Race Day Pre-Race - Posted 10/25
Well it was finally race day. The day I have been working toward since I got to within 10 minutes at Freescale in February. Every day after that I have been working towards this day. We woke up at 5AM and I ate a peanut butter sandwich and drank a 24oz. Gatorade Endurance. I packed my bag the night before so all I had to do was put on my race gear and warm clothes and I was ready to roll. I made sure and put on my nutrition belt at the hotel so I wouldn't screw up and check it like I did at Freescale. On the way over, I decided to go with a long sleeve shirt and singlet on top with gloves, running cap, and my amber lense sun glasses to protect my eyes from the wind.
It had rained overnight and it was a lot colder than yesterday. It was in the high 30s with a wicked wind out of the Northwest when we left the hotel at 6AM. I walked over with Alex, Jan, Brad, and Brian. I put on my MP3 player and played my pre-running mix which was really relaxing and motivating for me. The walk was a little over a mile and was a nice warmup. We ran into Marcy about a block from the Trophy Tent and walked over together. We found some chairs and relaxed for a bit. I got a bottle of water to sip and took a few pictures. I headed to the port-o-potty and waited in line for about 10 minutes. I then got back, took off my pants and then checked my gear bag. We all put on our garbage bags to keep dry which was kind of funny, but they also served another purpose which I will detail later.
At about 7:15, I gathered up Alex and Marcy and we headed to the Preferred start corral. It took us forever to get over there and we were worried that we weren't going to make the cut off time of 7:40. We finally got to an intersection where we were able to run to a balloon trail to the entrance to the preferred start. We got in with about 5 minutes to spare and made our way to a position in front of the 3:20 pace group. Now back to the garbage bags. I had read on the Gazelle forum about Clint using an empty Gatorade bottle for last minute relief before the start. Since having to stop has always been a problem for me, I thought of a way to use the idea, but with more privacy. I carried an empty bottle and with about 10 minutes before the gun went off I took care of business in the privacy of my own bag. What a relief and the solution worked since I didn't have to stop the entire race!
It had rained overnight and it was a lot colder than yesterday. It was in the high 30s with a wicked wind out of the Northwest when we left the hotel at 6AM. I walked over with Alex, Jan, Brad, and Brian. I put on my MP3 player and played my pre-running mix which was really relaxing and motivating for me. The walk was a little over a mile and was a nice warmup. We ran into Marcy about a block from the Trophy Tent and walked over together. We found some chairs and relaxed for a bit. I got a bottle of water to sip and took a few pictures. I headed to the port-o-potty and waited in line for about 10 minutes. I then got back, took off my pants and then checked my gear bag. We all put on our garbage bags to keep dry which was kind of funny, but they also served another purpose which I will detail later.
At about 7:15, I gathered up Alex and Marcy and we headed to the Preferred start corral. It took us forever to get over there and we were worried that we weren't going to make the cut off time of 7:40. We finally got to an intersection where we were able to run to a balloon trail to the entrance to the preferred start. We got in with about 5 minutes to spare and made our way to a position in front of the 3:20 pace group. Now back to the garbage bags. I had read on the Gazelle forum about Clint using an empty Gatorade bottle for last minute relief before the start. Since having to stop has always been a problem for me, I thought of a way to use the idea, but with more privacy. I carried an empty bottle and with about 10 minutes before the gun went off I took care of business in the privacy of my own bag. What a relief and the solution worked since I didn't have to stop the entire race!
posted by Paco at 7:46 PM
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