Part One - The Prep
The weekend was upon me. After a slow taper week and only a few short runs in during training, I was ready. Saturday, the family and I piled into the car and drove up to Philly for packet pick-up and the Health Expo. We live in Maryland, and we made the small trek up there. It's only really about 35-40 miles (not that far), but with traffic - it takes about an hour. Nothing like living near the city. We used the GPS, since we aren't too familiar with the areas downtown, but alas...we got turned around and had to take some round-about way. We made it in one piece and found parking with no problem. The Health Expo was held at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Very nice downtown. Philadelphia is quite a neat looking city - old historical stuff to see. Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin Parkway and cemetery where he's laid to rest, and Independence Hall.
We headed in and did some walking around. My little man had fun, too, as they had some stuff set up for kids (ski ball and a few other games). I was sure to head to the MGD64 booth to obtain my wrist band for my free beer after the race the next day. Of course, they also gave out free samples. :) We also got a couple free T-shirts and many gear bags to use. It was a nice day overall, check in was quick and easy, and I also purchased a Rock-n-Roll T-shirt I had my eye on.
Here is my completed training schedule with daily cross-offs I have hanging on the fridge.
Here I am with bib #17843
My D-tag was covering the rest of the #. There were 21,000 something participants. Craziness! After walking around the rest of the day, we headed home. I carbo-loaded on spaghetti and meatballs and got everything ready for Sunday (Race Day). I went to bed about 10:30p.m. Thankfully, my hubby helps at bedtime with the kiddos, as our 6 month old daughter decided to wake up a few times that night. He let me sleep as much as I could, so that I was primed in the a.m.
Race Morning
Alarm went off 4:00 a.m. It didn't matter, though, because I was already awake. It's strange when you are so amped for something. It's like being a kid again waiting on Christmas Eve for Santa to arrive and bring presents. I was ready in a flash. It took the kids a second to function, as it was SUPER early for them. I stuck to the long-run morning routine. Ate peanut butter and toast (one slice) and brought a banana for the car ride up to Philly. I drank my one cup of coffee, brush my teeth, and we were on our way. Thank goodness for good friends and childcare. We dropped off the kids at 5 a.m. at our daycare provider's home. Boy, it sure makes a difference driving to Philly so early in the morning. No traffic! The hubs drove, and we made it in about 25 minutes! Awesome. This gave us time to relax and not rush around in the city and to prepare me for the race.
Photo Op together at 6:15 a.m.
Today's conditions were AWESOME! Perfect for running. Today September 18th is also my hubby's birthday. It was nice to spend it together doing something fun. We headed down to the race area and took more photos.
Rock-n-Roll, Baby!
Yup, I'm a rockin' runner.
Corral 17, however, I jumped to corral 11 at the start.
A ton of gear check trucks.
The Meet Up
After I got over the shock of how big this race actually was, we were able to find and meet up with our friends/couple, Steph and Joe. Joe was running the race as well, and we gabbed for a while, stretched and ate our last minutes goodies (ie. bananas).
The Group
Thanks to my hubby for taking this photo of me shoveling a banana in my mouth. Attractive. Ha ha.
After gearing up, taking off the long-sleeve, and making sure my sports beans were accessible, it was time to split. Steph and hubby, Matt went off to the starting line to take photos, and Joe and I had to tackle the crowds to find out corrals again. I opted for moving up to corral #11, as I thought, hey...why not. I'm sure it wouldn't matter too much, as I was was hoping to just keep my pace time of about 10 minute mile. And so, the race was to begin.
More to follow....details of the race.
No comments:
Post a Comment