May 2, 2010

I woke up at 3:30am. Well, actually, I woke up at 2:30am and fell back asleep until 3:30am. I forced myself to lay there for 2 hours with my eyes closed. My mind raced for 2 hours. I tried my yoga meditation and breathing techniques to try to calm down and fall back asleep. No such luck. Before I knew it 5:30 was here and this day was ready to start.

Now, I had tried to prepare myself in every way for this day and tried to imagine every moment of it. As soon as I woke up, I knew that there was no way that any of the things that I had imagined would ever compare to what this day would actually be like. For example, John knocked on our door at about 5:35, we opened it, and he greeted us with a very enthusiastic "LET'S DO THIS!" We ate bagels with peanut butter and Clif bars. Then, John went to get ready and left us to do the same.

Step 1. Body Glide. With my stick of body glide in my hand, I rewound through 18 weeks of training trying to think of every place on my body that had ever chafed. Arms, chest, upper back, lower back, legs. I applied it liberally.

Step 2. Clothes. I put on the clothes that I had laid out for the warm weather situation. It was already 47 degrees and was only going to get warmer.

Step 3. Stretch. Now, normally, I don't stretch a whole lot before runs because I stretch during runs. Today, I wouldn't have time to stretch during the run. So, I sat on the floor in our hotel room and made sure that my legs felt good.

Step 4. Ibuprofen. I had eaten. I should be okay. I was very nervous about this step. But down they went. 2 Ibuprofen.

Step 5. Teeth. Brushed 'em. I had to make sure I could smile for pictures

Step 6. Shoes. Putting on my shoes was sort of a momentous moment. It was time to go. This was it. I was lacing up my shoes for one big ass run.

Before you know it, it was 6:30. Time to go. We grabbed our bag and walked to the bag check and gave them our things. Then we headed over to the start line. At this point, I was going nuts. Christina took some pictures and said goodbye. We situated ourselves at the back of the first corral (sub 10 minute mile pace). We waited and watched people determine where they should be. I looked around and saw all of the yellow bibs (half marathon runners) and felt very proud to be wearing a green bib (full marathon). About 5 minutes to go, Brad shows up - the 4:15 pacer. I remember looking at that sign thinking, "can I really run a marathon in 4:15?" and feeling terrified. Whatever. It was here and I would do what I would do. After a few minutes we heard the national anthem and then the gun. It was go time.