Ready to rumble..or tumble and bumble…

Boy has this been a fun 12 hours.  Took the redeye from Seattle last night and landed around 7:15AM into Dulles this morning.  That picture is on arrival.  it looks like crap outside, and I felt like crap after landing.  Quick drive home and I was in bed by 8:30AM.  I got a nice 3 hours of sleep, after which I felt a hundred times better. Then it was time to mosey on down to the expo and packet pickup.  One of the nice things about the MCM packet pickup is that it’s down at the Armory – near RFK stadium, and they open up the stadium parking lots for quick and free parking.  And this year they figured out the whole line thing – much better than the 75 or so minutes I had to wait last year.  I spent no more than 5 minutes in line today.

Got the packet picked up – number 12553 for those that want to track me online in real-time at the tracking site (in the highly unlikely event you have nothing better to do). 

I then wandered around the expo. It’s a fairly large expo, which makes sense given the 35,000 runners.  I normally don’t buy much (if anything) at these expos as I usually don’t need anything.  Well, at the last one I did buy this fun sticker.  This time was really no different, I found a ski resort sticker and a MCM sticker for my bike case.  Other than that I sweet talked the Snickers lady into giving me a few free bars of the Snickers Marathon bars.  Of course, part of any good expo recon trip is the substantial acquisition of free stuff.  In that respect I succeeded wonderfully, with my loot containing: Two free shirts (one of which I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing), one startlingly green cup, a Clif Bar, a Band-Aid kit for the next time I crash and burn, and a small piece of chocolate.  Wait, did I seriously just use the word “wonderfully” in that last sentence?  Yikes….moving on.  Here’s a photo of all the crap that ended up in my bag – I swear I only put in the green cup, everything else was provided. (And yes, I had too much time on my hands this evening)

Late this afternoon I went over to the Pacers carbo loading pasta party.  It was pot-luck style, so I made a big batch of pasta.  My plan as of last night was to actually make homemade lasagna – but then I woke up, and got lazy.  I’m moderately aware that carbo loading is really a longer term experience lasting more than just the night before.  But I’m never one turn down pasta.

Post-pasta-fill-up, I headed out to do a super-casual 2 mile run.  It’s what I do the day before a race.  I like to feel loose, and I find a super-duper-easy run is the way to do it. 

So, with all of that, my number is attached to my running singlet (oh yeah, an actual singlet – high style now!), my gels are set, my nutrition/hydration plan locked and I’m ready to take on the semi-sunny weather tomorrow.  Yes, that is indeed a running blueberry on my singlet.  Hey, it was free and for a good cause!

Tomorrow’s goal time: Anything below 3:30

And yes, you got a way more photo filled post than usual today – I was feeling overly photogenic.  Strange things happen after redeye flights.  Kinda like snakes on a plane…but without da snakes.

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