1st and 33rd

1st because Saturday was the first running of the Helderberg to Hudson Half-Marathon. My husband ran and I volunteered at one of the water stations along the route. I didn’t sleep well the night before because I was having anxiety about getting to my assignment “late”. (I know, so silly, in retrospect).

The volunteer email said to get there at 7:00 a.m. However, I was dropping my husband off at the race start first so I arrived at my station at 7:45. It was fine. There were 15 people at our station and the first runners came through at 8:50. Yes, we needed 15 volunteers - there were 2,500 runners.

Here is a picture from my vantage point. These were some early leaders; after this there was no time for picture breaks. After the runners went past our stop, and we finished cleaning up, I drove to the finish line. A lot of our running friends were there and it was a beautiful day.

The top 3 male finishers came by around 5 minutes before this group

33rd because Saturday was our anniversary (I’ll let you guess how many years).🙂 We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in the next town that some friends had been raving about.

When we go somewhere new to us, I like to look at it through the eyes of a restaurant critic or a mystery shopper; one of my sisters has been doing mystery shopping for a long time so it’s rubbed off on me.

The service was excellent. The dinners included salad and bread, both of which were fresh and plentiful. The portions were huge; I wish I remembered to take a picture of my lasagna because it could have served three people.

The best part was the bill was about $40. With a 20% tip, the total was under $50. You don’t have to spend a fortune to get a great dinner! And we have enough leftovers for tonight to feed ourselves and our daughter.

Thanks for reading!