Friday, November 18, 2011

Marathon Eve Eve

Twas two nights before Philly
And I had nothing to fear
Except, for maybe, my belly full o' beer.

Ok, not really full, but there was a delicious microbrew on tap at dinner tonight and I just had to have a sip(s). Probably not the best idea, but bad ideas love company so now I continue to taper while on the couch with a glass of wine. Hooray!?

After a shitstorm of a workweek (bookended by some good stuff on Monday morning and Friday afternoon, fortuantely) I booked fast and hard away from the hospital by 1 this afternoon to head to the race expo. We have a wedding tomorrow evening and I hated the idea of braving the expo on a Saturday afternoon so I fought like a honey badger to get the afternoon off.

I did well at the expo -- it took two seconds to get my number and then I wandered around with Abby and a friend or two of hers while we drank free chocolate milk (wahoo!), free coconut water (sort of nasty) and purchased headbands made out of, I swear I am not making this up, velvet.

WTF? A velvet headband? For $15? Did I really just purchase a $15 (plus tax) headband made out of mofoing velvet? Yes. Yes I did.

But the sign said it wouldn't slip. I am holding the sign to its word -- my hair is sort of short right now and every headband I own either doesn't slip because it is so tight that my skull feels like it is being crushed or so slippy that it's on the ground before I make it to the end of the block so I was suckered.

The race shirt was fine -- I will wear it but I won't snuggle with it in bed or anything. I also picked up my Ronald McDonald House race shirt. I sort of love it. Nice and plain without, like, a giant Big Mac or a scary clown on it. And, although I am generally against wearing new stuff on race day, it is the softest thing of all time. Can't you see the abundant softness bursting through?


I love plain stuff, especially plain black and white stuff. So yay. Something else fun is that today the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House marathon team reached its fundraising goal of $25,000. Thanks to all who contributed. This is the first year the PRMH had a team and I am glad it wasn't a disaster and that we didn't, like, just raise $1.67 or anything.

Race goals? Not a ton. I am going to go out at a 3:45 pace and see what happens from there. Uh, what's a 3:45 pace anyway? 8:38 miles or something? I guess I should figure this out pretty soon.


6 comments:

Kate Geisen said...

Good luck out there!

Gotta love the good race shirts. I've got a trail Sunday, and the shirts sound great. I'm looking forward to one shirt that won't immediately have to put in the quilt pile.

Anonymous said...

Good luck! I am sure you are going to run a great race and then I am going to be jealous that your "bad" race is more than I can ever do. But it's ok! I will forgive pretty much everything just for the fact that you don't like coconut water. I thought I was a freak of nature for not liking this thing that is oh! so wonderful.

Abby said...

They gave me a medium shirt by accident. It comes down to my knees.

Anonymous said...

"Oh, no expectations," she says, "just a really easy, relaxing 3:45 pace." How disgusting. ;)

In your world, raising $1.67 wouldn't have been that bad! The Ronald McDonald House could buy a GPS watch and a pair of cross country ski boots with that!

Enjoy the race!

Laurie said...

Ew, Abby, how annoying. If it makes you feel any better the small wouldn't have been too much help -- it is HUGE on me. Almost to my knees. If I am ever knocked up it might work.

Laurie said...

And Melie -- lets start a support group for people who don't like coconut water. I don't like anything coconut, now that I think about it. Pina coladas? Yuck. Almond Joys? Yuck. Coconut cream pie? Yuck.