The whole weekend was a little bizarre. It came out of nowhere and felt incredibly surreal. Wait, we're driving to Austin? So I can run a marathon? It's almost my birthday? ...What??
Yeah. Strange.
My dad and I have had a few conversations about electrolytes and how he uses Elete drops in his water for his electrolyte replacement, and how doing that the day before is what really matters because it's preparing your body for the loss. So I used some in a water bottle (you can't taste it really) on the way down.
By the time we stopped at the Oasis on Lake Travis for lunch, my hands were swollen. ... I guess it was working!
For lunch I had a chicken wrap, and dinner later I had butternut squash ravioli with a chicken breast. and some of my dad's fries. okay a lot.
My dad and I went for a little warm-up run to try and see what some of the hills would be like, but we didn't really get far enough out to experience them. It was still a nice little 2-miler though, and I always enjoy running with my dad!
As expected, I hardly slept that night. I woke up around 5:50 and started getting ready.
All the "oh crap this is really happening" feelings hit me as I was fumbling to get my hair in a ponytail and situate my bib. Hand's shaking. Trying to breathe. Trying to think if I was forgetting anything.
Things on me:
-NB shoes
-Feetures socks
-BodyGlide... all over my feet, thighs, ribs
-Target running capris
-Nike top (one of my faves)
-Amphipod arm band that holds my phone
-SPI belt that I turned into a tutu!! (using a tutorial like this one, minus the elastic band since that's what the SPI belt is)
-Birthday Girl headband... that surprisingly stayed on the entire race!
-5 packs of GU
I didn't take a water bottle because I knew that the water stops would be frequent enough to not have one. I also wore gloves and a zip-up jacket to the start line and tossed the jacket to my dad at mile 3.
My dad walked me to the starting line and I was really glad to have his company. Why did I decide to do this alone?
We got to the starting line around 6:57ish, right before we were supposed to be starting. I wasn't worried about it though, I knew that I wouldn't get to the actual starting line for another 20 minutes or so. (Which gave my dad time to walk back to the hotel and grab my mom for where they would see me first.)
I had my jacket on at this point, but I had already given my gloves to my dad before he left. I took my time walking to the start to save as much energy as possible, and then took off, starting my running app and "Insurgent" (thanks to Mark who got my an iTunes gift card for Valentine's Day!).
Here we go!
...quite possibly the weirdest picture of me in the history of ever. I'll blame the "7 a.m. waiting by myself to run" factor.
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