The Mayoress Finishes Her 7th Marathon

What an amazing day. After an inconsistent training schedule, I was surprised by my strongest run yet - a combination of incredible support from friends, confidence of running this race for the 6th consecutive year, can-do attitude, and the "It's My Birthday" shirt that got tons of shout-outs along the course.

Thanks to Erica & Kirk for this amazing video at mile 7: http://onedayinnovembermarathon.blogspot.com/2009/11/highlights-from-new-york-city-marathon.html

And thanks to everyone who came out to support me & the 40,000 other runners: Alison, Flora, Anthony, Sydney, Marne, Pam, Angie, David, Chris, and my six-time Marathon Maid of Honor, Nicolle. And of course, everyone who blew up my Facebook page with marathon & birthday wishes.

Very special thanks to Lindsey from Toronto, who I met at the start and ran with for the first 16 miles, and Michael "The Power", who I met at mile 18 and ran with for 2. Congrats to fellow finishers Traci, Aida, Andy, Bixby, Chana, and Toby & the Shoe4Africa team.

As the "barefoot runner" Christopher McDougall wrote in my copy of his book "Born to Run": Running is pure magic.