It has been such a busy week and I have so much to tell you! I guess I'll start at the beginning. In January, I was asked to fill in as a Pace Leader for the 2:45:00 Pace Group. You can read about that here. Our first job as Pacers was to attend a meeting on Wednesday night. We all met the race director at the start line and discussed the Start Line logistics and how the Wave Start was going to work. So there was 7 Waves and each would start 2 minutes after each other. So in other words, Wave 1 went off at 9:00am am, Wave 2 went off at 9:02am, Wave 3 at 9:04 and so on. Afterwards, we made our Pacer signs that we'd be carrying throughout the race. We were also given some pace bands to wear during the race which came in very handy! The volunteer meeting was at the same time and it was kind of neat to get a different perspective of what all goes into hosting a big event. So many details, big and small, come into play.
Here's my sign...my free hand is not so appealing, but you get the idea. I like stencils. I'm not an artist. Sorry I'm not sorry.
The Expo began on Thursday and so did job number 2 for the Pacers. Each of us had to take a 3 hour shift at the Pacers table to answer questions and to introduce ourselves to the runners. I took a slot on Friday afternoon. It was really neat to meet people as they were coming in to pick up their racing packets and answer any questions they had.
Once I got home Friday night, I laid out all my gear and tried to relax.
The weather didn't look like it was going to cooperate, so I wasn't quite sure what I was going to wear, so I set out a few options. Long sleeve, short sleeve? Shorts or Capris? Decisions, decisions.
I'd been so nervous about being a Pace Leader, relaxing was no easy task. In training for this race, I had a lot of setbacks. First off, the Polar Vortex made running outside a challenge. Plus, I was in a car accident and was sick for almost two full weeks. I missed a few long runs and mid week runs, which just made me even more nervous. Was I really ready for this? I felt good about my last long run, but this is an exceptionally tough course, and the weather conditions were not going to help me in any way. Would I be a good leader? What if I couldn't deliver my projected pace time? What if I let a bunch of people down? What if this, what if that? All my questions and concerns would be answered in the morning. Sleep would not come easy, but I knew that I would give it my all out on the course.
Since I'm still wiped out from the race, and I'm watching some Elite 8 games, I'm going to cut this review into 2 parts.
Happy Sunday! Hope everyone has a great week!
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