Morning of the Run

This is what I look like at 4:30 am the morning of a half marathon. Of all the days during the 4 months of training, this is the ONLY day I was able to wake up at this time and actually start running at 7 am! (I am not a morning person) ;-)

Fortunately however, my father is! Therefore, I could count on him to be my alarm clock and get me up at on time. Thank God because I think it would be a struggle if I had to do it on my own!

So what does the morning of a marathon look like?

I groggily drag myself to the kitchen and down my supplements for the day:

half ounce of "Miracle Fruits of the World" with 3 ml of Propolis BIO 30 - AKA: My NF2 "hope" shot, meaning I and the rest of us with NF2 taking it hope it stops our tumor from growing.

Then I prepare myself my FRS energy drink (2 ounces orange flavored liquid concentrate in about 8 to 12 ounces of water) - Lance Armstrong's strategy for beating fatigue.

2 Rez-V reservatol capsules to increase my endurance ability (asw seen on Barbara Walters)

my breakfast of champions (LOL) which is a peanut butter banana toasted english muffin and some form of protein which happened to be a salmon patty on this particular morning.

Then I take 2 FRS sport chews and finish my drink.

Now that I am somewhat awake the ritual of personal hygiene and getting dressed comes into play (I showered the night before so I did not have to take time showering in the morning).

Mom, dad, and sis are all ready and I am ready so we head out the door for me to catch the last shuttle bus down to the start line which is at 6:40 am. (my parents live 20 minutes outside of Eugene so I stayed at their place).

On the drive over I was tossed on whether I should wear my rain jacket in the event or not as there was light rain on the way. Most of my training was in cooler weather and an entire state north. It had only started warming up in the last couple weeks before the marathon. The forecast however, was for a low of 44 degrees with light rain and the low is pretty much that early in the morning. When we left the house, the temp was about 50 degrees. I was not sure how much it would warm up as daylight approached and the morning progressed.

We were surprised to find a long line at the shuttle bus stop when we arrived and we were all concerned I would even be able to get on the last shuttle bus let alone arrive the event in time. There was only a tiny hotel shuttle bus present that had a capacity of maybe 20 but there were well over 50 participants waiting! Worse yet, there were only 20 minutes before the race started! Therefore, my sis and parents decided to wait with me to make sure I got on a bus to get to the marathon. In the event that I should not, they planned to drive me down as close to the start as possible and drop me off.

While waiting, the rain started to lighten up to a drizzle. Several people were just wearing shorts and a long sleeve technical shirt. I wondered if I would get too hot with the jacket and did not feel like wearing it tyed around my waist for nearly the entire run. Therefore, I decided to ditch it (dressed in a running skort, long sleeve technical shirt, and my running singlet over the top) and hand it to my sister when I hopefully got on a bus.

With luck, 2 or 3 large metro buses arrived about 12 minutes before the event. And yes, I did get on. A marathon walker sat next to me and looked a little anxious. I asked her if it was her first marathon to which she shook her head yes. Then we proceeded to have a pleasant conversation by my asking simple questions that I could predict the answers to somewhat understanding her response via lip reading (I am completely deaf so in spontaneous situations such as this without paper and with a workable person, I have strategies to which I can get by - ONLY if there is no other resort!).

Seeing I had walked the full Seattle marathon in 2006, I did much of the talking and mostly asked yes or no questions or ones which had very short answers. She came from an amazing family! Her husband and young son (maybe 9 or 10) was walking the marathon with her. Wow! How cool and admirable is that? - the whole family supporting each other! I was astonished that such a young boy was going to do it too and that he looked so excited!

Two minutes to the marathon and we were rounding the corners of the streets in downtown Eugene. "Will we make it in time we wondered? Gee, it was a good thing I went to the bathroom at the hotel BEFORE I got on the bus as there would be no time now for a pit stop."

Stay tuned for the rest of the story! :-)