The odd hours and the time difference were playing with me a little bit and I had decided the extra rest would do me good. So I slept in. Until 8am (which is 10am Memphis time - wow!). We were instructed to take it easy on Saturday - not a lot of walking. And to drink a LOT of water. Julie and I had a nice little breakfast and then I went down to an outdoor mall area and just looked around a bit. It wasn't long before we had to take the shuttle to the Pasta Party.
The Pasta Party.... It was just beyond amazing. I really didn't know what to expect, other than some pasta for our carb-loading. But it turned out to be an event that I will never, *EVER* forget. It was at the Town & Country Resort & Convention Center.
As we headed toward the entrance, we were greeted by a huge 'TNT cheer line'. All the coaches and LLS staff and mentors were lining both sides of the walkway. They were cheering and screaming and clapping. They had horns and cowbells and airhorns. It was the neatest thing. It was loud and just totally electric. I've got chill bumps right now as I type just thinking about it.
Nicole and I grabbed hands and just walked through the hundreds of purple clad, wildly decorated people. They were cheering for US. "Just think what tomorrow will be like," we kept saying to each other. I don't know how, but I saw George on the other side of the walk. He pushed through all the people and gave me a big high five. Ever play Where's Waldo? Let's play Where's George? ....
Then, I saw a younger woman holding a sign that said "This survivor thanks you." And she was just crying and smiling and saying 'thank you'. And that's all it took. Because then I was crying too. I honestly don't think I'll ever forget that image of her. Then I saw Andrea - big hugs. And then there was Lindy - our teammate, a leukemia survivor herself. She was the only person I had not seen yet since we arrived in San Diego. Big hugs and more tears.Thanks to Jessica and Jacob for sharing their pictures with me. I was so totally overwhelmed by the whole thing, using my camera never entered my mind.....
The line ended at the pasta buffet. So we filled up our plates with good carbs and headed to the ballroom to find our assigned tables. There must have been 2500-3000 people in that room. All TNTers and their friends and family. WOW! But then I realized that this was just the first seating for the Pasta Party - there was another seating that afternoon at 5pm. So we're talking 5,000 people. We heard from John "The Penguin" Bingham. He's a writer for Runner's World and also a spokesman for the TNT. He was so hilareous and gave us an overview of what to expect on race day. Sadly, all of funny, silly, crazy things that he said would happen during the race, totally did.....He's called the penguin because of his 'no need for speed' approach. My kind of guy. Penguins are apparently still faster than turtles though...Our other speaker
was David Monson who is the husband of Susan Butcher. She was a champion Iditarod sled dog racer who fought and lost a battle with leukemia. He was excellent. He said that the LLS had asked him to come and speak to the runners, to be an inspiration to us. He said that HE was not the inspiration, that WE were the inspiration. You could have heard a pin drop in that room. And there wasn't a dry eye in the house. I was crying so hard that I was just hoping I wouldn't make some kind of choking noise or gasping sound or have some sort of audible sobbing. Wow - he was something. Our last speaker was a VP from Elite Racing (the company that puts the race together). He said he was probably the only person in San Diego that had on a suit at that moment. And the reason he wore a suit is because his mother told him that when he met important people, he should put on a suit. (That's us - important people!)They recognized an 84-year old woman who would be participating in her 11th marathon on Sunday. And there were several fundraising awards. The national winner raised $51,000! Wowie. They also announced that we had all raised $12.5 million!!! $12.5 MILLION. Isn't that awesome?!?!?
We left the Pasta Party totally charged. It was an incredible experience - full of emotion. Truly an unforgetable event.
Next on our agenda was the Team Meeting.....
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