A FABULOUS TIME HAD BY ALL....................

Maybe it was a good thing that I had all those nervous thoughts before the race, as everything turned out better than I could ever have imagined.

I ran exactly the race I wanted to run. I began at a slow pace, and kept that consistant for the first six and a half miles, then picked up the pace, and not only finished, but FINISHED STRONG! During mile eleven, all I could think about was how good I felt. Granted, I didn't break any speed records, (You should have seen some of those women fly by me.) but then that was not the plan. The plan was to have a good time first, finish second, and be able to move when finished third. I did all of those things with no problem.

After the race, we walked back to our hotel, rested for a bit, and then decided to go out for a walk. My daughter had been wanting a hotdog, but of course didn't want it before the race. We set out in search of a dog, and at the first corner we turned onto, there set LINDY'S. (The world famous Lindy's cheesecakes, Lindy's. In case you have never heard of it.) In my own little circle of the world, I am pretty famous for my cheesecakes, so taking a picture of the sign was not good enough. I had to buy a piece to compare to my own. I got it to go, and we continued down the street to find something my daughter would like. Within one block there were at least six stores selling deli and/or bakery type foods. We went in every one of them, ooohing and ahhhing over how good everything looked. The stange thing is, neither of us really wanted to eat anything. It was stangely satifying just to look at it, and imagine how good it must taste. It was like we were rewarding ourselves with food, without injesting one calorie. Very strange........... We ended up getting a piece of Oreo cheesecake and a yummy looking brownie, and headiing back to the hotel.

One of the cool things that happened, was our room was upgraded so that we had access to the executive lounge where they had a continental breakfast in the morning, and hors d'oeuvres in the afternoon. After getting back to the hotel with out sweet treats, we went to the lounge so my daughter could watch the basketball game. We had a little to eat while we were there, but neither of us had any real interest in food. For dinner, we ordered what ended up to be the worst pizza I have ever tasted (And we all know that I have eaten LOTS of pizza over the years.) because we had been dreaming about getting pizza after the race. We ended up throwing over half of it away, splitting the brownie, and going to sleep.

We each had about half a piece of cheesecake on the plane ride home, and ended up giving the rest to the folks at home. It was okay, but frankly...... Mine is much better!

In the weeks leading up to the race, I focused so much on eating well, and staying well hydrated, that to tell the truth, what I am really looking forward to is slipping back into the old habits of not eating for a day or two before getting back on track.

Don't worry though, I did find a new chocolate store in New York. Since I couldn't eat any before the race, I got the info to find it online. I will be sharing it with you soon. Today, I need to get things back in order from my absence, as well as go with a resident to a doctors appointment, so I am out of blogging time for now.

I did miss talking to you all, and am happy to be back........... Enjoy your day!