'Twas the Day and Night Before the Marathon...

Saturday morning, we headed downtown for the kid's race and Family Festival and Expo.  Andrew and Lauren were both racing at Lincoln HS.  Lauren's race was 1/2 mile and Andrew's was 1 mile.   We got there early, and the kids enjoyed the rock wall, the large inflatable obstacle course, and the sunshine.  Each kiddo did a great job in their race, keeping their pace and not going out too hard.  Both had a great kick at the end!

Ready to Race!

He made it to the top!

After their races, we headed to the Expo to pick up my race bib and check out some of the booths.  I picked up a nice long sleeve shirt, and a coffee mug, but the kids were restless and we didn't really need to spend any more time there.  It was a great expo though, and I probably could have done some more damage had they not been begging to leave.  

Later that day, I was stressing about what I was going to eat, wear, and IF I was going to get any sleep.  I decided I needed what has never failed me before… 2 IPAs and pizza.  DELICIOUS beer and pizza.  Thankfully, I live in Portland.  You can’t throw a rock without hitting a place that serves awesome beer.  Pizza is a different story.  So I made Amy and Audrey and their families drive over to HUB for the celebratory beer and pizza pre-thon dinner.  And pretzels, and hummus, and salad, and veggies, and…  well, I WAS carbo-loading after all.  Happy to report I stopped at the 2 IPAs.  It’s a well-tested recipe for success that I don’t mess with. ;-)  Amy couldn’t wait to give me the beautiful necklace she bought me from Run Molly Run.  She also threw in a 26.2 car magnet… I was super excited to slap that on my minivan the next day!  We finalized our plans for the morning, and headed home to get some sleep.  

Before I closed my eyes, I did a final check of facebook.  I was overwhelmed by the generous and supportive messages from family and friends near and far.  So many notes wishing me well, and words of encouragement and support from those that had been there, done that, so many times before.  Those words meant the world to me, and I held them close to my heart all 26.2 miles...