Andrea congratulated all of us on everything we had accomplished - from just deciding to do it, to training, to raising our money. She said we were already heroes no matter what happened tomorrow. George also congratulated all of his chicks. (He really did just seem so proud of us.) He talked about how far we had come and how we had trained and prepared and now it was here and we were ready for it. He gave us some race day pointers and also told us we would need to eat salt packets before and during the race to prevent cramping. That was a new one for us - none of us had trained with salt - but he assured us, it wouldn't make any difference in a negative way. George also said that on race day, every TNT coach would be OUR coach - not just him and Dennese. All the TNT people were there tomorrow for us.
They just kind of gave us a run down of the morning. Meet in the lobby at 4:30am. Head to the park by the start line. We would claim a little area that would be our spot until the start. Julie was going to run in front with the faster ones and George would hang in the back with the slower ones (i.e. ME). Andrea was going to be at the 19.2 mile mark (which is the 2nd cutoff point on the course - more about that later). She offered to hold on to anything that we may want later during the race, but not carry all during the race. Good idea. Julie and Dennese gave us a goody bag with bottled water, snacks, bandaids, green apple sport beans, TNT tattoos and purple pom-poms and a card signed by all the coaches and mentors. Julie had also purchased two cases of water which we all divided and were instructed to drink during the remainder of the day.
George wanted all of us to carry our cell phones on the course. I had not planned on doing that, and I knew it would cut into my space in my belt. I would have to refigure how to get all my stuff in my belt. But since Andrea was going to hold on to some things for us, I could split some of my stuff up like that. It later proved to be a great idea to have the phone and I'm glad he made us do it.
Here's our team! Me, George (coach), Julie (mentor), Lindy (she's a 2 time survivor!!), Jessica, Nichole, Dennese (coach), Anne. GO TEAM!!!
We had a little time to rest before dinner, then we all headed out together. We enjoyed a nice dinner together and cheered ourselves and our great team! During dinner, we realized it was TWELVE HOURS UNTIL THE START OF THE RACE!!! After we ate, we walked down to a Ghiradelli's Chocolate candy and ice cream shop. (Connie, it would have been heaven to you - you would have just *died*.) It smelled great in there, and I'm not even a big chocolate fan. None of the marathoners were allowed to have ice cream.....and we all upheld under the temptation. We just watched everybody else eat it....We did enjoy a tiny little free sample of chocolate though.
Back to the hotel to try to get some rest. I laid all my stuff out for the next day. And, in my OCD way, checked and rechecked and checked again.....
We set the alarm for 3:30 am and I think we turned the light out at about 9:30 pm. I slept pretty well. Much better than I expected. Although it's hard to "get a good night's sleep" when you have also been told to "drink water all day long".....
Tomorrow was it. Tomorrow I WAS GONNA' RUN A MARATHON!!!
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