After drinking too much water on Thursday to make up for the dry air on the plane and the dry air in Arizona, my night was a series of ups and downs with little sleep. It’s tough sleeping in a hotel anyway since the temperature never seems right and the bed isn’t all that comfortable.
Stopped fighting the lack of sleep at 6:15 am and got up to move around. At 6:50, I was out the door to enjoy a very flat run around the Mesa Riverview lots, finding my way around.
2.36 miles at a 8:43 pace. Legs felt heavy and not ready for 26.2 miles.
Found a sleeper along the way.
After Ted was done in the gym, we hit the lobby for a quick breakfast. Oats, fruit, cottage cheese and an egg white patty.
Enjoyed the sunshine on the way to the expo.
The Expo: Very organized. There seemed to be a lot of half marathon bib tables compared to the amount of 10K and full marathoners. A lot of samples. Our bags were over flowing by the time we walked out. We entered through a tent set up between Sports Authority and 24 Hour Fitness. Went directly to collect our bibs and bags. Then walked through the array of vendors, collecting samples, finally being spit out at the back door of Sports Authority. We entered the store, received a 15% off coupon and headed towards the front to pick up our race shirts. A nice Tank for me and a full tee for Ted. *Ted was going to run the half but his knee was not healed enough for training.
It would have been nice to wear this for the marathon but I didn’t want to risk any chafing around the arms.
From the expo, we walked a few miles to pick up our rental car so we can high tail it out of Mesa, following the marathon, and meet up with family in Vegas. The sun was out with no clouds to cover. The 74 degrees heated us up pretty quickly, especially since we are more accustomed to walking in temperatures closer to 15 degrees. Once we had our wheels, we hit the marathon trail, making our way up to the Rio Salado Sportsman Club, the start of the marathon and followed the route back to our hotel.
<Phoenix is clearly visible on the side of the hill.
The course, from “car level” appears extremely flat and down hill with the exception of a few long, gradual inclines, early in the race. It sets the runner up for going out too fast if not fully in control of the adrenal rush at the start of a race.
Our lunch stop included very fresh foods at Modern Grove. Unfortunately, they didn’t offer any vegetarian protein options for topping a salad. I settle for a lot of blue cheese crumbles.
A nice day for a drive then another relaxed afternoon around the pool. We had an early dinner at The Fish Company, attached to Bass Pro Shop and will prepare for a very early morning start at 3:40 am. *Race start is 6:30 am but we all have to be on the buses by 5 am.
I don’t know how this race will go. I’d like to say I set myself up for a PR since the course and weather look good for it but I didn’t do speed work due to fear of injuring my knee and I spent most of my long runs on the treadmill…holding on! So who knows? Maybe the runs I did have in the very cold and on the snow covered roads made up for the lack of other training? We’ll see but either way, it must be noted so I can look back at this for future reference, good or bad. At the same time I would like to run my best, I also want to save something for Boston in about 7 weeks. Will that be my out if the going gets tough? or Will I stay strong and go for it?
Back again after the marathon.
We are cheering for you!
Good luck for the marathon girl, go get em!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru