Flying Monkey Marathon Race Report - A

Hey guys!! Guess what - even though we didn't travel I think this will still be a multi-part post! I have so many pics to upload and for some reason our internet keeps going in and out so I think that will make it easier, plus this thing has gotten pretty long.

Saturday we just really tried to rest, which was awesome. We took Pippin over to Shelby Park and went for a nice walk. It rained a ton last week so he hadn't gotten to play much and he was ready to burn some energy. He even wanted to chase these cyclists so we ran behind them for a little while. (We could have so taken them if we wanted to.) For lunch we decided to try San Antonio Taco Co over by Vandy. The place is always packed so we figured it had to be good. Wrong. Ugh, that was soooo incredibly nasty. Here's how bad it was - I ordered the beef enchiladas and Brent ordered the chicken enchiladas. I didn't finish all of mine (mostly because it was gross) so he decided to finish it off. Ends up that I had his chicken and he had my beef - and we didn't even REALIZE it until he ate part of mine. Totally unidentified meats at that joint. And one thing you don't want the day before a marathon is unidentified meat!! Not feeling so well anymore we headed home and watched the Michigan vs OSU game. We saw all but the first quarter making that the most football I've watched in probably 3 or so years.

For dinner we stuck with the tried and true Italian joint a few blocks away (Ricci's on Fatherland and 7th). When we were ordering Brent was asking me which type of pasta he should get and mentioned to our awesome waitress that we were running a marathon the following day. When she left a couple of ladies a few tables over said they overheard our conversation and wondered if we were running the Monkey. Small world! They were not running (smart ladies) but were both runners and very familiar and involved in the local running scene. We chatted for a bit and on our way out we stopped by their table. As we were talking one of the ladies put together my real name (Rachel) with my name on here (Rae-which I've always used a lot because it's just shorter) and asked if I blogged. REALLY small world! It's always funny when you find out someone has read your blog.

We came home and laid out our clothes and got all our gear ready. The weather forecast was for clouds, 10-12 mph winds and feel-like temps in the low 30's. I really hate to be cold so I decided to wear tights with a long sleeve tech and a thin jacket. By 9:15 we were asleep......

5 am came waaaay to early. We ate our Panera Bread muffins and headed out at 6 am. We got there right around 6:30 with pretty much everyone else! Packet pick-up had opened at 6 but most everyone arrived around the same time. The line moved really quickly and I ended up chatting with the people in line around me as Brent moved the car closer. I ended up meeting a lady I have some serious respect for. She's basically legendary in my books, and I've seen her a million times but just never talked to her. Lord knows how many marathons she's run - and she ran a 50 miler 2 weeks ago!! That conversation alone was worth the entry fee price for me.

We got our bib numbers - I was #3 and Brent was #4 - we were ordered in the sequence we had signed up for the race. Obviously B & I are top seeded in the "crazy" department. We got our personalized long sleeve tech shirts - how cool is that!! We were talking to a guy who had run over 150 marathons and he mentioned that was his very first personalized shirt. I am totally going to wear my shirt everywhere!! Before the race we also got to meet LPM in person and also had a quick word with T, the race director. A few pics were taken, some announcements were made, and we were off.