NEW YORK MARATHON 2000

November 5, 2000

There's not much that can warm a mother's heart more than seeing her daughter run in her first marathon. And what a marathon! The New York Marathon actually takes over the city of New York for a weekend.  With 30,000 runners and their supporters, it definitely makes an impact. The logistics of something this large blows my mind. So Hugh and I head to the big city for the big event.

565_DaisyTimesSq_sm.jpg (49137 bytes)Of course the first place tourists head for in New York is Times Square. 566_BikeLane_sm.jpg (46969 bytes)And the first thing we noticed was the bike lane.  They are all over.
 
567_BikeSign_sm.jpg (53119 bytes) Believe it or not, the object of this picture is the bike path sign on the lightpost.
 
570_Cathy_Mom_sm.jpg (36047 bytes) Here my daughter, Cathy, is showing us around the big apple.
569_FinishLineDB_sm.jpg (53802 bytes)We know we won't get close to the finish line during the race so we'll just check it out before. 571_RideBag_sm.jpg (63079 bytes)
Picking up your race packet is a little more difficult if you don't remember your number.
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"Come on. I know I'm there somewhere."		 573_GoCathy_sm.jpg (49783 bytes)
Practicing our duties for when the runners get here. "GO Cathy!!"
574_GoCathy_sm.jpg (49943 bytes)Cathy? Oh where are you Cathy? 575_GoCathy_sm.jpg (53339 bytes)
I give up. Is she ever going to get here?  (Notice the TV coverage on the screen in back - we could follow the progress as it happened.)
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Yes! We had a wedding during the race. The bride and groom stopped at mile 17 for a brief wedding ceremony. They passed by us soon after, but we didn't get a picture.		 577_WheelCh_sm.jpg (48716 bytes)
There were a lot of wheelchair racers with every kind of wheelchair you could imagine.
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Here they come!! You can't miss this!		 579_1stRunner_sm.jpg (44640 bytes)
The front runner is back there somewhere.
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Abdelkhader el-Mouaziz from Morocco leads the pack with no one anywhere close behind.		 581_Runners23_sm.jpg (52701 bytes)
The Kenyans finished second, third, fourth, eighth and 10th but they just couldn't keep up with Mouaziz.
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Here come some more of the front runners.		 583_1stGirls_sm.jpg (43218 bytes)
And here come the women! Lyudmila Petrova, first Russian winner, is second from the left.
584_Cathy_sm.jpg (52768 bytes)Yes!! Here she is at mile 18, running well and still smiling. The biggest winner of the whole race! What a girl! Oops! We got so involved with getting to the next meeting place and then to the Family Reunion site that we forgot to take any more pictures. After a few, "Where are the rest of them"s, we realized there aren't any more. No pictures of the exausted but proud finishers. No pictures of the 'finisher' medals. No pictures of the good friends that supported each other throughout the hours of training and preparing for this once in a lifetime event. Oh well.

Thank you, Marti, Shawn, Mary Jo, Lauren, and Mike for a wonderful pasta loading evening and supporting each other to make this happen. Thank you, Guillermo for the celebraty passes and a fabulous event. Thank you, Debbie for sharing your room. We are really sorry you weren't there to enjoy it with us and for us to get to know you better, but we loved our brief visit with you and hope to see you again.

And, most of all, THANK YOU, CATHY!!

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Thank you New York City! I will never be a big city girl, but you were wonderful this weekend!

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