Marathon Weekend

The weekend before the race was a blast. Friday I spent all day at the Health and Fitness Expo at the Javits Center handing out race packets to runners. It was so fun seeing all these people who had gone through all this training just like me and who were so excited to be finally at their goal. There were tons of people being followed around by their loved ones holding video cameras and telling them to pose as they held up their number that was now somehow a deep part of their identity. SO many of the racers were foreigners. It was ridiculous. I mean, it seemed like a miracle when I could simply tell the person to go to the white balloon to pick up their tshirt and they understood what I was talking about. I did get to put some italian to good use though. woo hoo!!

Then on Friday night Covenant House gave a dinner for all of the runners who were supporting them in the race. There were about 25 of us in all and we went to this great place on the Upper East Sice called PJ Clarke's Sidecar. I was totally impressed and felt uber pamperd by the delicious menue, open bar, and endless trays of appetizers floating by in the hands of waiters and waitresses. But even better than the food (can you believe it?) was getting to meet all these people who were also running on Sunday. Some of them were pros (our fearless leader, Bill, had done New York over ten times!) and others were newbies like me. I loved being in a room full of people who loved running - I felt like I could relate so well to these people just out of this one shared interest. I don't have a lot of people I can talk to about running, so I really rambled on about, "oh, at what pace are your long runs? Do you take energy gels? At what intervals? Have you done much speedwork? Yasso800's? Are you going to aim for negative splits during the race? blah blah blah". It was a blast. Covenant House also had a few members of its staff there (some were running too) and a boy who was a part of the program, who shared with us his story and what Covenant House had done for him. It was so inspiring! What a night full of warm fuzzies.

Saturday I had to meet for History class out in Staten Island, but other than that I tried to be off my feet for most of the day. I spent a lot of time putting my bag together, making sure I had everything in order, and writing all the names of my fantastic supporters on the back of my tshirt. The day went by quickly with all the last minute things I had to take care of and the fact that I was in bed by 10pm. I cant remember the last time I'd gone to bed so early! I tried to drink a lot of water and my last meal was sushi. Not the typical carbo-load, but I'd had it before successful long runs and didnt want to eat anything too heavy. I think spaghetti's overrated. So, with my alarm set for 4:10am I did my best to get a good nights rest - though this proved somewhat futile due to my nerves. I kept waking up out of fear that I'd slept in!