Race weekend

School began last Monday. It took everything in me to get through the first week because the excitement of the coming weekend was so overwhelming. Fast forward to Friday - Nicole got out of work early and was waiting for me when I got home from running errands - Subway run for dinner, ATM for spending money. I finished packing quickly - we ate dinner and got on the road around 5:30. No traffic, smooth sailing to the hotel which was nicer than we thought it would be. Happens to be packed with runners so overall it was pretty quiet. It was also right across from the beach so we watched fireworks from our balcony that night and every night after that! It was a late night but I set the alarm for 7:00. We wanted to be up and moving early so we could be at the expo when it opened at 9. I slept so well but when the alarm went off I jolted out of bed, opened the blinds and went right onto the balcony to look at the beach in the sunlight. :) It was beautiful. Nicole and I decided to run out to the beach quick to get our feet in the sand and water before we got ready for the day. I headed out in my PJS. As we bummed around to the beach many runners were getting in a last minute run before 1/2 marathon day. I followed orders and did not run eventhough I wondered if I should just to loosen up my muscles. We decided to stick to eating well, resting and stretching several times that day. After a yummy breakfast at the lovely Days Inn, we took showers, dressed in Easton Marathon ROCKS wear and picked up Debbie for the expo.
At the expo we picked up our race packets, bibs, shoe trackers, tshirts and goodie bags. I also managed to spend gobs of money on an awesome finisher long sleeve shirt, t shirt, running jacket, pint glass and magnet. After visiting the vendors I also left with a 13.1 and running girl charm, some running stickers, a key chain, and a bag. I love onemoremilerunning.com We headed back to the hotel, went through our goodies and hit up subway yet again for lunch. It was a safe choice - food we knew! Took some time to walk into the beachy stores and spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool, reading and napping.
We headed in in time to get Donna for dinner at Macaroni Grill. Over 20 of us converged on the restaurant and were seated throughout the place to carb up for the following day. It was great to talk with new/old friends and spend some time with Amy and LeaAnn (eventhough they wouldn't seat her since we were over our reservation limit) before race day. I only ate half so I wouldn't be too full and did not order dessert so I did behave. After a quick visit back at Donna's hotel, Nicole and I went back to our place, did some last minute prep for race day - put out all our running gear, put names on our singlets and tried to wind down.
I did end up going to sleep around 10:30 and slept fairly well until the alarm went off at 4:30.

I'll leave it there for now - gotta go finish some thank you cards from our non housewarming party where people bought us gifts before its time to get in my pjs and relax before bed.