Hey readers! Welcome back – thanks for reading the first part of my 2018 Detroit Free Press/Chemical Bank Marathon Race Recap yesterday. Today I bring you part 2 – getting to all of the pre-race events!
Friday night before race weekend was probably the most stressed that I was leading up to the race. My friend Paula and I had been discussing what to wear and what the weather would be like. As runners born and raised in Michigan, we know that the only thing you can predict about the weather here is that it will change. Because of that, and the horrible wardrobe mistake I had made the weekend before on my last long run, I was stressing about making sure I had everything that I needed.
On Friday morning I went for an easy almost 2 mile run. It was about 45 degrees and mostly sunny when I went, which were the conditions being predicted for the end of the marathon on Sunday. I wore capris and a long sleeve shirt. By the time I got home, I was hot and sweaty. I thought, “this is going to be really hard to plan for.” Paula was running the half, so the temperature change for her was not as big as it would be for me running the marathon.
After going into work for a couple of hours, I was on a mission to get any last minute items needed for the race. I picked up cheap gloves and an ear warmer that just so happened to match my race day outfit perfectly. I got a potato because I had been craving American Fries and eggs for breakfast, and knew that’s what I wanted to have Saturday morning before heading to the expo. I got nail art pens so that I could put a pink ribbon on my nails for breast cancer awareness and to match my race day apparel. I searched Goodwill for a throw away jacket or sweatshirt, but didn’t find anything and decided I would just have my race mom Christine hold onto my stuff for me.
By the time I got done running around searching for and getting all of these things, it was late in the day. I needed to pack, I needed to get my playlist together for my iPod, I needed to paint my nails… oh yeah I needed to eat… and I needed to get a good night’s sleep! I was texting Paula through all of this and finally she told me “this this and this can wait until tomorrow! You’ll have plenty of time in the hotel to get these things done! Just get the essentials done and EAT and GO TO BED!” I was so anxious about getting a good night’s sleep because we all know that nobody sleeps well the night before the race.
Ken and I had a nice, relaxing dinner together and I finished packing. Just before we got ready for bed, I asked him to run through all of the things I would need with me to make sure that I hadn’t forgotten to pack anything. One of the first things he mentioned was Gu – which was crazy to me that he thought of that, because he isn’t a long distance runner himself and has never even used Gu – and I realized I hadn’t packed any! I grabbed my Gu and pinned it to my Flipbelt. We kept going through the list together and I was pretty certain that I had remembered everything. I realized that I hadn’t cooked hardboiled eggs for race morning yet, but decided I’d do that in the morning. I got into bed and was wide awake. The last time I looked at the clock it was midnight.
My alarm was set for Saturday morning at 5:30am to get ready and leave by 7am. I was wide awake once again at 5am and decided to just get up. I took my time getting ready – did my hair and my makeup, put on my race ambassador zip up, re-checked my packing. Time flew by and before I knew it, I only had 30 minutes to make and eat breakfast. And oh yeah! I needed to cook those stinkin’ hardboiled eggs! I scrambled to get everything ready and by the time Christine arrived I was just pulling the hardboiled eggs out and cooling them off. I had packed my breakfast (American fries, ketchup and an overeasy egg) into a bowl to eat on the road. We grabbed all of our stuff and packed it into my car. We were off!
Come back again tomorrow to check out part 3 of my recap – the day before the race!
RD on the Run 