Saturday, May 26, 2007

You must be 21...





May 19, 2007: Healthy Kidney 10K

Racers: Lyle, Mary, Kathy, Mel, Shirley

This was a whirlwind trip. We left at 4 pm on Friday afternoon, had dinner at a service plaza along the thruway (yum!) and arrived at our hotel in Tarrytown about 11:30 pm. It was Mary’s birthday, so a small celebration was in order before we retired.

The first thing we noticed as we walked in the door of the hotel was the front desk clerk—an overweight middle-aged man with a really bad toupee. He had on a very short tie. Mel asked him where the closest lounge was. The man explained where it was, but added the following caution, “But in New York State you must be 21 to drink.” He was dead serious. He wasn’t joking. You should have seen Mel trying to convince him that she was in fact over 21. Had we entered the twilight zone? A young man standing nearby who witnessed the whole thing had quite a chuckle.

After we stowed our luggage in the room, we headed out for the birthday celebration. As we walked through the hotel lobby, we got last minute directions from the clerk. He gave us good, detailed directions, and then added, “But you must be 21 to drink.” As we exited the hotel we almost busted a gut laughing. All 5 of us are old enough to be grandmothers.

The sports bar we went to was obviously a local hangout and it was perfect. I’m sure we looked like we were “from away.” Mel was quite a sight-- dressed in a hot pink velour lounge outfit, carrying a sparkly silver purse. The rest of us looked normal. We had a good time and when we returned to the hotel, we couldn’t help but toy with the clerk. As we walked in, Kathy said “they served us and we aren’t even 21!” The clerk peered over his reading glasses staring at us in disbelief.

By the time we got to bed it was 2:30 am. We needed to get up at 6 am, and we did. It looked like it was going to rain. But by the time the race started the sun was shining. I walked this race, as I had been experiencing a pain in my left thigh for a couple of weeks and the doctor thought it might be a stress fracture. I was scheduled to have a nuclear bone scan on Monday. So I followed doctor’s orders and walked the entire 10K. Walking fast is hard. I almost came in dead last. But the cool thing is that as I crossed the finish line the rest of the gang was there to meet me, and one of the photographers took a group picture under the banner. This was also the first race in which all of us wore our “Women on the Run” singlets.

We hurried back to Tarrytown, got our showers, and then had a wonderful lunch under the Tappan Zee Bridge at a great little place called Sunset Cove. What a contrast to the thruway service plaza meal!

Then we piled in the car and headed home again. Five down, four to go!

No comments: