Tonight is the eve of the race. This afternoon, our 4 person running group met at the Expo to pick up our packets and to coordinate our meeting place for the race. I am so glad that I am not running this race alone. I don’t think I could do it mentally without the support of other runners. At the Expo, there was a video letting you see the running course. All I can say is that 13.1 miles is damn far. Not until you actually see the course do you realize this. I was getting tired just looking at the course. The whole race thing still seems so surreal for me. It hasn’t really hit me that I am running that far tomorrow. Tonight I am nervous and excited about the race. At least I know that it won’t be raining tomorrow and not that humid. I wish it was cooler but then again what can you expect in August in Chicago.
My last run was actually the Terrapin 5K race on Thursday. I had my Garmin on to track my pace. All was going well until the course ran through the bowels of McCormick Place. No satellite signal during that part of the race. My watch stopped and of course I couldn’t read the message without my glasses so the watch was really useless in this race. I also realized that if my watch isn’t right enough on my wrist, it is really annoying and I really can’t fix it without stopping. When I watched the video of the course today, we run through the same dead zone at McCormick that I ran on Thursday. I decided not to wear my Garmin for the race. Another member of our group has the same watch so she is going to watch our pace.
On Friday, the results of the race where posted and I was curious to find out how I did. I gave a little scream at work when I realized that I was on pace for the race. I felt really good about this because my body was able to realize what pace it was supposed to run at without the aid of a watch. Another thing that I realized about the race on Thursday is that I don’t have much energy after work so that is not the best time for me to run a race. The morning is much better.
Now I am going to pack up my stuff for the race tomorrow and watch some TV to unwind. In the morning my dad is driving me to the race. We are going to leave about 4:45 a.m. I don’t know how close he can drop me off by the race with the street closures so I am leaving extra time to walk to the race area. I hope all goes well tomorrow. The one thing I know is that I am going to cross that finish line one way or another and get that damn medal.
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