Pittsburgh Marathon - Part 1 (5.6.12)

Pre-Race
Leading up to a race no matter what distance, I am a nervous wreck. If I've run the race the previous year, I'm still nervous but less nervous.  Well two days before the marathon I wasn't nervous at all. I wasn't excited either though. My training has been crap due to my hip injury and my longest run in 6 weeks was 10 miles.   People asked me where I was parking, when I was picking up my race packet, when I was arriving the morning of the race, etc. and I did not have answers to any of them. I didn't plan it out. I didn't even know where the start and finish were.

Then come Saturday, I went to the packet pickup and didn't look around. I was in and out as quick as I could be.  I still was not nervous. I got my race number and saw they had corrals. I couldn't find anywhere how they chose what corral you went in. I had no idea what my goal time was when I signed up either.  I asked other people I knew running it and they were also confused. Later in the evening I figured out parking and arrival time and still was not nervous.  I was so calm. I noticed this and thought I should be nervous and was not.  I picked out my clothes. I wanted spandex shorts but couldn't find mine. I went with the white tank top I wore for the 50k even though it was cotton. I need more light colored dry fit tanks. I went with my pink running skirt because it is lightweight.

I was up until 2am. I slept less than 3 hours.  This should have made me nervous. It did not.

Bright and Early
I set 2 alarms. One for 4:50 and one for 5am. Well in the morning when the 5am one went off and I didn't remember the 4:50 one going off I checked and I had set it for 4:50 PM.  I planned to spend 20 minutes getting ready. I had everything all set out so I thought it would take 5 minutes. Well it took 30 minutes. Part of that was because I put my cell phone down somewhere and was looking for it.

I left the house. All was well. I didn't get lost. I met my friends. I still wasn't nervous.   I realized I forgot sunscreen but Adrienne saved the day.  Later I realized my sunglasses were in my car. I didn't stress about that.  I left my water in my car and went back for it but at that point I didn't realize I forgot my sunglasses or I would have grabbed them too. (Later I realized they fell on the floor so they weren't sitting on the seat so they were easy to miss.)

I just figured I'd run. So what if I ran way slower than I wanted. Also so what if I ran way faster than I expected. I'm not used to this, but I really think it would ease my stress if I can continue this trend.

Start
The race started on-time. I was in Corral C with Adrienne. We crossed the starting line a little over 7 minutes after the gun went off.  We were also with her brother-in law, Mike.

More about the race to come.
See Part 2