I'm exhausted.

I was up at 6:30 this morning.  I wanted to make sure I was showered, shampooed, shaved, make-uped and dressed in plenty of time for the race. 

I was excited from the moment I opened my eyes.  I turned on the TV.  I knew I had plenty of time to get ready, but I just wanted to make sure.  I watched the news. 

I was just finishing up when the pre-show was about to start.  The show was only five minutes old and I was already well into my first crying jag.  So much for perfect makeup.  The first segment was about the men who drive...past and present...the danger of their profession, their bravery in the face of that danger.  I cried and cried.  They did a segment on Dario Franchitti, and his first go-cart, how it was sold as he grew up, how it had passed hands, and how this year his father found it, got it back, rebuilt it, and re-presented it to his son for his birthday.  I bawled my eyes out.  There was the segment about the man with the empty fields and the dream he had wanting to build a race track and how over nearly a hundred years it has become the Indy Race Track of today, toward the end of the segment the actor representing him, his back to the camera was walking down the track away from us, and with a little magic, he slowly dissolved into wispy smoke and disappeared.  Oh, dear...I'm starting to blubber all over again.

There was a segment with Castroneves and Kanaan and how they grew up together racing in Brazil, and how although competitors, they have remained friends after all these years.

There was the introduction of the drivers.  The honoring of the Men in Service, the playing of Taps in honor of Service Men lost.  A segment called "Laying in the Flags" followed, showing Service Men placing flags beside each headstone in the National Cemetery for Memorial Day in honor of services tomorrow.  I cried again.

Jim Nabors sang...I cried, they released the balloons...I cried, there was the singing of the national anthem, and the fly by/over...still crying. 

And then....

the magic really began with those wonderful words "Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines.", with them, thirty-three cars in unison, musically, electrifying-ly roared to life.

That, dear friends, is when I lost it and the flood began...and soon after the race.

And, what a race it was.  It was phenomenal.  There were a few minor accidents, no one was injured, new records set on how many times the lead changed, and how many different drivers held it.   I'm telling you, it was the best race ever. 

Oh, neither of the drivers who were hoping for their fourth win did.  And, neither did one of the women drivers.  But the driver I WANTED TO WIN IT...DID.  Way to go Tony Kanaan.  And, yes, as you said from the winners circle...your ugly (not really) face will finally appear on the Indy 500 trophy...no one deserves it more, no one indeed, deserves it more.  Congrats!