The flight from Minneapolis had other TNT'ers on it. The flight attendant made an announcement on the plane that "Today on board are over 50 people who are going to participate in the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Diego. They have been training for six months and have been raising money for the Leukemia Society. Go Team!" And some other stuff, but you get the idea. Everybody cheered and clapped.
When we got to San Diego, there were even *more* TNT'ers waiting for the shuttles. It was the neatest feeling to realize that this whole "training" thing - this whole "team" thing - was so much bigger than our little Shelby Farms group. Connie compared it to going to church out of town. Does that make sense?
We grabbed a quick sandwich and headed for the expo to pick up our race packet.
The expo was huge. Lots of vendors peddling anything related to running. One booth had tshirts with cute little sayings on them like:
"In my dreams, I'm a Kenyan"
"I know, I know, I'm almost there"
"This seemed like a good idea three months ago"
"Toenails are for sissies" (that may not be so funny in a day or so)
But my very favorite was this one:
The Leukemia Society booth had a big banner that the TNT'ers could sign.....
A group of us walked to the Gaslamp Quarter (neato area) and ate dinner at a little Mexican place called Fred's.
We did encounter two interesting groups on our way to and from dinner. The first was a "Red Dress Run" by a group of hashers which is apparently running and drinking club. It was a bit nuts. They were ALL (men included) wearing various styles of red dresses and running down the streets - I guess from bar to bar. It looked completely out of control wild. I had to look it up on Wiki to get more info. If you want some too, help yourself. The other sight was Critical Mass -- *thousands* of bicycles that aim to draw attention to how unfriendly the city is to bicyclists. I've never seen anything like it. Again, more info.
So, after those two enlightening experiences, we headed back to the hotel and watched the National Spelling Bee. (I *love* the spelling bee!) It didn't take me long to fall asleep that night because I was e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d.
1 comment:
Two other interesting comments I meant to share but forgot to before you left. When I ran the Rock N Roll half in Nashville my favorite was the person cheering along the road with a poster that read "You're all Kenyans to ME!!!!" which really made me believe I could pick up the pace at that point (I think mile 10 or so) also a great analogy I read in a runner's magazine: Don't think of it as running 26(.2)miles just think of it as running 1 mile twenty-six times!! (I like that one) Anyway, I am really excited for you!! What a great accomplishment for you personally and for the cause!! CONGRATS!
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