Athlete Party...2000 strong

Betty in her 'uncles' mailcar

Liz, Jackson, Amanda, Matt, betty

The Giant of the locomotive age..WOW!

After our tour of downtown Sacramento and the incredible disappointment of not obtaining an audience with his majesty Gov. Moonbeam we ventured back to grab a hot tub and nap prior to this evenings Athlete Party at the Sacramento Railroad museum..If you go to Sacramento this is one of the 'have to do things'. The WMA rented out the entire museum and the grounds around it .  We drove right to the parking garage arriving fashionably on time only to find a line of probably 500 masters already in line--those who had been to these things knew something we were about to learn..After showing our tickets we wound our way thru the museum back outside to where the food would be served..By the time
 we got back there the tables out of the sun under the big tent that we had seen being erected on our afternoon tour had been completely taken by the early birds as had all the chairs, smart old birds. There were some higher tables to stand at however..On the way in we were presented with a wine glass and a  unique plastic tray that fit together-very clever.  The large tent was surrounded by 20 or so caterers, half with food the other half with wine and beer from the napa sonoma area which is quite close and where we were to visit the following day.  There was a live band and a portable dance floor set up as well, but most people were engaged in conversation , meeting new friends and trying to understand dialects and languages, gesturing with hand signals to communicate, all with smiles. We immediately ran into Amanda Scotti, and Liz Palmer both national class runners from the Sacramento area and both writers for the National Masters news.  Amanda had done an article on Betty earlier in the year in her AA spotlight. We had become close friends with both as they had participated at the Hayward Classic this year with Betty as well.  Liz would garner a silver medal in the 100 hurdles 50-54, and Amanda and Liz would team up on the first handoff in the 4 x 100 USA team that would Gold medal--both athletes extraordinaire! While I was hunting and gathering wine and food for Betty and I , amanda brought several other of her friends to meet Betty..Jackson and Matt of incredisocks--the running sock that somehow--no one is sure how- makes your feet feel better and not get fatigued, they are made out of bamboo.  Jackson started the company and matt is his main salesman, they like to party !! Betty has been using these socks for over a year now and loves them. It was great to meet these entrepreneurs and track and field promotors.  I had forgotten the camera prior to this meeting and had to walk back thru the museum to the car and grab it, on the way back thru 6 young master ladies entered about the same time i did, dressed to the 9's..only problem like so many of the women they had high heels--well the food court was on compact dirt and it just wasn't going to work real well...If betty and I had our brains engaged when we visited earlier in the day we would have known to have her wear some soft soled low heeled shoes--but we were in our tourist zone and didnt even think about it..The food was great, pulled pork sandwiches, oysters on the half shell, pasta salad, vegan food, petite chocolates and on and on , as much as you wanted.  the wines were excellent as well, and they were pretty benevolent with their portions in your glass..later in the evening we had a lady come up to us and just started talking--Lily Whalen Canada long distance racewalker 55-59--seems lily doesnt like to brag but thanks to google we know all about her now..from the Ontario Racewalkers ..she was the Canadian national champion twice and in the last two Masters Worlds she has hit the trifecta Gold, silver , bronze., also a national judge of the sport..Lily seemed to be just what Betty needed, she was so encouraging--after bettys quicksand run in the 200m we were at a slightly low point wondering without saying it what we were both doing here...Lily just went on and on about how everyone experiences the same problems when the stress is so high ( amanda and liz both said the same thing to Betty, they had experienced it also in prior years)..we left lily with a new found friend ( her email as well) and a new found appreciation of racewalking.  The time was getting late so we found our way into the museum to do the self guided tour.  We visited the sleeper car, where the docent and I exchanged tidbits on our travels as young kids on the Empire Builder from the West Coast to Chicago-turned out that I had to have been on that sleeper we were walking thru as a 5 year old traveling to Iowa with my mother, the dining car as well--how cool to be stepping back onto history that I had been in over 60 years ago--many memories flooded back.  We also visited a mail car where Betty found tags above the mail bags with West Glacier , East Glacier and parts of Montana --Betty knew her uncle had worked on the Great Northern on a mail car--the docent said this was the only one they ever had..so she was standing right where her uncle had many years ago...goosbump moment !  We also got up and close with the giant of giants one of the huge old boiler trains that are so heavy now they cant even be put on the tracks, the wheels are 6' in height and one can only imagine what a thrill it would be to see that baby speed by on the rails.  they make todays diesel locomotives look downright small. We were getting past our nite nite time ( 10pm --yeah we're old-live with it )  and decided to leave, things were winding down.  When we got outside we noticed that others had their wine glass with them...i had never thought to look at the glasses, but then I realized they must be monogrammed and we were supposed to take them--duh!  The track people do it right, when I swam at The Worlds in Palo several years ago we had to buy our wind glasses. Told Betty to wait, i think I could find a few used ones that people who were party rookies like us left laying around--then I remembered , the table that they had used to store them when we entered was still there as i left..I made a beeline to that table and in the dark there was a large box, I reached in and lo and behold, new clean never used glasses---grabbed four and left the scene of the crime.  When I got outside and in the car as I was pulling out of the garage I noticed some people who had also taken the really cool plates that the wine glasses fit in...dumb don...to tired to go back and get the rest of the bounty we called it a night--our first athlete party , a wonderful fun filled, friend filled night.