That that don't kill me, can only make me stronger. I need you to hurry up now, cause I can't wait much longer. Kanye West, Stronger

Thursday, October 25, 2007

And we're off--almost

So at 2:30, I am wide-awake just dying to get the show on the road. Actually, when I woke up I thought I had already run the race. I was so psyched to be done, then reality set in. So I tried to sleep until 4am when the alarm went off. Then our wake up calls at 4:00 and 4:10, I should know by now that I never sleep when I am a nervous/excited.

So my roomate and I got dressed. I hadn't bought body glide (for anyone who doesn't know, it's basically lubrication to prevent chaffing), so I decided to load up on lotion in the appropriate places. I pinned on my bib. I put on a sweatshirt and a throw away long sleeve tee. We had breakfast at 4:30, we went downstairs to the cash and carry, and shockingly there was NO line. We had to finish eating by 5am, so I couldn't figure out where the hundreds of runners in the hotel could be. So I grabbed a green tea, fruit salad and a banana to go with my granola bar. For the record, it is probably one of the most expensive bananas in the country, $2. I could get 10 in NYC for that. I hope it was organic. So I ate my fruit, letting it digest for a few minutes before eating my granola bar, the .25 little debbie kind that have lots of honey goodness, but no fiber, protien or nutrients to slow digestion.

By the time we left the cash and carry had a huge line. We met our team in the lobby and headed for union square. Finding bag check was tricky. Finally we found it, I handed my bag to window D of school bus 15, so I could have it delivered to the finish area. I put on my garbage bag to stay warm. It was cold, windy and dark at 5:40ish. we went to the bathrooms and headed for the starting line.
(my butt, literally in gear!)
This marathon isn't for super serious runners, so we lined up right behind the elite runners, inches from the starting ribbon. It was crazy. Coincidently, we were right next to Tiffany & Co., our sponsor.

It seemed a little bizarre and self-righteous, but the pace groups were from 6-9 minutes, so it wasn't terribly unrealistic.

By 6:20 we all had to use the bathroom again, but there was no way out, so we had to focus on the energetic woman leading us in an aerobic warm-up/workout. Are squats a good idea before running a marathon? Seriously, the warm up was more intense than the average person's workout at Bally's. It did help time move along.

Finally the elite runners were off. 20 minutes later we were off!

0 comments: