from the desk of tara hope…

sunday was the big race day! i cant believe its already been a year since mom did her first one last year!

we woke up bright and early around 5am to see them off to the course!

after watching them drive off, and game-planning our spectating we went for some breakfast at EJ’s diner…. we felt a little guilty for eating such a good breakfast while this is what the marathoners were doing:

(following 4 photos from moms phone)

they said they felt like cattle at the start!

after we fueled up we went back to my house to watch the start of the race on tv…

finally it was time to head out and try to catch up with the racers. the feeling in the city that day was just electric! there were so many people cheering and running and just being excited! 🙂

husby, stacie and i walked from our house to the queensboro bridge! we walked through the park and the day was just gorgeous! i couldn’t help but stop and take pictures of the fall colors ( i think its safe to say im obsessed)

this is about the time stacie started yelling “larry! stop taking pictures and come on!”

we finally made it over to the queensboro bridge- we had just missed ricky ( dad somehow randomly saw him run by even though we didnt know he was going to be going by there! it was awesome!) and waited for quite a while before mom and bonnie came by. it was fun watching the runners go by though!

this is dad looking for mom to come around the corner. we knew they were close and we couldnt wait to see them!

there they are!

love this photo of mom!

they were taking the barriers down at that part of the track so we walked on the route with them for a little bit. this is where they were handing out gatorade and the street was so sticky it was literally grabbing our shoes. there were cups everywhere!!!

about the time they passed us, ricky was finishing the race! he finished at 4:19:15! he did SO good, especially since he started training around october 1st! we didnt get to see him finish, but we caught up with him when he got back to the hotel! he was very tired but we got him a couple of shake shack burgers and he was good to go 🙂 roxie decided to help by giving him massages by walking all over him!

we went back our to the course to watch mom and bonnie finish…there were SO many people coming out of the exits after the finished. it was a sea of marathon capes!

we made it to the bleachers just in time to see the girls finish. the people coming in at that point were looking a little rough around the edges and they seemed to appreciate us cheering for them!

this guy was amazing! he finished the course with one leg! if that doesnt make you feel like a wimp, i dont know what will!

finally we saw them coming down the home stretch! they were looking strong and they started running across the finish!

you can see them crossing the finish line on the big screen! they are the two girls in the bottom right hand corner…it looks they are wearing orange and you can see moms blue sleeves and bonnies ponytail!

they finished!

my sweet friend/neighbor sarah was so sweet and watched everyone finish! she even saw ricky, which most of us didnt! 🙂

it was SUCH a fun day! i know they were so tired and but it was so worth it. i was mentally exhausted from carting 14 people around NYC, but it was also SO worth it! i am just so proud of everyone and i know this will be a great memory for the marathoners!

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this weekend was the NYC marathon and we had 14 visitors in town for the festivities! mom, brother ricky and my aunt bonnie were all participating in the marathon so we had some fun but kept it pretty calm before the race so they could rest. dad and matt lee have more pictures on their cameras, so when dad puts up his blog post from the trip i will link to that!

they all got in on thursday and once they got checked in, i took the marathoners and uncle peyton down to the convention center to go to the marathon expo. all the people speaking different languages and picking up your number makes it very exciting!

for dinner we went to one of our favorites…peter lugers! my 5th time! mom and i were just there 2 weeks ago but i was still jacked for some steak 🙂

friday all the guys went to shopping at the ferrari store, the watch store, the camera store and mom treated all the girls to uggs and tea for breakfast 🙂

after a great breakfast of tea and scones we went walking in the park to stretch our legs a little and explore!

it was cool because they were setting up the marathon route( the finish line exit is right at our street) so that got mom and bonnie pumped for the race!

the finish line!

after getting some yummy hot chocolate at jacques torres we went back to get ready to go see our broadway shows that night! some people saw Million Dollar Quartet, some people saw Wicked( my 6th time!)

saturday was busy but hang loose:

stacie and karen went for a jog/adventure around the reservoir and i met up with dad and his entourage for some pictures of the park…

after all that fresh air me, stacie and karen headed down to century 21 for some shopping! on the subway we met this cute little fellow who was on America’s Got Talent for breakdancing! he started showing us his skills on the train but we were the next stop so we didn’t get a good show 😦

after shopping we headed home to get ready for dinner at cafe fiorello- another place we’ve been to alot the past few weeks! in fact, this visit made me the mayor on foursquare! i was so excited! 🙂

matt got the legendary veal parm and every time we order it we are AMAZED at how big it is!

this phone photo isnt great but trust me this stuff was amazing! chocolate mousse and whipped cream that they literally scoop out of buckets! this was chocolate heaven!

after a fun and delicious dinner we all went back to get some rest before the big race the next day!

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