Marathon Weekend (Pre-Race)

Marathon Weekend

Friday, May 23, 2008 Travel Day

Gerri and I woke early and drove the half hour to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP). We checked our luggage and boarded a flight to Philadelphia. The flight was uneventful, always a good thing when you are flying. Once in Philly, we took the shuttle bus to the main terminal, and then walked to our concourse and gate for the flight to Burlington. The airport was busy, as one would expect on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. We had not one, not two, but three gate changes including having to change concourses the last time, but once onboard we had another smooth flight.

As we got close to Burlington, we could see the mountains as well as Lake Champlain. I had been to Burlington for business and pleasure numerous times, but this would be the first time for Gerri in Vermont. After landing, we gathered our bags, got our rental car and drove the short distance to downtown Burlington. Burlington is a small, very liberal city/town. Lots of free spirits, crunchy granola and hippie types. We parked, walked around the small downtown mall and then ventured out onto Church Street. Church Street is a pedestrian mall, closed to automobile traffic. The street is lined on both sides with restaurants, bars and retailers.

We settled on a recommended restaurant called Sweetwater’s, and had a nice leisurely lunch. Of course we were both anxious about the upcoming race, so our conversation never ventured far from running. After lunch we headed to our hotel, about 3.5 miles south of downtown. We checked into the Comfort Suites, settled in and relaxed for a few hours until it was time for dinner.

We got dressed and drove back to Burlington to meet Norm and Laurie at Trattoria Delia. Norm is an old friend from my days in the video/film industry, who unfortunately I had not seen in about 6 or 7 years. Norm is without a doubt one of the most fun people I have ever been around, and it soon felt just like old times. The restaurant was chosen because I told him that we would prefer Italian, for carb loading of course. Of course I had eaten so much pasta during the week that I ended up ordering a Filet Mignon. Filet in an Old World Italian restaurant? It was without a doubt the tastiest, most tender piece of meat that I ever had the pleasure of eating. After wine, dinner, dessert, great conversation and lots of laughs it was time to say goodbye and get some sleep.

Back at the hotel, I opened up the windows to let the cool evening air flow into the room. We watched some TV and settled in for a good nights sleep.

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Saturday, May 24, 2008 Race Expo

I woke early, the sounds of nature and the crisp morning air coming through the open window. The nature sounds were thanks to numerous birds singing and a woodpecker going about his normal business. Since it was still very early, I laid in bed, enjoying the sounds and wandered in and out of a light sleep. Gerri and I eventually got up and ready to head over to the Sheraton for the race expo. We stopped at a local bagel shop, had bagels and coffee and bought some extra bagels for a late night snack and pre-race breakfast.

After the short drive to the Sheraton, we found the expo and picked up our BIB’s (1259 and 1261), Timing Chips and goodie bags. We wandered around the expo, stopping to talk with vendors that interested us. A few purchases were made during the day including some official race merchandise (t-shirt, 26.2 Vermont hat, Official poster), a few additional shirts, Bondi Bands for Gerri, some Ben and Jerry’s samples, etc. I purchased a copy of Bart Yasso’s book and had him autograph it.

In between wandering around we attended a few of the seminars (Recover and Periodization, Structural Management: The Future of Sports Medicine) and a few adventure films. The first film was A Russian Wave, about whitewater kayakers looking for new rivers to run in isolated parts of Russia. We also saw Running on the Sun: The Road to Hell is 135 Miles Long. This film about the Badlands 135 race across Death Valley served to both inspire and terrify us.

Bill Rodgers was one of the speakers in the last seminar, and while attempting to listen to him, (Bill’s thought process tends to wander all over the place) I decided that it would be cool to have Bill sign our marathon poster, so after the seminar we headed back down to the expo and to the booth that he was supporting. I asked Gerri to ask him to sign it, figuring that he would be more likely to help out a hot blonde rather than a middle aged guy. We had an interesting conversation with him during the approximately five minutes that it took him to complete his autograph, and in fact I’m not convinced that he actually finished or spelled his name correctly.

We then headed out to the ballroom for the pasta dinner. It was still early, about 5:15pm, but we were ready to east some pasta and get back to the hotel. A few other runners joined us at our table, a first time marathoner from Poughkeepsie, NY who hated running and a local running in her 2nd marathon. They were both joined by their spouses neither of whom was running. After a nice dinner and conversation we excused ourselves before the evenings program began.

We stopped at K-Mart so that Gerri could pick up a cheap long sleeve shirt for the morning and then Hannaford’s, a northeastern grocery chain for some power bars, banana and more waters.

A few minutes later we were back at the hotel, relaxing in our room. We watched TV until 10 or 11 and then fell asleep. We were both anxious, but surprisingly calm and relaxed and unlike most races, ended up sleeping very well the night before the race.

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