked.

Once the suckitude that is 1st Avenue was done, we headed over the Willis Ave Bridge to get into the Bronx. Somewhere in the early incline, a banana appears in front of my face! It was a miracle. On the other end of the banana is Carrie! I think I even said "Thank God!" I tear into the banana and take a bite. It tasted so good. It hit my stomach and it was not a good idea. I thought I just might puke right here on the bridge, while running. I realize Carrie is running with me. She is in her street clothes and she is running with me. Danielle is staying at our 'usual' pace and I am slowing to Carrie's pace. I told her that the banana is making me queasy and I give it back to her. She asked me if I was digging deep and many runners around laughed at that. I then told her I could not lose Danielle and she helped me look for her in the crowd and I took off to catch up.

I loved the Bronx, not as much as I loved Brooklyn, but the Bronx was a great feeling after the 'stick up one's buttness' of 1st Avenue.

You Were Worried About What?

Somewhere in Brooklyn, one of the drunken house parties was all decked out with NY Giants gear. I am a Steeler fan (minus the Big Ben fan part) but I do appreciate die hard fans of any team.

As we are running by that house, Danielle yells out "Go Giants!"

My heart goes into my throat as I realize......... I did not make my Pigskin Pool picks.

When I first let Alex into my life, I knew crap about football. I knew the rules and I knew how it was played and I knew stuff, but I knew crap. He slowly taught me about the NFL. He slowly taught me about playing on the road, about the kind of offense teams have and how they gets smashed by 'bad' teams who have a certain kind of defense.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire had a message board provided by ABC when the show was in it's prime. I started posting on it when I said "I am going to be on WWTBAM". The board got cancelled by ABC and the Board moved around the internet over the years and is now privately managed.

We have a pigskin pool each year. I have become a contender over the years.

The week before the marathon, I took second place.

A zero for this week would ruin the entire season.

Here I am, running in the marathon, obsessed with not having made my picks. I can't let it go.

Then, I start thinking (as I am apt to do) "What can I do?"

I came up with an answer!

I would be seeing Alex at some point before 1:00PM (the picks had to be done before kick-off). He knows enough of my screen names and he knows a couple of my passwords and one of the ones he knows is the one I use on ESPN - so I knew he could fix it for me.

Sure enough, somewhere in Brooklyn, there was Doreen and Alex. I saw them just as I was passing them, so I turned around, ran back and looked him in the eye. I said "I forgot to make my Pigskin picks. Can you fix it for me?" Then I took off to catch up with Danielle.

The thought was gone.

He did not produce the result, I went from 2nd to 12th, but the result of the day was to have that off my mind and that worked.

The First 11 Miles

Let's review:

I had come into this marathon injured. My last long run was the 16 miler on October 3rd. I had a 5 miler on October 5 and an 8 miler on October 6. I did nothing but limp and ice and stretch the week of October 10. I did 5 deep water running sessions the week of October 17 and twice the week of October 25.

On October 26, I set out to jog and was stopped cold by the pain in my quad. The next 2 days I hit the elliptical for an hour each day. I did run 4ish miles on the 30th, then did 90 minutes on the elliptical on October 31. I ran 3 miles on November 2 and again on the 3rd and walked 3 miles on the 5th.

I missed the two 18 milers on my training schedule and the taper of a 9 miler and then an 8 miler.

So..... I had no, that is zero, evidence of how long I could actually run. I was starting the marathon determined to see how long I could run for before I had to walk.

I have no idea how this could have happened, but I got to the place where the orange, green and blue corrals merged and my quad had not even whispered to me. I felt strong.

I saw Steve and Kevin at 8 and then before I knew it, there was Michelle in her purple Run To Remember t-shirt somewhere in mile 9. I had finished 1 of my fluid bottles in my FuelBelt. I didn't think I would make it all the way through on what was on me. Before starting the marathon, I had thought I would stop at the Fluid Stations when I was out, but after having been through them, I did not want to stop. I did not remember who was scheduled to be at 9 but I knew Michelle was somewhere before 15. I knew my Big Sister would be able to help me.

I handed Michelle the empty bottle and asked her to get it filled and back to me. The great thing about Michelle is that she can process things fast, get what is needed and then you can count on it being done.

I went to catch up with Danielle.

We tooled along (can one tool along on foot?) and suddenly there was this blaring, loud, deep yell that I recognized as my name! Danielle jumped, I mean jumped. It was Robin! I told her that was my other sister and she laughed and laughed. About a block from Robin, I saw Yvette and her eyes alone fed me energy.

At this point, I had no idea where we were. I had stopped looking at the mile markers and I had lost count in my head. I was happy about that, as counting at that point was not productive.

I was just getting out of the 'danger zone', otherwise known as the Fluid Station and there were Amy and Betti Lu. You have got to love the way they were dressed. Look at this:



Betti Lu made herself earrings - one said Be Bold, the other said Dig Deep! They both wore those alien ears all day long. Can anyone ask for more exuberance than these two woman provide? I think not!

The only reason I know how far I had run at this point is because of the Peeps Schedule that Amy compiled.

My Peeps

When Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer and it became impossible for her to train and complete the NYC Marathon with me, she still wanted to support me. Support me she did.

She not only lent me her home and yard for 2 yard sale to raise funds for the Run2Remember team, she asked many of her friends and clients to donate 'stuff' to the sale. She spent hours and hours cleaning and tagging the stuff.

She was with me for 3 of my long runs. Once in a golf cart with my dad and twice on a bike.

When I was paralyzed with upset and failure after my second injury, she asked me what other medical help I could get. That is what spurred me to find MAH and Heather is who steered me to Dr Gennaro. No doubt that without Amy, I would not have found them and without them, I would not have completed the marathon the way I did.

Then she asked what support I would like during the marathon. I told her that if I could have it my way(and in life, I rarely have it totally my way) I would want a friend at each mile from 8 on. I would want to have that to look forward to. I would like to be able to tell myself "Just one more mile and you will see (friend's name).

Amy put together a plan for me to have what I wanted. It was very much like the time and effort I put together to find the prefect 5 Phone a Friends when I was on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. My structure of support was in place and all I needed to do was keep moving.

The plan looked like this:

Mile 8 - Steve and Kevin

Mile 9 - Kyle, Michelle and Melissa

Mile 10 - Robin and Yvette

Mile 11 - Amy and Betti Lu

Mile 12 - Doreen and Alex

Mile 13 - Kyle, Michelle and Melissa

Mile 14 - Kevin and Steve

Mile 15 - Carrie

Mile 16 - Amy and Betti Lu

Mile 17 - Kevin and Steve

Mile 18 - Skoop, Donna and Kay

Mile 19 - Doreen and Alex

Mile 20 - Amy and Betti Lu

Mile 21 - Kyle, Michelle and Melissa

Mile 22 - Doreen and Alex

Mile 23 - Steve, Kevin, Michelle and Kyle

Mile 24 - Marc, Lois, Amy and Betti Lu

Mile 25 - Doreen and Alex

Mile 26 - Steve and Kevin

Doreen ran in the 2009 NYC Marathon and sent out an e-mail to all my peeps telling them what they might encounter, what I might be experiencing at various spots on the course and gave them this valuable advice: If things don't go as planned, roll with it. If you miss Lynn at some mile marker, move on - it will be fine.

That was great advice for all of us - including me.

Mile 13

And We Are Off!

The first mile or so on the bridge gave me something to think about rather than the 26.2 miles ahead. There was 'stuff' to avoid on the bridge that could have caused any of us to go down. There were sweatshirts, hats, gloves, plastic and at one point, a pair of sweatpants!

It was the three of us (me, Danielle and Addie) for at least the first half of the bridge. Then at some point, I turned to find Addie and she was not there. It was me and Danielle.

Once there was no more 'crap' to avoid, Danielle pointed out the beautiful skyline. I have never been so moved by seeing that. I was running in the freakin' NYC Marathon. Holy Crappola, Batman.

Getting off the bridge and into Brooklyn was uplifting. I could hear the bands and hear the crowds and that is where I finally understood what Pat meant. When I was so worried about my body and not being able to run, she promised me that the crowd would get me through. I got it as I started hearing "Lynnie! You are doing great."

The drunks in Brooklyn made me smile and smile. They were not shy about what was in their glasses and even offered some to us runners. The smells were awesome. At one point Danielle commented on it and added that it was too early to think about food.

The first thing Danielle taught me was how to manage the water stations. She just said "We need to move to the middle". I had read all of the coaching about not stopping at the first table, as they go one for a bit and don't cause a bottleneck and all. I had trained with my FuelBelt, so I had no plan to stop and get fluid until my 32 ounces was gone.

I was not prepared for:

How narrow the road became. The tables on both sides and the volunteers handing out cups made the width in which we could run more like half the width it was before the fluid station.

The cups on the ground. They are slippery and caused one foot to slip more often than I care to remember.

The criss crossing that runners did. I didn't understand that, as it seemed that both sides had water and Gatorade, so it seemed that people could stay on one side, but they didn't.

The stickiness - I mean really sticky, like running through tar that was not yet dry. I could feel that stickiness being flicked onto my ankle and calves. It grossed me out a bit.

I developed a strategy for fluid stations - Move to the middle, watch the ground and keep moving.

That strategy gave me confidence and it also prevented me from noticing the mile markers. The majority of the markers seemed to be at the fluid stations.

At some point, Danielle asked me if I had a time goal for my marathon. The first goal I had was to finish. I told her that if I could run a perfect race, and my injuries cooperated, I wanted to finish under 5 hours. She told me that was her goal as well.

In the corral, one of our team members (I think it was Jeff, but I am not sure) said something like this:

Okay, let's think of this as a 20 mile long run, with 6 miles tacked onto the end.

I said "This is an 8 mile run for me and then a 1 mile run to see someone I know."

More about that in my next post.

The Start

Liam and Addie and I happened to find more of the R2R team as we inched toward our corral. Not having trained with the team, many of them were only known to me through photos and the pasta dinner.

I knew Addie was starting injured, just like me, so I thought maybe she and I would run together. Danielle started talking to us and it seemed like me might be a trio.

As we walked toward the starting, I kept telling Addie and Danielle to watch the ground as we started. Many runners start the race wearing their warmer gear and just dump it on the bridge. If you don't pay attention, you can get your feet caught in the sweatshirts or garbage bags on the ground.

We stopped walking at some point and a man started talking to us on a loud speaker. Then some fellow started singing God Bless America and we all sang along. It was probably the best thing that could have happened for me. I was caught up in the song. I was not thinking about running for the next 5 hours.

Then, the cannon went off and people in front of me started moving and so did I.

Addie was just slightly behind me and Danielle was right next to me.

Waves and Corrals

It took me some time to get how the waves and corrals worked.

Here is how I simplified it.

There are 45,000 people running. They are divided into 3 waves so that only 15,000 start at a time. Each wave is divided into sections - the sections have colors - green, blue and orange. So, each section has 5,000 people.

The first wave of runners (wheeled people start earlier) started at 9:40, the second wave at 10:10 and my wave at 10:40. That gave 30 minutes for each group of 15,000 to move along the route so that we were spread out and the streets could manage the flow.

On the bridge, the 3 sections in each wave start at the same time. They do not start at the same place.

Green - they start on the bottom of the bridge. I think they use just one direction of the lower level of the bridge, leaving the other direction open for emergency vehicles. They go through streets that blue and orange do not go through for the first few miles.

Blue - they start on the right side of the bridge and stay on the right side of the street for the first 8 miles.

Orange - we start on the left side of the bridge and stay on the left side of the street until we all merge at mile 8.

The clock we see throughout the race is the time since wave 1 started, so wave 3 just had to subtract an hour to get their time, while wave 2 had to subtract 30 minutes.

The green people are the ones who can get peed on. It seems that some runners do not like to deal with the portajohn lines, so they wait for the race to start, scoot over to the side of the bridge, whip it out and pee over the side. If you are green and want to look up into the sky while running, you could get peed on. Some say you can see the various stream of urine of you look for it. Gross.

The Bus and Runner's Village

I totally relied on Amy to get me from the hotel to the bus. I can not tell you where my head was, but it wasn't spending any time figuring out which direction we needed to walk once we got up out of the subway. There were 2 buses around the Diesel store, which was the landmark we were told to look for.

I got on the bus and there were no familiar faces to me, but Amy asked the driver if it was the right bus and he confirmed it was The Alzheimer's bus.

The other team members chatted with each other and I did nothing to include myself. I still can't tell you where my head was. I didn't feel nervous and I just saying "It's today."

Coach Brian came on and checked names off and by 6:00AM, we were all there - how cool is that? No one was late.

Someone brought bananas and offered them to all of the runners. Amy made sure I had a bagel and a banana in my bag, so I was set. I was trying to figure out when I should eat them, based on my 10:40 start. I started nibbling on the bagel.

The bus took off. I had no clue what direction we were going nor did I recognize anything to say if we were close the the Verrazano or not. Then...... there is was. As we inched along, I could see the Runner's Village and I could see runners walking from their buses toward the village. It took a bit for our driver to get the okay to park and let us off.

This was it! We were at the village.

I got off and was still 'by myself'. Surprisingly, I did nothing to change that. I was watching myself be shy and not bold and knowing I was not being bold and knowing I was not doing anything about that. Then, my first angel of the day appeared. The last person to come on the bus turned to me and asked "Are you Lynn?" I said "I am." She said she was Pat. I did not recognize her with a hat on. I had seen her photo once, I think. Pat is one of the few team members who also had a blog. I followed her training journey and I know she followed mine, as she commented a few times.

I then had a buddy to be with in the village. Hooray!

A few other team members joined Pat and me and we found a place to sit. I followed the advice and brought a black garbage bag to sit on. Our group moved a few times, trying to find a place that was not so windy and cold. We eventually found a larger group of R2R people.

I was prepared for the cold. I relied on Kevin in planning my "before we start the marathon' clothing. I had my running gear on and added sweatpants, a sweatshirt, a micro fleece ear cover, gloves and a winter jacket. The deal is that you get to leave your outer clothing in you starting corral and it all gets donated to the homeless. If you want to keep some of your clothing, you put it in your UPS bag and turn it in before 9:30, when the UPS trucks close.

I decided that I didn't need 3 winter jackets, especially since I leave for Florida in mid November and return in April. I decided to give away the jacket that Alex told me makes me look like the Michelin man.

It was so windy, it was cold and it was damp. Eventually a group of us decided to head over to the food and beverage place in the village. They gave away Poland Spring water bottles (the 8 oz ones), bagels, PowerBars and coffee. I took another bagel, 4 bottles of water and 4 PowerBars. I don't know what I thought I was going to do with the PowerBars, as I had 4 already cut up on the FuelBelt.

By then, I was introduced to Liam, a team member who was very cool. He had dyed his hair purple, what with that being the R2R color. We were both in the 3rd wave and orange. Pat was in the 3rd wave, but not orange.

Liam and I then decided it was time to get rid of our UPS bags and start heading to the orange corral. We had to get our bags to the truck before 9:30 and pee one last time and be at our corral at 10:20.

The lines to the portajohns were beyond long. I saw some advice somewhere that said to get on line for the portajohn and then after peeing, get on line again. That is not bad advice.

Liam led me in the right direction and we found the correct UPS truck - they are based on your bib number, I gave them the stuff that I wanted at the end of the race and was one step closer to starting my marathon.

Then, we ran into Addie. Addie and I had e-mailed back and forth just before the marathon because we were in the same wave and we were both orange. We had similar concerns, as we were both starting the race injured.

Then we ran into more R2R peeps, I applied my Body Glide for the last time. I had chafed in a few areas during my long runs and smeared the stuff on to prevent chafing during the marathon. I shared it with my team members and then dumped it.

Our corral opened. I stripped off my outer gear and left it for the homeless. I kept my gloves on.

At about 10:30, we started inching to the starting line on the bridge.

Sleeping and Then Not

Thank goodness we get to push the clocks back and hour the night before the marathon.

We got back to the hotel by 8:00 and I was in bed by 8:30. We set 3 alarms, as I needed to be in Union Square to catch the bus by 6:00AM.

I went to sleep.

I awoke at 1:00 and had to pee.

Before I have the covers off me, I hear Amy's voice coming from the floor. "Don't step on me." I say okay and I step over her and head to the bathroom.

I get back into bed and the party noises from outside sound like they are in our room. I slept for about 30 minutes at a stretch waking up to various 'conversations' that were a demonstration of alcohol induced testosterone rage. It got ugly and loud.

I finally just got up and turned off the alarms at 4:15AM. Amy got off the floor soon there after.

Amy, Amy, Amy - we decided that she was my maid of honor. She just took care of me. I mean took care. She made sure I had a bagel and a banana. She made sure I had water and coffee. She made sure I got from the hotel to bus on time. Not only did she make sure, she lead me the entire way. This is a woman who is rarely out of bed by 8:00AM and she did all of this for me. I adore her. She is the best support a girl could have. You want her as your friend.

Amy got me to the bus by 5:40, I hugged her goodbye and got on the bus.

The Pasta Dinner

Carbo loading and more carbo loading. It is the name of the game as one approaches the marathon.

Most teams have a pasta dinner the night before the marathon. The R2R team's was at Carmine's in Time Square. It was scheduled from 5:00PM to 7:00PM, a perfect time to support us in getting a good night's rest.

Amy and I got there at 4:59. Our room was upstairs and the employees were proactive in getting us where we needed to go.

We were greeted by a table with sticky name tags and I think there were balloons, but to be perfectly honest, I was just so preoccupied with being uncomfortable. I tried and tried and could not shake that feeling called "I am going to a party where everyone knows everyone except me."

I had done some Facebook spying to see what people looked like. I immediately saw Erica. Let me say some stuff about Erica.

Way back last winter, I started my quest to get a bib in this year's marathon. I googled and discovered that the Alzheimer's Association had a team last year. I found the application for the 2009 team and wrote an e-mail and called the number. I was a woman on a mission to get a bib.

Not long after, I got a call from Erica. She was not the person I called but had the job of the person I called for the 2010 team. Applications were not open yet and she explained the procedure to me and I knew we would all be taken care of. Erica has a way of making everything okay and giving me certainty. You want to hire Erica, seriously.

I introduced myself to Erica, who clearly had her hands full and still took time to greet me and make sure she met Amy and made me feel known. I relaxed a bit.

Then came the "find a table to sit at" Ugh, again, I know no one except Amy and these tables are so long, what to do, what to do. I just pick a place and we sit. We left chairs on both sides of us.

Thank goodness there is bread on the table, so I can have something to do rather than sitting there hoping someone would sit by us. Soon, someone did...... then..... they left for a better table! Ha!

Then Danielle came with her brothers and her boyfriend. We talked a bit and then Paul sat down and someone else and there was just free flowing conversation and it was great.

David Hyde Pierce was there, in between his Saturday performances in La Bete. He thanked us all and the guy had a way of speaking to the entire group and I was left feeling like he thanked me personally for the money I raised to be used for a cause near and dear to his heart.

The salads came, the pasta came, the dessert came. There were bottles of wine on the table..... wtf? then, I realized that many of us runners had friends and family with us and they were drinking it.

Erin (the president of the Junior Committee) told us that during the time we were training for the marathon, Alzheimer's went for the 7th cause of death in the US to the 6th cause of death. It surpassed diabetes. Holy Crap!

Thank you gifts to our coach Brian and our head mentor Meghann were given out. A very cute presentation was given by two team members that the people around me lovingly referred to as Frick and Frack. The best line was "Coach B would tell us we were okay when were not okay."

Then.... I got a gift. I was/am the 3rd top fundraiser and got a beautiful silver bracelet engraved with the motto "a reason to hope".

Dessert came and we ate it and then the party was over and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.

Happy Birthday, Mom

Today is my mom's 77th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

Getting to NY and The Expo

I got on the 10:28 train on Saturday morning. Amy got on in Peekskill and we were on our way to The Big Apple!

Our hotel was on 31st between Park and Lexington. Can I just say how outraged I was and still am at the cost of a hotel room?!? $500 for 2 nights! You gotta be kidding me!

We walked over to the hotel and I was trying to not have my quad under a microscope, it was in the condition it was in and there was nothing I could do, other than fret and that is totally not productive. The walk did me good -relaxing me and all.

We dropped our luggage and strolled over to the expo.

It was great that I was at the expo last year with Doreen. I knew what to expect and what I needed to handle.

I gave Amy to list of things I needed to do at the expo, so that she would make sure there were no brain farts. The list was:

- get my bib

- get my UPS bag

- get 2 large pockets for my fuel belt

- get my official t-shirt

- buy my photo package

I had originally planned to go down to NYC on Thursday to go to the Expo. I wanted to avoid the 'zoo' of the Expo on Saturday. I had wanted to go into NYC the day before the marathon with nothing to do but the pasta dinner and then the marathon.

Then, the weather forecast turned to crap. I had a choice - NYC in the cold rain or a zoo. Hmmmmmmm........ cold rain vs Zoo. Zoo won.

Getting my bib and all was so easy. I forgot that the UPS bag was the bag you get your bib in. The advantage of going to the Expo on Thursday is that they do not run out of smaller sizes of the official t-shirts on Thursday. They have run out by Saturday. I now have a 2010 NYC Marathon official night shirt. Whatever.

Then we head over to Brightroom - the official photographer for the NYC Marathon. Last year, Doreen and I spent time figuring out what package she wanted, what plaque she liked and so on. She liked the shadowbox version from some 'non-official' photo people. I knew I preferred the one that came with The Manhattan Package.

I happened to be able to talk to the same woman who helped Doreen last year. I was standing there with Amy, looking at the plaques, knowing which one I preferred and not pulling the trigger. I asked what the advantage was of buying the package now. The answer came down to, I would save $20 on shipping.

I still am not pulling the trigger. Amy is obviously confused about why I am not choosing. So, I tell the truth. I point to the part of the plaque that says "Your Finish Time". That is what I am worried about. Will it be a time I will want on display? Will it be a time I would rather not call attention to and just be proud that I finished the damn thing.

At first, Amy wants to tell me I shouldn't feel that way, which, frankly never makes a difference for me. She was awesome because when I asked her to please not do that and to just get my concern. She did - it was really great - she just understood and heard me. I could let that go. I LOVED it.

Then, I asked the helpful woman - What if I don't finish - will I be out the $400. She said no. If I don't finish, they e-mail me and ask if I still want the photos. They can not give me the plaque because they can not give me a medal if I don't finish.

That did it for me - I bought it.

Then I got to do the intro to my DVD that comes with the package. I can't remember what I said, I just know it was straight from my heart and Amy said people watching were moved by it.

The we found the FuelBelt people and I got my larger pockets.

I was done by then and we walked back to the hotel.

Next stop - the team's pasta dinner at Carmines.

Deciding What to Wear

I went back and forth trying to decide what I was going to wear for the marathon. This wasn't my usual, "What am I going to wear?" This wasn't about looking cute or accentuating my waist and hiding my hips and ass. Thia was about how am I going to stay cool and not be too cold.

Kevin is always my go to guy when it comes to weather. He was telling me to wear the short sleeves under my singlet. I was really worried about the wind and the temperatures being too cool.

The difficult part was that due to my injuries in the last month, I never really did a long run in coolish weather. My last long run was October 3rd. It was 48 degrees and early in the day. I wore long sleeves that day. I knew I could roll up those sleeves and they would stay up. I knew the tech shirt would breathe well and I pulled the trigger. It would be the long sleeves. I would also wear my Halo sweatband under my awesome R2R cap.

I DID IT!

Yes, I finished.

I can sorta walk today.

I had a fairy godchild most of the way. Without Danielle running next to me for all but the last 3 or so miles, my finishing time would have been way different.

Looks like my finishing time is 4:55:44. I am not sure if that is offical or not and it is close enough.

Under 5 hours, Baby!

I have so much to say and so much to reflect upon and so many people to be grateful for and to.

Let's just ends today's post with:

I am in awe of me.

Okie Dokie

One more night night.

I leave for The Big Apple in about 3 hours.

Amy and I will check in to our hotel, head over to the Expo, then back to the hotel and then to the Team's Pasta Dinner, then back to the hotel to sleep.

I am using what served me well before I got into the hot seat on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. Here it is translated for a physical challenge, rather than a mental one:

- My body has been trained the way it was trained. There is nothing I can do now to train it more.

- I am not alone. I have lifelines from mile 8 on. My peeps will feed me energy and love.

- My body is and will be impacted by my mind. It is wasteful to spend anytime on what I shoulda/coulda done.

- It is what it is - there will be discomfort and maybe even pain.

I read this on another runner's blog:

You can throw in the towel or you can use it to wipe the sweat off you face.

I am a sweat wiper!

That would be a great thing for my peeps to tell me:

LYNNIE! YOU ARE A SWEAT WIPER!

I'll post on Monday when I get back home and let you know how it went!

Who Wants To Be a Marathoner?

I do!

I discovered this morning, that not only will Al Roker be running this marathon with me, but his running buddy will be Meredith Viera.

No biggie to most people but a big ass biggie to me.

You see, back in December of 2002, I had the big ass privilege of sitting across from Meredith as I got to play Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.




She is an amazing woman, with the most calming and loving disposition. I was in the hot seat long enough to go through 2 commercial breaks. During one of those breaks, she called me Lynnie. The only people who have consistently called me Lynnie are my dad and Carrie. When Meredith called me that, right out of the blue, I felt like a warm hug just enveloped me and all would be just fine.

That is the reason my singlet has the name LYNNIE on it.

How cool would it be if I got to run along side Al and Meredith and she got to call me Lynnie again?

3 More Night Nights

That is what Carrie said when she was little and was looking forward to some event. Only 3 more night nights!

The Run2Remember Team has surpassed the Quarter Million Dollar Mark!!!!! Can you believe that? I am so proud of us.

My peeps are having a conference call tonight to plan their strategy of support for me. To steal a phrase from Oprah, one thing I know for sure is that my body by itself will not get me to the finish line. It will require my body and my spirit. My spirit will be lifted by my peeps and the peeps I have never met.

I will be sending these photos of me in my marathon running gear to all my peeps so they know how I will look. They are not flattering, not even close, but I won't look cute during the race, so wtf?

This is if I keep the cap on:





This is if it gets too hot and I give away my cap to the first peep I see:

My Last Training Run

Is done! A week ago, I doubted I would/could be back running.

I can really see myself finishing this marathon.

I can see myself having fun, taking in the crowds and the neighborhood parties.,

I can see myself letting in all of the support of my outrageous peeps and the peeps I don't even know.

I can see myself gaining something brand new from finishing the race.

I can see myself finding a whole new way to be bold and dig deep.

I can see myself crossing the finish line.

This is so cool.

My teammates and I have raised over $225,000 so far. I can see us breaking the quarter of a million dollar mark. I can dream of us breaking the $300,000 mark.

Families I don't know will be impacted by the work we have all done. I am proud.

Chilean Miner

Edison Pena is running the marathon with me. Gotta give the guy props, being under ground, in air that had to be well....... not great and not really 'knowing' he would ever see the light of day again and he still had the motivation to do his cardio. Hope I get to see him.

Wonder if Al Roker will be in my wave and corral. I read that he can't seem to break the 13 minute mile, so I imagine he will be in my wave.

Bobby Flay - wonder who he chose to throw down with for this one.

We got Jared, a Bachelor, an Amazing Race winner, and other people I frankly, don't know.

I would love, love, love to run (walk fast) with Al for a bit.

Kyle is injured so he will not be running 9 miles with me. I am more interested in him taking care of his body so that he can run in his half-marathon next month.

Amy has been coordinating all of my peeps and it is starting to look like I will have a familiar face and voice at most every mile after mile 8.

I am a lucky girl.

You Sound Like You Are Hosting a Party

That is what Amy said to me just a short while ago.

That translates into:

- You are worried things will go wrong.

- You think you can figure everything out and it will be okay.

- You have a list a mile long and just want to cross things off and when the list is all crossed off, you think you will calm down, but you never will because you will always be adding to the list.

I am the opposite of calm.

I want all of my peeps to have a great time while they cheer their heads off.

I am also flying high that I am actually running again!