Country Music Marathon- Before The Race

I woke up at 4:15. I put my eyeballs in, brushed my teeth, rinsed off in the shower, and put on my running gear.

My handsome and health conscious boyfriend called at 4:30 to make sure I was awake. He then sent me a sweet and encouraging text message. The day started off well. :)

I took care of my feet- little vaseline on the problem areas and a blister preventing band aid. I put on the blister preventing socks that my sweet man bought for me and put on my shoes.

I double checked my email to see if anything had changed (nothing new), and began to prepare my breakfast. My bf had cooked me eggs the night before, so all I had to do was heat them up. I poured a bowl of some yummy kashi cereal, and tucked a banana away in my gear bag to eat right before the race. I filled two ziplock bags with ice and put them in my little ice chest for after the race.

Next I copied down directions to LP Stadium and loaded my car.

As per usual, I got a little lost on the way to the stadium, but I only had to turn around once. It is rather easy to figure out the right way to go at 5:30 am on a Saturday when 35000 people are going to the same place. Once I was headed in the right direction, I was able to use one of my most prized personal talents: crowd manipulation. See, the thing about crowds is that most people are idiots. stupid doodoo dumb. So, of course, the left turn line into the stadium was 3 miles long. I drove along it, seeing if maybe I could sneak into the line somehow, but when I couldn't find a spot, I just kept going. This was the smartest thing I did all day- I went around the crowd and turned onto a street that led to rather empty parking because people had been too dumb to find it. Fantastic parking spot. WOO WOO!

I hopped out of the car with my gear bag, and saw the LINE for the shuttle. This baby wrapped all halfway down the length of the stadium. I began to wait in line, praying that I would make it onto a shuttle in time. A few minutes later, some dude cam along RIGHT where I was standing and said, "there are 5 lines for the shuttle, and the others are considerably shorter." So, I hauled it over to a shorter line, and before long, I was on a double bus with my own comfy seat. I sat next to and across from these people who seemed to be chronic half marathoners. One dude was talking about the time that he ran a half marathon and other people were running it naked. I think it was in California, go figure.

Then all of a sudden our bus driver is honking his horn, and I witness some tiny little car crossing inches infront of our bus. It was a scence out of a movie, I swear. We almost hit that car- granted, it was the car's fault because it pulled out in front of a bus rolling down the street at 45 mph. Scary all the same.

I got off the bud, took some tylenol, and got out my banana to eat my last minute snack.

THEN I SAW IT. there was a sign, calling my name, that said, "PEE LIKE A ROCKSTAR." -- and I knew that was where I was meant to be. I had to wait in line (I know, you are thinking, "do rockstars have to wait in line?" but this line was infinitely shorter than the LINES to the other porta potties.) Standing in line was one of the best parts, there were 3 other ladies around me who were so nice and encouraging. We totally bonded. I liked it. Now, there were bathroom attendants wearing tuxedo t-shirts who also happened to be holding patters of these energy gummy chew things. Classy- I felt pampered.

Once inside the bathroom, I almost cried. It was CLEAN and SPACIOUS and SMELLED NICE. I could SIT ON THE TOILET and WASH MY HANDS with SOAP. Just a little tid bit of info for anyone looking to run a marathon/half: make sure you take a good serious dump before the race begins, otherwise, you have to do it while you are running with no guarantee of toilet paper. And yes, this means that i took FULL advantage of my time in the VIP porta potty. Too much info? This is a running blog people, not suzy homemakers how-to-do everything and make it pretty blog. We runners talk about poop.

After my zen-like experience in the VIP porta potty, I proceeded to bag check. I checked my gear bag in Van Number 1 (special perk of having a last name that starts with an A is always being number one/first in some way or another) and hurried to my corral.

If you aren't familiar with the lingo, a corral is the group with which you start the race. Contrary to popular belief, the start line isn't just a free-for-all. Everyone is organized depending on how fast they run. I was in corral 15- which was a projected pace of about 10 minutes a mile. Therefore, 14 other corrals started before me.

While waiting to run, I started talking to a girl next to me who was also running the full. She was alone too, so we chatted it up before the race started. I told her that if she wanted a buddy to start the race, we could run together. That seemed to freak her out a bit (I was just being friendly because she looked lonely), so I said, don't worry, I am not a chatty runner and do not feel any pressure. That seemed to make things better. We put in our head phones and inched up to the starting line......

Part 2 is on its way....

ultra love