Bigger, bolder, brasher. Not the Colorado Rockies, but good to be USA home.
What I learned from my 50 State journey (twice), no matter the accent or our politics – Hawaii, Texas or Maine – we’re American. We ALL stand together 🇺🇸
Trans-Atlantic flight, Amsterdam to JFK. Customs, luggage retrieval. Rental van to our Saturday nite sleeps. All the years I NYC-worked, never ever on Long Island.
Hampton Inn. American TV. Food Network! Thirty minutes more, downstairs with the Questers – PIZZA nite! SOAKING in the junk food. Nothing more American than pepperoni pizza & 2-liter Coke. U-S-A! We’re not the healthiest bunch of folk. LOL>
BUSINESS CLASS sleep – and a FULL nite on Long Island. Despite the massive time difference, ZERO problem staying unconscious ‘til the morning alarm 😊
Breakfast, shower. Luggage at the Front Desk. Goodbye, first Half adventure. Ash & Tom (already in New York) exchanging marathon totes while I’m running in nearby Eisenhower Park. Goodbye sweaty shorts, hello Antarctica sleeping bag. YES!
Registration, bib pickup. Soooo many runners. Triple 8 story back-burner’d this day. New Yorker accents, fancy run shoes. Thin guys to the front – winner’s breaking 3 hours today. Photo opp with the Six, then crowd bunched close at the Start. Kinda overwhelming, sheer amount of people. Weather? Couldn’t be better. Legs? Heavy.
Lap 1, Ashton. Lap 3, Sis. emotion OVERLOAD.
Sis saw yesterday’s Amsterdam post & booked a New York flight, same day/hours later. Just WOW. Reason I ran my first marathon (Alaska 2013). Reason I ran all 50 States TWICE (her Hawaii Birthday ultra). And today, will be the reason I FINISH all 8 continents.
[I mean, once you finish six… the last 2 – with no time cutoffs – should be a cake walk. It’s just another 52 miles, right?]
More walk than slog. More slog than jog, but Sis stayed with me. Six-hour course limit. Slow-n-steady. Legs moving (or not) – she’d make sure I’d hit the time. Well until lap 8, then… see ya. 2pm. Plane to catch, work in the morning. Absolutely SERIOUS!
Clocks a sub-10 5k, medal/finish pic, husband waiting with the car. CRAZY proud! & sooooo very appreciative ❤️
LAST LAP. It’d be tight. 16-minute walk pace. Certainly, wasn’t setting any speed records – but FINISH I did.
6 continents, 6 marathons, 6 days. Anything is POSSIBLE… with FAMILY.
Icebreaker Marathon
“It doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, ‘I have finished.’
There is a lot of satisfaction in that.” ~ Fred Lebow
Woke early cheerleading myself; only 3 to go. Little bounce day-over-day. Legs stopped moving day prior – think ‘lead legs‘ the new norm. No real recovery. Lack of sleep taken its toll. Trained for ‘miles‘ & throwing multi-day distance. Never foresaw sleep deprivation. Mind fuzzy/cloudy, nothing’s ever crisp. Reality/dream states blurred. And emotional. Even at Christmas, my family… we’re not huggers. Certainly not weepers.
Suck it up buttercup, it’s Race day 6 – and today, this day I’m running 26.2 in the Red, White & Blue 🇺🇸
Sunday. BIGGEST race field of all 8. Hundreds of participants. Flat course & NYC confidence. Crazy fast field. End of Lap 1: Ash & Tom. Taste of HOME, my Colorado FAMILY. Lap later, had it settled in my head. I got nothing to prove. I’ve got folks who love me. I’ve been to Chile, marathon’d in Antarctica. Nothing left in the legs, spirit dinged. Finish the Half & heading HOME. 5 continents in 5 days. I can live with that.
Lap 2, no Ash. Text’d to meet at the tennis courts. It’s just ahead; they were geocaching. Got it! Thankful they weren’t hanging idle while I’m slow-slogging ‘round Long Island. New York State not… ‘the City’.
Ahead on the right. There they are. Smile. Short wave.
Left. Look LEFT. Tunnel Hill mirage. So weird. Same headband, same hydration vest. Smiling, laughing. Talking. No, it’s REAL. Half-a-country away from her St. Louis home. She’s HERE. HOW?
Long embrace. TEARS. No words. Sis – in Garden City, New York ❤️
And Ash. And Tom. And my in-law bro, Paul.
They’re all here.
Run, walk, crawl but finish. I can do this. Triple 8 FINISH.
NY Sibling SURPRISE
Horse barns, covered bridges, Yankee accents. Traditional Christmas.
All my must-see seasonal films are set in New England. ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, ‘Christmas in Connecticut’, ‘Bishop’s Wife’, ‘White Christmas’, ‘Holiday Inn’.
And… emergency appendectomies. Michaela in-n-out of Hartford Hospital within 48 hours; showered/seated & ugly sweater-dressed for Christmas gifting. Whew!
Whole lotta holidaying. There always is. Living room, a Christmas paper explosion. We’re BIG gift givers, our family. Double batch of Jill’s signature stuffing, sweet potato casserole. Mashed potatoes, gravy. Turkey AND ham. Big gifters and big eaters 😊
Late dinner invite with old & new friends. Bonus holidaying 2 ½ hours away. Lotta laughs. Even bigger accents. Folks outside Boston need scrolling subtitles. LOL>
TWO of my must-see flics in Stephen’s in-home theatre. Games & gifting with Sheila, Dan & Ashley. Christmas Eve in New Hampshire. It really IS a wonderful life.
Holiday full-circle. Ash, Tom & Ro Ro. Colorado Christmas tomorrow 🎄🎁 🐕
Connecticut Christmas
XMas Movie Marathon