Atlantic City Marathon

The wonderful aspect of waking up and living another day is all the new things  to learn about the world and your own little world. This trip was a great learning experience in many ways. First of all I planned too casually and did not build in enough time for a travel glitch. Tropical bad thing Nestor popped up quickly and instead of being in New Jersey drinking water and eating spaghetti and walking the beach we were still in Florida looking at a potential OCTOBER hurricane. A pop up hurricane. Who knew ! We made a quick decision to at least get to the airport area Friday night for a Saturday flight to a Sunday race. I kept saying GIRRRRRL what part of making sure #48 gets done did you not get ??  The storm hit as lots and lots  of rain Saturday morning. The new fun fact for both Debbie and I is that driving in the dark (somehow Florida dark is the worst)  is no longer safe for either of us. Then add blinding rain.  People there might be a debacle on the roads. Friday night hotel, nice dinner, thank you very much.  The 1 minute trip to the airport was perfect for the two old bags from Cortez Villas. All that worry was unfounded. Thank you Southwest- wheels up ahead of schedule.

After a smooth arrival in Philly and a lovely  fall drive to Atlantic City we acted like big shots. Valet Parking, bellhop the luggage, upgrade to ocean view room. Bam Jersey Shore the two old Florida  bags are here to party. After an early bird 4pm  dinner to keep our reputation intact, we went out on the wild, wild edge and rode the ferris wheel. More on that later. It was a lovely night. Although the mind was screaming “FUNNEL CAKE will make you run very fast”, the marathon food police locked that thought up.

The major thrill for every hour of darkness was our view of the ferris wheel color  light pattern. I swear to you after two nights watching  the same color pattern never repeated.  There were countless patterns of color and movement.

Sorry I was not at all  sorry to spend the hour before the race enjoying this view and being very grateful for Debbie coming on the trip to experience all this and my decision to go around the states again.  Another lesson learned is experiences shared are immensely richer.

The pre race start line just an elevator ride away  meet and greet was terrific.  We had SETH (hit that link he has a very  very good blog), Andy, Tina and Jeff, JC and lots of Maniacs doing the Baltimore /Atlantic CIty double. Since I had a ferris wheel to look at all night I did not do the double.

The conditions were perfect but we all knew that pesky pop up Nestor was due to hit in about 3 hours. Thank you to Debbie for this picture at mile 9. We went into MR G’s  for matching tatoos but they said if you cannot drive in the dark you cannot get one, so I just kept running.

The rain hit as scheduled.  The second part of the route went through some lovely sections with great water views.  Fortunately: I learned how to pick up my feet and not snag a nail pop on the boardwalk with my shuffle- I mean  run.  I was moving fast enough that I did not get cold and also fast enough that I missed the total tsunami that hit 15 minutes after I finished. The choice to stay directly at the start/finish was perfect. Elevator ride, hot bath, good New York pizza-WIN.

Somehow I broke 6 hours which has not happened for a blue moon. My angel Debbie waited outside almost all day enjoying the boardwalk. Debbie also  graciously did not gamble my 26 cent road find from the race. The penny has a Mason symbol stamped on it. This penny is from 1978. Google says that was a thing in the 70’s to stamp coins. The 70’s live on today and the Mason stamp is available on Amazon for $49.  Again-this is why we walk the world with eyes wide open eh ?

We enjoyed an insanely decadent casino buffet, a very plush sportsbook lounge to watch some NFL and cha ching I won $52.50 on a penny slot. No there was little sleep to be had, there was a ferris wheel to ogle. Life is beyond good.

Number 49 will be next August in Wyoming with the wild horses in Green River and 50 will be in Delaware next fall. My new project is gearing up so to speak to ride my bike across the USA. I will blog of course about that adventure and the antics to prepare. Readers !  Get your passports ready. The DebNan summer 2020 experience will include bike/barging it in Holland and are you ready for this- swimming in the Greek Islands. Did I say life is beyond good ?

Feel our love, thank you for reading, do not  EVER invite us out after 5 pm West Coast Florida curfew, appreciate today and explore forever.

Your pals in fun,

Nan and Deb