When I had signed up to do this race with friends and family, I had always envisioned my little racing team eating our final carb-loading meal together the night before the race. However, I must not have expressed that vision to my other runners. My friend Katie had joined a running club to keep her accountable during the training season...her running club (at one point) was scheduled to eat together the night before the race. And then my sister Jenni had scheduled my nephew's birthday party the night before the race. For a few days, I must admit, I was a little bummed that the entire racing team wouldn't be spending Saturday night, dining together. But God has so much MORE for me than the things I can dream up!
Because I knew Katie and I weren't going to be dining together on Saturday night, we had decided to do the race expo together. But not just that...we chose to make a whole day of it. We were going to do the expo, and then drive the race course, and then carb-load for our pre-pre-race dinner together at Pat and Oscars.
The kids and I picked up Katie and her kids in the morning, and then we all drove to the expo. I don't know why I was shocked, but there was an ENORMOUS crowd waiting to get in to the expo! We waited in line for a bit...
After that line, we went inside the expo, and then we waited in much shorter lines to pick up our racing bibs...
After that, we soon ran into my sister Jenni and all of her littles. We had some fun at the "count down" sign...
Later, my dad had shown up to get his bib, and my sister Jenni and he got together at the sign as well...
We then picked up our racing shirts, and our swag bags. I preferred the design of the Safari Park Half Marathon shirts better, but these goodie bags were FAR superior! (If you remember, they never even gave us goodie bags at the half marathon, LOL!)
After we got all of our free stuff, we meandered through the rest of expo. There were hundreds of booths selling you all kinds of fun racing gear, and clothing. They also had a grip of booths letting you sample their energy bars, and energy drinks. They had booths selling gimmicky tools to aid you in your aches and pains after the race, and they had other booths selling mementos for the racing experience. I bought into that, LOL! I purchased my latest charm for my charm bracelet...
After that, we then hit up a few more photo ops. The finish line...
The Rock 'n Roll Elvis booth...
Overall, the kids were excellent. I'm so glad they got to be a part of the excitement leading up to this race. They even got to make signs at the expo to cheer us on...
After 2-3 hours at the expo, we left. Next on the agenda: drive the course. In all of the marathon training books I had read, it was said that driving the course is extremely beneficial. It will help you to pick out little milestones along the way...that restaurant...that church...that billboard, etc. Jenni drove it separately from us, but both her and Katie, 100% agreed with the philosophy in the books. They both had quite a bit of anxiety in the prior days, and they found it encouraging and reassuring to see where they were going to be running on race day. However, on THIS day, I was actually without anxiety about the race, and I was only excited about our adventure...driving the course, completely FREAKED ME OUT! I don't know if this is where "ignorance is bliss" or what, but to see the expansion and reality of 26.2 miles was discouraging! Every time I would see one of these signs, a little panic would set in...
The city was preparing for the race. I had been preparing for the race. But am I ready? Can I really do this? Can I REALLY run from Balboa park, down to downtown San Diego, back up the 163 freeway, into Clairemont, turn around, and run through Mission Bay, Fiesta Island, and then into the Sea World parking lot? How am I going to do that?
Again, my issue is the walking thing. If I wasn't set on running the entire distance, then there wouldn't be a seed of doubt or anxiety. I am 100% convinced that ANYONE can walk 26.2 miles at one time. But as I have explained before, I have this mental block about walking. In the beginning I thought it was a no-brainer that I would have to walk a portion of this race. But in this training, I have been able to PUSH myself to run 99% of these distances. I THINK I would feel like a failure if I had to stop and walk a portion of this marathon on Sunday. Now, keep in mind, I am NOT belittling the journey of my fellow runners. Jenni has made it very clear that walking is ABSOLUTELY part of her plan, Katie has also told me that she expects to walk a portion of this race. And for them, I don't think they are weak for walking. But for me, it's like I know what I have accomplished thus far...I know that my body must be capable of running the whole distance. But after training for 8+ months, having put all of this time, energy and money into this race, and should I feel like I need to walk, I would HATE to feel like a failure when I cross the finish line. That would be SO unfortunate!
OK, back on track...we drove the entire distance, and even drone THROUGH the finish line...
Seeing the starting line, the finish line, and all the different stages that the bands will be playing on throughout the course was super neat!
After the hour (or more) it took us to drive the route, the kids were restless...it was definitely time to eat! Believe it or not, I don't have any pictures of our eats (very un-chubby-diaries of me!) but it was all standard Pat and Oscars...pizza, bread sticks, pasta, BBQ chicken, salad, and...WATER to drink!
It was a GREAT day! I don't think I would have mapped out this whole day with Katie's family if I didn't feel like we need to do some pre-race bonding. But not only did I get to spend ALL of Friday with her, but now I get to spend Saturday night eating a pre-race spaghetti dinner with my dad and Jenni (and the rest of my family) at my nephew's birthday party tonight. And the ultimate-super-cool-very-best part is...on race day, I am picking up my other racing teammate, Haley, at 4am...we are driving to a trolley stop where we are meeting the rest of the team at 4:30, and all of us (Me, my dad, Katie, Jenni, and Haley) are all being driven together to the starting line by non-other-than Mrs. Michelle Ortiz! I am so glad that we will have the opportunity to be together for about 30 minutes before we are split up into our different racing corrals, and start this scary and EXCITING journey on our own.
Until after the race...this is Elizabeth, a non-marathon runner, signing out.
How fun! I love how God took the most unlikely of events for you and Katie and bonded you both together to not only run this race, but run it so successfully and become such an encouragement to many! I love you guys!
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