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.