I had the opportunity to visit to Bethehem, Pennsylvania to run a 5K at the Runner's World Festival featuring a Half Marathon, a 10 K and a 5 K. I did the 5K in 50:28 placing 6 out of 6 in the 70-74 men's age group. There were 3 guys participating in the 75 plus age group....it's a good thing for me that they broke down the 70's group into two groups or I would have placed 9 out of 9. But what the heck...I made the top 10 anyway you look at it.
I caught up with my main competitor, Kate, at the 34th minute. . I passed her and stayed ahead until she passed me later. We changed positions about 5 times until the last half mile in which I made my final kick pulling ahead of her and maintaining the lead to the finish. At the end of the race she introduced herself to me and asked to have her picture taken with me because she said that I inspired her to finish the race. The truth is, she inspired me to pick up my regular 20 minute per mile pace which would have given me a finishing time of an hour.
I visited my #2 son who is a graduate student at Stony Brook University on Long Island. We took the train to NYC where we walked the High Line (a park which ran along an elevated abandoned train track), visited Ground Zero at the World Trade Center, had lunch in Greenwich Village, and cruised Times Square. Times Square is a happening place. The highlight of my trip was meeting the Freedom Ladies pictured below. This was the first time that I had been to NYC since 1980. Lots of changes. Put it on your bucket list if you haven't been there in a while or if you've never visited.
