Sunday, July 31, 2011

Ready... Set...

and in a about two more hours, it will be "GO!"  Seems as good a time as any to enjoy another cup of coffee. ;-)

So glad that this marathon is local.  I've spent hours making sure I've got everything ready to go and I can't imagine the added stress of doing that away from home.

On the other hand, being in a hotel would have spared me the "Oscar drama" of last night.  This is the first and only time that my dogger could not decide where he wanted to sleep:  On the bed?  On the floor?  In the living room? After about the third time he changed his mind (i.e., woke me up), I "banished" him to the living room, where he promptly curled up on the sofa.  Not a bad deal, if you ask me.  Still, somehow I think he will be back in his usual spot tonight!

I didn't manage to figure out the cool, high-tech runner tracking thing in time, so I will do things the old-fashioned way:  posting after the finish!  But for anyone who CAN figure these things out, my number is 11932.  That's in the last wave, by the way!

O.K., another sip of coffee, and it's time to gear up.  See you in a few hours!  I hope...!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

So Here We Are...


Less than 48 hours to go until the marathon start, and I think I am going to get enough of this bronchitis behind me just in time.  I'm still not 100%, but the cough has quieted down (thank you, Robitussin w/ codeine!) so I will finally be able to get some sleep tonight.

Went to the expo today, where for the first time ever, I stood in this line:




Yikes!  At this moment, it finally became real, and I felt a surge of excitement, panic, doubt, confidence and anticipation all at once. 

Of course, race weekend wouldn't have been complete without at least one more glitch:  My car broke down on the way home from the expo.  On the freeway.  With me in the second lane from the left.  I managed to steer the car over to the right lane and pulled onto the shoulder just as it completely conked out.  It just came back from the mechanic last week, so needless to say, I was pretty upset.  After 45 minutes, AAA showed up and towed me home.  The diagnosis?  The alternator is shot -- something that has nothing to do with the $2,000 worth of repairs we had done last week.  Just great.

At least I am in one piece, this repair is a "do it yourself-er" for either Jim or Wolfie, and, since I'm on vacation, I am not completely dependent on the car right now.  The bad news is that I have to quickly come up with "Plan B" for getting to the race on Sunday.  Just when I had things all figured out...

Despite the setbacks of the past two weeks, I am determined to finish this marathon as best I can.  If that means crawling across the finish line, so be it! :-)

I'm sure I'll have more last-minute panic -- I mean, thoughts -- to share tomorrow!