The "I'm in Cleveland and my marathon is tomorrow" post

I'm in Cleveland and my marathon is tomorrow!!

I was up at 6 to watch Theresa Edwards rock her first 5K. Then I made my way over to the expo in Euclid and got all kinds of cool stuff. Then I went home, made some sweet potatoes for my dad's 60th birthday party, tried to sleep, couldn't, so I've pretty much been playing on Facebook for the past few hours. Perhaps it was a bad time to sign up for text alerts, all day my phone has been blowing up with well wishers, suggestions for my playlist, and other incessant ramblings.

Vote in my Facebook poll if you want to help me decide which headband to wear! The choices are in my previous post.

The playlist, it's almost done! I'll post screenshots later tonight.

This is a pic I took last night of all the stuff I packed:

I just need to get a few things from target -- mainly rain gear. My alarm is set for 5 am, I'm being very good about what I'm eating and drinking, and I'm ready to rock this thing!

I'm really excited for everyone racing tomorrow!

I am going to run a marathon

I am running the Cleveland Marathon on May 15. A marathon is 26.2 miles. And I just paid $70 for it. And checked this box:

 

I still get a little giddy sometimes when I select this option:

I'd make this another "what the #@%@ was I thinking post", but in this blog's short life there have been one too many of those. 

Exhibit A. 

Exhibit B.

Exhibit C.

I can't believe I'm actually going to do this. MIT, don't fail me! 

Race Report: Cleveland Turkey Trot

Sometimes, it's more fun to hang back and talk to the giant turkey running beside you.

In this case, I mean that literally.

I ran the Cleveland Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning and had a blast. This was my sixth race since I resumed this insanity in May. In the other five I was all about the time, how fast can I go? Can I PR? How many women are in front of me? (In only one case was there the correct amount: 0).


A number of factors aligned to show that I would not be racing this one:
A) I was fighting off a nasty cold
B) My big race is a week from Saturday
C) I wanted to stick with my little sister, this was her first race since having a baby (note to self: Stop calling her "little". She's a mom now.)
D) There were 2,000 people there so there was no way I was going to win

The race started at 9:30. After a relatively hectic morning, which included hitting up everyone in my house because neither of us had any cash to park, we pulled up at about 9:20. Parking was a pain, there was a long line to get into the lot so we parked a good half mile away (we didn't need that cash after all). We met up with my college buddy, Evelyn, as the bullhorn was going off. Yay for chip timing, we stood back to avoid getting trampled then jumped in with the fray.

Wet turkeys

With the exception of my first 5k which took place in 90 degree heat, I've lucked out with the weather for all of my runs. Even the Mohican one, where I secretly hoped it would rain so I could relive my high school cross country days of running through the mud.

This good luck, it appears, is about to run out. Forecast for the Cleveland Turkey Trot Thursday, according to Accuweather:

5 miles of rain and cold, it must be wintertime in Ohio, yipee I can wear my new jacket!