Picking up from yesterday –
So, I’d prepped like a boss. Now it’s time to do this thing! I got up with plenty of time to spare, methodically got ready, and headed for the shuttle.
Even with prepping everything beforehand, and leaving myself plenty of time, I still get that nagging feeling… “Do I have absolutely everything I need for this run (and that I need to successfully get there and back home)?”
I did.
But it’s nerve-wracking going out on the course, you know? You could have a really miserable race if you forget the wrong thing. I’ve even forgotten my hat(!) before. So, I know. You can forget things that you’d think you never would. (And then the race is oh so rough.)
Let’s pause here for a humongous round of applause for Clif products, though. Without them at the expo, I would not have had everything I ended up desperately needing. It’s been over a year since my last marathon. It just kind of slipped my mind that I love to have Clif Shot Blocks with me for any race longer than a half marathon.
Thankfully, Clif was at the expo. I’ve been to expos before where the company said they weren’t selling any product – just sampling, but at this one they were selling, baby! I bought those Shot Bloks, and they totally saved me. (But more on that soon enough.)
So, I catch the shuttle to the start, sitting next to this lovely man doing his first big city marathon. (He’d done one very small marathon before.) His excitement was exciting.
But let’s get real, I was excited too! While I have done a very large marathon before (at Disney) this was actually my first big city marathon!
I got in the open corral at the back (because I’m nice and slow). Some interesting people were around – Uncle Fester included.
As we all waited for the race to begin, the sun slowly started coming up. I gotta say, I know I hate getting up early and all, but let’s maybe just start every marathon from here on out at around 4:30am, sound good?
It was a bit disheartening to see the sun come up before we even took our first steps onto the course. It had been established it was most likely going to be a hot day. (It is L.A. after all.) I wanted to keep that heat at bay for as long as possible. Oh well, at least we got that precious extra hour of darkness. Thank you, Daylight Saving Time!
Also, since I was so wildly prepared, I not only had sunscreen applied – I had little packets of sunscreen in my pockets! Yeah, babe! (Spoiler alert: This will not save me later.)
This is where we’ll pick up tomorrow.