Thursday and Friday...

Waiting in Nashville…

We arrived in the Music City on Thursday morning to allow plenty of time to get acclimated to the city prior to the big day. We spent the day exploring downtown (something that I did surprisingly little of while I lived in Nashville!).

We started out by picking up our race numbers at the Marathon Expo. I also bought a tube of body glide (don’t ask!) and a fanny pack (a stylish one, if that’s possible) for my gels. After the expo, we went out for an all-you-can-eat Sushi lunch at Ru Sans. After lunch, we spend the afternoon walking around downtown. I took Erica and Karen down 2nd Avenue, up Broadway, and across the Shelby Street Bridge to get a good look at the Finish line at LP field. We had a little fun in some of the country stores too:



After that, I sent Karen and Erica off to the Country Music Hall of Fame and I went with Kim to get a drink at the Yazoo! Brewery. Thursday evening, we went to Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and then I went to meet some friends from Nashville at the Tin Roof and then Sunset Grill for NACHOS!!! What, you don’t think those are the perfect pre-race food?

T-Minus One Day!!

Friday morning, the whole Team got up at 8am to go for a short run and a stretching session. It was warm for the first portion of the run, and I immediately started to get nervous about the race. As we trained almost entirely in the winter, I didn’t feel at all prepared for a warm race! Luckily, by the time we started stretching and walking back to the hotel, the weather started to cool down and the clouds began to cover the sun.

After the run, we headed out for breakfast at a nearby diner, and then to the Race Expo to change our corrals at the start line. I was originally in corral number 9, but our coach suggested that we move up to at least corral 5, so Erica and I went to take care of that before my mom arrived at 11:30am. Once mom arrived, we walked down to American Apparel, a new store on Broadway, so I could buy myself some nice comfy clothes to put on after the race.

After this, we headed back for the Pasta Party. The Pasta Party is an inspirational event for all Team In Training participants in a given race and their guests. In addition to eating plenty of pasta, we got to hear from some amazing inspirational speakers who helped take our minds off of the race and put them back on the real reason we are there: to help raise funds to find a CURE for Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin’s Disease and Myeloma. All New York team members wear “I heart NY” T-shirts to the Pasta Party and each participant is greeted by cheering from TNT staff and coaches. Here’s a really great picture of Kiernan and I at the entrance (and out cheering coaches in the background! The blurry one is Ramon):




The Pasta Party was amazing, and I left feeling more than ready for the race (in addition to very full!). After the Pasta Party, we discovered that our hotel was somehow without water!! Can you believe that?! The day before a marathon, and a water line breaks outside the hotel. So, not only do we have no water, but we also have no toilets (and when you’ve been drinking lots of water, this can prove relatively problematic!). We went straight into a team meeting after the Pasta Party, where we heard many last-minute details about the race and decorated out singlets (that’s the purple tank top that all Team In Training participants wear). Here’s a picture of mine:


Friday night, my mom and I went to Panera and then planned to go buy my usual post-run snack: a Frusion yogurt shake. Unfortunately, the first two places that we checked didn’t have the shake, and we ended up having to get a cab and make him take us all over Nashville to find one!! After a $17 cab ride, we were finally able to secure the Frusion (at the sketchy Kroger, for those who are familiar!) and had back to the room. I got to bed at about 9:45pm in time to get 6 hours of sleep before the VERY early 4am wake-up call on Saturday.

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