Marathon Eve

Today is what I like to refer to as my-gut-is-a-ball-of-knotted-anxiety-and-I-think-I-need-to-puke-day. I believe others call it pre-race day. Six of one, half dozen of another.

There was a generous amount of milling around today. Multiple trips to Starbucks, strolling town, a final walk through the Expo, and meeting up with walking peeps from the internet. Dana and I met up for a few minutes this morning with BayCityWalker before meeting Sarah from The Walking Site message forum for lunch. And only minutes ago I waddled out of our hotel room to a room two doors down to meet Jennifer from the same forum. In my jammies no less...so much for first impressions.

The big event of the day was taking a marathon course bus tour with 47 others including Dana, Steve, my sister Barb and brother-in-law John, Jeanine, a high school classmate, and Jeanine's friend whose name has slipped my mind momentarily but only because it's too cluttered with obsessive night before the race insanity. The course is beautifully flat for blissfully long stretches with only a couple easy slow inclines with the exception of what I like to affectionately refer to as Hell Hill, the 1/2 mile incline leading up to the St. John's Bridge that greets us between mile 16-17. Brutal. Scary. Not nice. The bus barely made it up the hills so what does that say about my chances?

My overall assessment of the course route is it's LONG. 26.2 miles is, for the uninformed, a really really long way to run, walk, or as I shall no doubt personally experience, crawl. I was sort of hoping there was a chance of talking the marathon volunteer who led the tour into giving me my finishing shirt at the end of the bus ride given that I had technically completed the marathon route. No chance. Apparently they're sticklers around here on the infinitesimal details. La-dee-dah.

And now, after a Whole Foods dinner in the hotel room, an hour spent filling my pockets and spreading out my clothes, I'm now down to little else to do but complete a final ice session on my ankle before going to bed.

Someone told me today that the goal of any first-time marathoner should be to finish the marathon on the same day it started. There's a chance.

I hope.