Picking up from yesterday –
The night before the race, I didn’t eat dinner. I didn’t feel hungry, so I just skipped it, thinking my lunch was going to be big enough. Then, on the morning of the race, I still wasn’t feeling hungry. So I decided not to have a morning bite.
This was not a smart idea!
I don’t know what would make me think that if I’m not hungry I shouldn’t eat. I mean, I have been trying to listen to my body more and not mindlessly eat. But when you’re going into a race, you have to eat. I don’t care if you’re hungry or not. (After over 50 half marathons and 3 marathons, you’d think I’d know that by now. But apparently, you’d be wrong.)
So, anyway, I went out there fuel-less, ’cause “it’s only a half marathon.” Aye, aye, aye, Aurora.
However, I was smart enough to bring a bit of cash with me. And around mile 9 when I decided I was just too hungry, I got to stop off and grab a bit of food from a nearby gas station. (Surprisingly I was not alone as a number of people around me did the same thing. Did we all forget to eat that morning?)
As I waited for the bus next to Jaime’s apartment, I saw a life-size Michael Jackson cutout in the window across the street, which I thought was such a nice little send off before the race.
The bus driver was very nice, trying to make sure as many people squeezed in as possible, since he knew we were all going to the same place, and we really wanted to get there.
I don’t know that I have anything super new to say about the race, really. It started in the same place as the last time I did it, and some things were the same.
(Though, when I just re-read that entry, I realized there were things I remembered that never made their way into the blog. That surprised me, and makes me happy that my memory seems sort of strong – as though I don’t need to read no stinking entries to remember my life.)
There were still backwards mile markers in some places. (I glossed over that in my old entry – but that was definitely something I remember from before. “Why am I looking at the back of this sign instead of the front?” I didn’t know then. Still don’t know now. They are airy mile markers that I guess blow around and could conceivably move. But, not really that bottom pole part so easily, I don’t think.)
I looked for the people who’d been rocking out to Rapper’s Delight, and didn’t see them this time. That made me kind of sad as they were a total highlight of the race for me.
And I’ll finish out my story tomorrow.