New stuff is on the "News" page. Go there for the story of the Parks Family trip to Wisconsin Dells, Annalyn's first FOUR 5K races and the Boston story. NOW WITH PICTURES AND VIDEO!

And check out our new "Pictures" page for still more pictures......or is that more still pictures?

OK. Here is the story of our New York trip. Sorry it took a couple of weeks to get it together but we wanted to wait until we got the video and pictures together so you can link to them.

New York video and pictures

Day 1: Thursday, November 1st. We all got up at 5AM and after Lynn walked on the treadmill, the three of us went outside to run.........in the dark. We didn't want to take a chance on flight delays or anything else that might come up that would make us scramble to get it in when we got to New York City. Jamie's Dad, Charlie and brother, Jason, showed up at 7. We loaded up our stuff and left for Midway Airport. Our flight was uneventful but I now know how many rows are in a 737. The answer is 30 because that's the row we were in. We took a cab to our hotel and after it took us 15 minutes to go the last two blocks, the driver told Jamie that he couldn't pay with his Visa because he didn't tell him that was his plan when we first got in. We were at the W Hotel at 39th and Lexington in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan. We checked in and went up to our room. Holy cow! What a room. It was a king-sized suite. The main room was big and had a huge walk-in closet that was more like another small room (so did the bedroom). It had a sofa bed, giant work desk and large mini-bar area. There was a big plasma flat screen TV in the main room AND the bedroom. After unpacking, we headed out to the Jacob Javits Convention Center. We were asked to be there to represent Runner's World at a "meet & greet"  during the New York Marathon Expo. The had a large backdrop with pictures of all of the Heroes of Running from this year. It was pretty cool. Then there was a poster-sized picture of us that they had on display. They had a giant stack of postcard-sized pictures of us in case anyone wanted an autograph. We met and talked with Dave and Susan from Runner's World. We were there until about 7:45 and actually signed an autograph or two.

Day 2. Friday, November 2nd. We got up early and walked (the theme of the day) through Grand Central Station and over to Rockefeller Center. We looked down onto the skating rink next to it and there was Olympic figure skater, Sasha Cohen giving an exhibition. We went in and up to the top of the building. What a great view of the city. The best part was that we were the only ones up there. After taking a lot of pictures and video, we went down to the Rock Center Cafe to get some breakfast.  Sasha Cohen was also there, eating breakfast. After we ate, we walked by Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Ed Sullivan Theater where David Letterman does his show from. We stopped at the CBS Store and Hello Deli and then walked to Central Park.

Beautiful is the only word that comes to mind. It was so cool that most of the roads are closed to traffic so you can just walk and walk and only have to look out for runners or cyclists. We came across on old-time carousel and Annalyn got to ride on that. We wanted to run in Central Park and we knew of a place called the Great Lawn Oval. It was a half-mile oval around a Great Lawn. Hence the name. We did one lap with Annalyn and another without her. We walked past the Boathouse, where the next day Ryan Shay, one of the men trying out for the US Olympic Marathon team, collapsed and died during the Trials probably due to an enlarged heart. That was sad. Next stop was Bethesda Fountain (shown at top). That is where the starting line was for the first season of "The Amazing Race." Unfortunately, it wasn't wheelchair accessible so we had to take pictures and video from the top of the stairs. We walked to the west side of the park to the Dakota Building. We saw where John Lennon was shot and killed nearly 27 years ago.

Back to the hotel to recharge before we went out later that night to experience Times Square. Talk about your sensory overload, wow! After meandering about and taking more pictures and video, we ended up in the huge Toys 'R' Us store. It's so big that it has a Ferris Wheel inside. We went on that with Annalyn and got her a stuffed Rottweiler. Don't ask why. She thought it was cute.

Day 3, Bears 0. Saturday, November 3rd. Jason didn't feel good so he stayed at the hotel while Jodi went with us. We caught the subway at Grand Central Station and took it to Battery Park. The first thing you see when you enter the park is this huge sphere that looks like an abstract sculpture of some kind. What we learned was that it was the huge globe that had been in the World Trade Center complex on 9/11. It survived the building collapses but was pretty beat up. It now sits at the entrance to Battery as a memorial. Battery Park is where a lot of the debris from the buildings was piled up in the days following the attacks. Our plan was to take the Staten Island Ferry and go out past the Statue of Liberty. What we didn't know was that there was a great view of the Statue right there from Battery Park. After more pictures and video (Annalyn had her picture taken with a guy dressed as the Statue)we decided to do our run for the day. Annalyn ran with us first and did 1/2 mile and then we did another 1/2. We went over to the ferry but the 10:30 had just left and we didn't have time to wait for the 11:00 because we were still planning on going to Ground Zero and had to be back for our Rehearsal Lunch by 1:00. Jason called about this time and said he was feeling better and would meet us shortly. So after he joined us, we walked to Ground Zero, which is basically just a construction site now. Standing there, looking up at where two gigantic buildings used to stand and seeing NOTHING was very intense. We went by the fire house where all of the firefighters on duty that day were killed. It sits empty as a tribute to them. We didn't have time to go back to the subway stop at Battery Park but there was one near Ground Zero. It wasn't accessible so Jason carried Lynn's chair and Jamie carried Lynn and we went down the three flights of stairs to the platform. Good workout. After a quick shower at the hotel, we were off to the Rehearsal Lunch at Wild Salmon. Jodi didn't come with us because she had an opportunity to go to a matinee performance of "Young Frankenstein," which was in previews on Broadway. We met up with Sue Hartman, one of our contacts from Runner's World, and she ran everybody through how things would happen later that evening. We got to talk with a few of our fellow honorees. There was Jin, Rudy, Dot and Brin from the Blue Planet Runners. Rudy, Dot and Brin were three of the 22 runners who ran AROUND the world last summer in 95 days to draw attention to the ever-growing crisis of the lack of clean drinking water in many parts of the world. Jin was the one who came up with the idea. They did a sound check and had Annalyn read her first line of our introduction. Jason was setting up camcorders and checking camera angles. We practiced walking up to the podium to make sure there would be no surprises later. After lunch, Jason went back to the hotel while we took Annalyn to the giant American Girl Doll store. Like Toys 'R' Us, this had 5 floors and a magnet that pulled on my credit card. $102! For a doll! Fortunately for me, they didn't have the doll Annalyn wanted (called "Just Like You"). For this doll, they match up the eye, hair and skin color of the girl to the doll and then you can style your hair the same way or dress alike. I told her we'd look for the right one online after we got back home. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped off at the Grand Hyatt and met up in the lobby with the Gaghan family, who were on the "Amazing Race: Family Edition" a couple of years ago. The Dad, Bill, was in town to run in the New York Marathon the next day and Jamie had exchanged e-mails with Tammy, the Mom, in recent weeks so we knew that we'd all be in town at the same time. They were as interested in hearing about our "story" as we were with theirs. Annalyn hit it off well with Kelley, the youngest daughter (and the only one who wasn't on "Amazing Race"). We spent an hour chatting (Billy and Carissa are their other kids who WERE on the "Race") and then did more video and pictures. We told them that we'd see them in Boston next April. Back to the hotel for some lightning-fast showers. Jodi got back from the play just after we walked in. She said that it was incredible. The Heroes of Running Awards and dinner were from 7:00-11:00 back at Wild Salmon. We got there about 6:55. We found our table in the "Green Room" and were approached by a lot of people. One was Sarah Reinertsen, another former "Amazing Race" contestant, who was there to introduce Amy Palmiero-Winters. Sarah and Amy share a common bond. They are both runner/triathletes who have a prosthetic leg. Sarah came up to us and said how our story inspired her. We also got to finally meet the big cheese from Runner's World, Editor-In-Chief, David Willey. He's the one who ultimately decided to honor us as Heroes of Running. We couldn't thank him enough. The woman who wrote the piece that ran with our picture in Runner's World, Gail Kislevitz, found us and we hung out with her for a good portion of the night. She also got to be good buddies with Annalyn and gave her some advice about her speech. The ceremony started at 8 with a tribute to Ryan Shay by the President of the New York Road Runners Association. The introductions and acceptance speeches started and all were outstanding. We followed the Blue Planet Runners. David Willey first said some nice words about us and then introduced Annalyn. She stole the show. Her speech was SO GOOD. She got the biggest laughs of anyone. At the end of her speech, she said, "Here are my parents, Lynn and Jamie Parks. They ROCK!" She came offstage and held out her hand. I gave her a dollar. She kept it out there and I gave her another one. That got a big laugh. We had actually set that up earlier in the day when we were walking around town. Lynn went first and after adjusting to the teleprompter, she did great. No one got more applause the entire evening than Lynn. Not an easy job to follow those two. I did my acceptance speech and managed to get through it without choking up too much. We got a big ovation. Afterwards, we went back to the "Green Room" where many of our fellow "Heroes" came up to congratulate us. We listened to the rest of the speeches and it was good to hear that there are a lot more "Jesus Freaks" amongst the world-class athlete population that I thought.  A good number of the "Heroes" talked about their faith and how God helped them to get where they are today. We talked with Sister Madonna Buder about that very fact. She is a 77-year-old nun who does Ironman Triathlons for a hobby. She has done 34 of them along with hundreds of other races. We did some official pictures for Runner's World in front of their backdrop in the "Green Room." Amy Palmiero-Winters approached us with an insanely generous offer. She said that the company that she works for, A Step Ahead (who made her prosthetic leg AND Sarah Reinertsen's) wants to make Lynn a custom-fitted racing wheelchair for us to use in the future. I didn't know what to say. They also want to get Lynn set up with a new chair to use around the house. I STILL didn't know what to say. Jason will be our contact with them as they get the ball rolling. Unbelievable! We got to talk with Barbara Sicuso and Dave McGilivray (a fellow Hero) from the Boston Marathon (Dave is the Race Director). They both seemed genuinely excited to have us doing their race next April. I half-jokingly mentioned to both David Willey and Gail Kislevitz about an idea to write a book and neither one of them laughed. Hmmmm. Something to think about? Jamie and Jason went around collecting autographs and pictures (Alan Webb and his wife are the nicest people). Annalyn was sitting by Jodi and looked half asleep so we got our coats on and got ready to leave. Then she was gone. We said goodbye to a lot of people as we headed out the door. Then we saw Annalyn. She was in the lobby, holding court with about 5 people who were listening intently to whatever she was talking about. So we left. What a night! It went SO much better than we could have even imagined.

Day 4. Sunday, November 4th. Jodi left early to catch a flight back to San Jose. As we sat waiting for the bellman to come and get the bags, I remarked to Lynn that this was the first trip we had ever taken where absolutely nothing had gone wrong. I spoke too soon. After we got to La Guardia, I bought Annalyn a souvenir t-shirt and proceeded to lose it somewhere between security and the plane. Oh well. After we got home, I went online and bought her one that looks just like it.

That's it. A weekend we'll never forget, thanks to Runner's World and one I'll never forget, thanks to Lynn, Annalyn, Jodi and Jason.