8.19 - Pre-Race

I woke up and Callie was awake. Her alarm was going off. She was running off to do the medical check-in. She was almost late for the window. (or maybe she wasn't. My memory isn't so good.) She got back and cooked us breakfast. It was her most elaborate breakfast she ever made. She picked a bad day to do it, because she had less than a half hour to have breakfast and get to the mandatory meeting for the race. I went with her to this meeting while Timmy stayed home. We got there late. It was standing room only. We actually only got to stand out in the doorway instead of stand inside the gym. It was so hot in the gym anyway that I was glad I was at least close to the outside. After 30 minutes or so we left. It wasn't over, but Callie said she knows what they say and she had to get home to get to Avon to go to Sports Authority to buy things for the race in order to get her drop bags set up in time.

They don't take attendance at the mandatory meeting anyway. Callie looked so small compared to the others that were running the race. The one guy who was near us was 6'4 and has run the race 16 times or so.  I kept peeping people's medical bracelets. Their height and weight were on them. I  also peeped their feet if they wore sandals. I wanted to see if their toenails were all screwed up or if you could tell they were blister prone or something.   I was glad to skedaddle from the meeting because I was starting to get clammy and lightheaded like I might pass out.

We came back and headed to Sports Authority and then to Walmart. Callie had to buy a ton of power bars and gu packets. She also bought stuff like gatorade. At the mandatory meeting, one of the speakers said that it's a marathon eating contest with some running in between.  While we were out or on our way home, I learned there was a crew meeting. It was too late now to go to that since the time had passed. I guess I didn't realize there was one. It was my first time crewing so I probably should have gone even if the information provided was all boring.

Callie drove both ways since she was in a hurry. Then she spent forever planning what water packets and what went with what aid station. We got her bags to the bag drop just in time. Well with about 5 minutes to spare.

Then we went to drive to where a few of the aid stations are so we can find them the next day.  We only went to the close ones. I learned later that we should have read the directions on a race packet because the paths from one station to the next were blocked at points due to the race so we had to go around. (Lesson Learned. Follow the instructions in the booklet and not the normal way to go from point A to point B.)

Then I got dropped off at home and hung out with the dogs while Timmy went with Callie while she drove her book bus (library bus or whatever).

After the book bus, Callie came home and continued to get ready for the race. I sat at my computer super nervous. Callie was more nervous with having to run a race and all but I was also nervous. I was pacing her at elevation and for distances I wasn't used to running and on terrain I wasn't used to running on. Oh the stress.