The Expo and RBF meet-ups!

Hey guys!! I've got about a million pictures from this past Country Music Marathon race weekend, so I'm probably going to break my post down into three segments a) Da Expo & Carb Loading B) The Logistical nightmare of getting to the race & the easy part (aka running)/how the collapsed guy cost me the 23 seconds I'm short of for breaking 1:50 and C) Cheering for the Marathoners/Why Brent and I should be professional cheerleaders/hecklers. It takes me forever to put all my pics in so if I tried to do this all in one post it would be too long for anyone to read and would take me FOREVER!

So, Friday morning we headed in to work. We took a half a day off and let me tell you - working 4 hours is SO much nicer than 8! It was great!! All day people kept asking me if I was running the marathon this weekend. Most people know I ran a marathon in January, so now they assume EVERY race I run is a full marathon. It gets really confusing explaining to them that we were "only" doing the half, they all want to know why I wasn't doing the full. I don't think they understand the training and time commitment of this stuff! The BEST comment was from my boss. He said "You know, if you could still register I might go down there and sign up for the whole thing. I'd really like to do a marathon one day and I think the only way I'd do it is if I just signed up for it and ran it. There's no way my body could take all the pounding of months of training." HAAAAAAAAAAA! So, like any supportive person I said "Oh, it's not too late to sign up. You can register in person at the Expo until 7 pm tonight. You should TOTALLY do it! It would be great." Of course I got lots of stammering and backpeddling. Dumb comments like that fly all over me. People just don't get the serious amount of time and dedication we put in to reach goals like running a marathon.

We headed out of work full of excitement! We stopped for a good lunch of burritos (I swear my body mass is 60% water 40% burrito) and dropped by home to take Pippin out and pick up our race registration cards. I got a call from Triathamom that they were having a great time at the Expo and were going to head back to their hotel before meeting us for dinner. I could already tell she was going to be so nice and a ton of fun!

We headed downtown and were soon part of the throngs of Expo go-ers. CMM has a great Expo, definitely the largest of any of the races I've done. I think ING puts on a better themed race expo, though. In Miami we got tons of really cool freebies with Miami Marathon all over them (like sunglasses, signs, free pictures of us, etc.). We walked around and got our race numbers and then started browsing the booths. We popped into the end of an open panel that the Penguin was moderating. We only got to hear a couple of Q's though. From there we started making our way through all the booths and getting some freebies. We stopped at the Nashville Striders booth to check out any new race brochures and talked with the "head Strider" for a few minutes. He just ran Boston so we talked about that for a few minutes. Then we saw the Miami Marathon booth so of course we had to stop there! I grabbed a 2007 brochure and mentioned to the guy that I ran it this year. That was when we should've walked away!!! He was the medical director and said only 4 people ended up needing attention, even though it was hot. I said 'yeah, it was pretty warm but I drank a lot of water and also splashed quite a bit on my head and face'. To which he replied "Well, really what you should do in those cases is put water in your arm pits and also in your crotch area." Oh dear god. He went on for several minutes about where in the crotch you should be putting water and it was very uncomfortable. Just at that moment we spotted a friend from college (who we haven't seen in YEARS) so we ran away!! If anyone from CMM signs up for Miami after talking with him it will be a miracle! We chatted with B for a few minutes, told her how she was an angel sent to rescue us from crazy Miami man, and continued on our way. Next we stopped at the Fleet Feet booth and chatted with the owner Jill who informed us we were now celebrities. As if we didn't know! She took us over to the I Run for the Party 5K booth - and there we were in life size, full color glory! We had already noticed we're on the front page of the website (2nd picture down - I'm in bright blue and Brent's in white making a crazy face). This same pic was all over their booth AND on the postcards they were giving out!!!! Along with another pic of us where we're front and center!!! How funny. Yup, we do get out from time to time. So there's no telling how many people now have a postcard with two pics of us on it. We chatted with Emmit, the race director, for a few minutes. The trophies for this year's race are SUPER cool and the shirts are really cute, too. Then we stopped in to listen to the Pace Group Clinic and ran into a coworker and someone else we know (the 1:30 half pacer). We couldn't believe we saw so many familiar faces in a packed expo! Anyway, the expo was a lot of fun and Brent even bought a pair of the now discontinued Asics 2100.

But the real excitement was just beginning! It was time for an RBF dinner. I love meeting fellow RBF-ers. We haven't had a bad meet-up yet. When you already know so much about the other people conversation flows so easily. I think we could ALL talk about running all night! We headed over to Tangredi's and right on time Triathamom (A), Marathong Mom (J) - who does NOT have a blog, and two more of their Chattanooga friends came in. I just want to say I think I am THE shortest member of the RBF. Are there any other 5ft2-ers out there????? If so, let's plan a race together! I always look like the shrimp in all the pics. Anyway, we instantly were chatting like old friends. I love it! All the ladies were so sweet and funny, time passed like gangbusters. We talked about running, different race memories we have, all of you fellow bloggers and just shared the craziness of our lives. It was great. No doubt we could've talked all night but someone who will remain nameless was pretty amped about the Daytime Emmys that night. Another world class meet-up!! As Brent and I headed back home they were setting up Centennial Park for the race. This was about the closest I really ever got to the portajohns, if only I had known we should've gotten in the line THEN. This was also the only time I ever saw the "athletes village" where it appears they gave out water and other snacks. Luckily 3/4 of the 23,000 runners were in the portapotty lines at all times so I doubt they had to give out very many of them!

We went to bed at 9:15 and set the alarm for 3:45. Yeah, we live the lives of some wild, crazy 20-somethings. Hard core partying here!!

Part 2 to come tomorrow!! We did an easy 3 mile recovery run tonight, I've found 3 easy miles after a hard race or long run really helps me work the kinks out. We ran "naked" - no mp3 players, Fuel Belts or anything high tech (except my watch). It was nice!!

Have as great a Monday as possible everyone!!!

Rachel

Exercise-
Fri- 1 mile am walk with Pips
Sat-13.1 mile race, 2 hours of cheerleading!!
Sun-3 mile easy run & lots of housecleaning