Hope you are all enjoying your weekend.

After the jam packed day I had yesterday, I’ll admit it was rough getting up early this morning. But in the long run well worth it. Today was just one more emotionally rewarding day. (I promise I’ll be funny again soon!)

A while back I mentioned in this post that I had signed up for the Tunnel to Towers 5K and the reasons why I wanted to run it. Well, I’m happy to report that my missions have all been completed.

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In memory of James “Vinny” LaGuardia

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into the tunnel • outta the tunnel • freedom tower • remembering the 343

1. Ran my first official 5k distance (after 3 marathons and close to 20 half marathons and a bunch of 10ks, 5 milers and 4 milers)

2. Tackled my fear of tunnels by running through one which was actually not as scary as I thought. I think it helped that there were so many people cheering. I didn’t dilly dally though. I ran pretty hard to get to the other end as soon as I could. I got a shot entering the tunnel and exiting the tunnel but didn’t take any IN the tunnel. FAIL! Also, take a look at our beautiful freedom tower and the amazing firemen all lined up for what felt like forever holding banners of the 343 that perished that day and giving us all high fives as we exited the tunnel. So amazing! I actually was running FAST because of the excitement of it all. I’m more tired today than yesterday after running 18

3. Got my picture taken with firemen!

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Sally, Lisa and Elvia-photo courtesy of JD • Sally with Firemen-photo courtesy of Elvia • Sally finishes-photo courtesy of Elvia • Sally and Elvia all fuhklempt when they played God Bless the USA-photo courtesy of JD

4. And the most important mission—running to honor my friend’s dad who was killed last month so tragically. I talked about it in this post and this post. His name was James “Vinny” LaGuardia. And he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was a hero to his family and so it felt fitting to acknowledge him today.

From the pre-run performances of God Bless the USA and the Star Spangled Banner, to the sights of so many firemen running in their uniforms, reading all of the messages on the back of peoples shirts remembering loved ones, to my personal thoughts of my friend and her dad’s recent passing and my friend Lisa running in memory of her friend who was killed in Afghanistan, it was quite emotional.

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photo courtesy of Lisa

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As Frank Sinatra’s “New York New York” played…photo courtesy of JD

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Lisa ran for Dario Lorenzetti, a friend killed in Afghanistan. photo courtesy of JD

Many tears streamed down my cheek. Meanwhile I have to admit when I got dressed this morning I was giddy that I was ONLY running 3 miles. I even put on some eye makeup and didn’t wear a hat or visor so that I might actually look like a girl in my pictures for once. Well, I learned my lesson. I cried away the makeup and it was quite stuffy in the tunnel and I think I sweat MORE than  I do during a marathon. =)

My friend happened to catch me on TV. If you want to take a look go to this link and scroll down to the second video. I’ll wave to the camera at about 1:50. But it takes so long for the page to load you can just pretend and lie to me. It’s not that big a deal.

And now it’s almost 6pm on Sunday and I’m DOG TIRED! Heck the DOG is DOG TIRED too!
Apparently taking a nap outside on my driveway seemed like a good idea.

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dog tired

Appropriately enough I found this quote in my Facebook newsfeed today:

I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom. —Thomas Carlyle

Well, it’s off to get some cleaning done and clear my head and ice my tired achy legs after covering over 21 miles of running and about 5 miles of walking this weekend.

Question: What songs make you cry? Have you ever been so tired you just laid down right where you were even if it was a cold concrete driveway?