I laughed. I was supposed to have a table at the Expo last year to share my journey and my book, "Journey Well." The race was cancelled due to bad weather. Since I was running the 10K this year, and so much has transformed since last year, I emailed Paul Collyer the Race Director and his assistant Jen to let them know I didn't need a table at the Expo. I replied, "OMG I guess Paul and Jen didn't get the memo that I didn't need the table." After my morning meditation I posted, "I think I have a plan B."
I gathered up my Hyannis Half Marathon medal from 2009, my Boston Marathon medal, the 113th Boston Marathon finisher's book, my book of poetry, "Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life," and one copy that I had on hand, my Bermuda Marathon medal, all my personal business cards with a link to this blog on it.
I was getting so excited for this year's Camp Hyannis. It had been 5 years since I ran in Hyannis. With last year's race cancelled, I couldn't wait to see all of our friends at camp.
We had a smooth and easy drive toward Cape Cod and once we crossed the Sagamore Bridge I got really excited:
We arrived at the Hyannis Resort and Conference Center and our room was ready! We unpacked and headed to the Expo. I saw Wag Your Tail's display:
and Dawn jumped out from behind the display. We hugged and cried. I told her that if she had not tagged me in that post I wouldn't have known I had a table and would have not had things put together to be a part of the Expo. Dawn, her sister and business partner for Wag Your Tail Heather and I met at the 2009 Hyannis Marathon Expo. We have seen each other throughout the years and stayed in close touch on Facebook. They have donated Wag Your Tail merchandise to our fund raisers and are just amazing people all around.
We both felt as though no time had passed since we were together 3 years ago.
I set up my table:
And Paul Collyer, Race Director and a dear friend of the past 7 years came by to snap this photo of Tom and me:
We were lighting up Facebook with our posts from the Expo and Dawn posted:
It was noon and runners arrived.
One woman who works at Kripalu's store was intrigued by my book. She purchased it and is going to present it to the staff at Kripalu to have in their store. Coincidentally they live in Lee and we told them about our son's farm. They said they could easily go to the Williamstown Farmer's Market where Diggers Bend Farm sells their goodies. We also told them about their CSA. A vocational teacher said that he has his students choose modern day heroes to write about and he would look up my memoir and see about adding both my poetry book and memoir to his library at school.
"Oh my God it's a sign!" One woman stopped dead in her tracks as she picked up my Bermuda Half Marathon medal and said, "We were just talking about the Bermuda Marathon and wanting to run it." I shared my story with her and her group of Mystic Runners from Wakefield.
The energy was absolutely electric and synergy and synchronicity was happening all around!
We connected with members of L Street and someone we met at the Bermuda Airport who was running the half. We registered two of our dear friends from L Street Running Club for the Half Marathon and I bought a coffee mug for another one of my dear running friends who is training for her first full marathon.
Tom was such a trooper and got us lunch from Bogey's at the hotel. We had our fried string beans that we eat only in Hyannis and I had my tuna melt on whole wheat bread.
During a bathroom break I bumped into Geoffrey Smith who was promoting his upcoming races. We traveled to Bermuda with Geoff.
By 3:30 my voice was hoarse and I had a full heart for the all the wonderful connections we made.
I was exhausted in a very good way and took a 45 minute nap because we were going to have dinner at The Roadhouse Cafe and then attend the pre race pasta dinner (without eating the pasta) to hear Jacqueline Hansen and Bill Rodgers speak.
Camp Hyannis 2016 to be continued....
To your health and wellness!
Mary
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