This is a hard blog post to write because it means my marvelous weekend in NYC is coming to an end. But let’s start from the beginning, shall we? I wasn’t actually planning on coming to New York City to run the NYC Half Marathon until one week before the race, when I got my confirmation email from the NYRR. At that point I contacted all my friends in NYC to see if I could stay with any of them. Amanda, an old student of my father, who actually used to babysit me, offered up her home. I left on Friday morning and arrived mid afternoon. When I arrived, I decided to go straight to the NYC Half Marathon Expo since my bus arrived pretty close to where it was being held. I got to the expo, picked up my bib, t-shirt and goodie bag. I looked around for a little bit, but I had my luggage with me and was pretty exhausted from the bus ride, not having had lunch and only a mini luna bar for breakfast.
I was originally planning on meeting J early that evening, but once I got to Amanda’s house I pretty much crashed and caught up with her and met her newborn little O and her 3 1/2 year old daughter, Ms. E. Ms. E and I bonded right away listening to Disney music and playing Aladin. So much fun! Before I knew it, it was time to head out to dinner with Alysa. Alysa and I attended a private boarding high school together, ironically the same one as Amanda. The last time I saw Alysa was at my graduation, May 2010. I can’t believe it had been so long. The minute Alysa and I saw each other it was like no time had passed. Similar to me, Alysa says anything and everything on her mind and has a great sense of humor. We went to a dark little Italian restaurant and enjoyed an amazing dinner and split a bottle of wine. After dinner we went to a quiet bar for more drinks... (Note to self: two days before the race, really should have no more than one drink)
The next morning I woke up and had breakfast with Ms. E, Amanda, little O and Timur (Amanda’s husband). I then headed out to meet up with Graham. Graham, is another friend from high school. However, he is two years older and the last time I saw him was five years ago. We were best friends his last year at high school, and tried to keep in touch once he left for college, unfortunately we grew apart. It was great reconnecting with him. After our coffee date (water for me, since I’m not a coffee drinker and needed to start hydrating) I got to see his apartment, which is adorable. We only got to see each other for an hour or two, before we had to go our separate ways. We planned on meeting Sunday for lunch after my race, so I refused to hug him and say goodbye that way we would have to see each other the next day. Stupid me those plans fell through and I didn’t really get to say goodbye to him.
As Graham headed off to a meeting, I was off to have lunch with one of my favorite bloggers out there, Dori. Dori’s blog was the first blog I started reading three plus years ago. I came across it after she did a 30 day Core Fusion Challenge. After that I started following her on twitter and continued to read her blog religiously. She was one of my key inspirations to creating my own blog. I was so excited to meet her! When I entered the restaurant, it was like catching up with an old friend, despite the fact we never actually met. She greeted me with one of the best hugs I have ever received! She was so sweet! We talked for hours, I can’t even remember what exactly what we talked, but the time went by so quickly. Oh and I had the most delicious turkey burger ever! After a great lunch, we decided to go to Lululemon also known as Heaven on earth.
We said our goodbyes, and I was off to meet Carrie and Peter (the Godparents) for a drink (Shirley temples). However, they had car problems so I ended up walking around a bit and heading back to the house. It was already 5pm. When I got back home, Ms. E and I played dress up while listening to more Disney music and used Photo Booth as a stage. Rindy, Amanda’s mom came and joined us for dinner. I have known Rindy for a while now. In fact, every year we would go to Rindy’s house in Boston to watch the fireworks on the 4th of July. Rindy told the story of when I was four years old and first went to her house for the July 4th and pulled the fire alarm. Whoops! I hadn’t seen her in a while, and it was great to see her again and as a grandma. For dinner, Timur had a prepared a yummy pasta carbo load meal! It was delicious. After dinner, I got the honors of putting Ms. E to bed, and then I got my outfit and everything else I needed out for the next day and went to bed. Tomorrow I was running my second half marathon... Went to bed still not believing this fact.
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