Chapter 2 page 317 - race recap part 1

Thanks to ALL of you who have commented with your support - you bloggers are awesome and I'm beyond thankful for you!!!!!

Let's start the race recap with talking about the day before the race, shall we?

Friday afternoon, we loaded the car and headed 2 hours south to northern Indianapolis.
Here was the official itinerary for the rest of the evening:
5:30 pick up packet
6:00 meet another blogger, Lisa,  from Train with Lisa  (click HERE to see her recap of the race) and her friends at the Olive Garden
8:00 drive the race route
8:45 check into the hotel

But . . .here's how it really played out:
5:15 pick up packet
5:45 pose for a picture by the Geist Half Pace Car outside of the packet pick up (apparently race officials were expecting very fast runners in this race and they needed a pace car???  Most of the races I do just has a cyclist out front leading the way - HA!)

 

All the sudden - very randomly like I'm sure has happened to all of you tons of times, a nice gal offered to take our picture.   I said "Yes, that would be great."

We then get "L" in the photo and as we are arranging ourselves, the guest photographer said "Hi, I'm Lisa."  I was like hmm, random strangers taking our photo never really introduce themselves, but hmmm okay, so I said, "Oh, I'm Lisa too." at least 30 seconds pass . . .  OH WAIT!!!!!!!!!  That's Lisa from the blog Train with Lisa -the one we are suppose to be meeting at the Olive Garden in like 10 minutes . . . .huh?!?!  Lisa is the daughter of "C's" friend "D".  I get "C's" attention (for the record, she didn't recognize Lisa right away either . .  it had been many years since they had seen each other).

6:30 Lisa and her friend Miranda picked up their packets and we all headed over to the Olive Garden where "C's" sister "R" already had put on our names on the waiting list (that was super helpful, thanks "R").  We waited outside for about a half hour (the weather was PERFECT - finally!).  We talked and laughed and got to know each other.

A group photo (minus Lisa's other friend Mandy) inside of Olive Garden

Aren't we a cute bunch?  Front row - Mandy (Lisa's friend), and "L" (my running partner a.k.a. Adams L on 3elles.com); Back row (L to R):  "R" ("C's" sister and awesomely compassionate vet!), "C", Miranda (Lisa's friend), Lisa (from Train with Lisa), and moi.

8:50 p.m. After dinner, "R", "C", "L" and I drove the race route (and talked nonstop about how much fun and delicious dinner was.  We REALLY enjoyed meeting Lisa and her friends - they were a hoot!).  As we drove around, there were race officials setting out barricades and signs - it takes so much work to put on any race, let alone a half marathon and 5K with a field of 6,000.  Although "C" and I had run 10 miles of the route a few weeks ago (click HERE in case you want a refresher), it was the first time that "R" and "L" had gotten a glimpse of the HELLISH HILLS beautiful scenery.

9:30 After our course tour we went to Kroger to get some breakfast items and gum and headed to the hotel.

10:00 p.m. We got settled into our room.  Quick pinning on the bib and blowing up the air mattress and it was off to bed (only 1 more wake up before this thing is DONE!)

Sneak preview of "the outfit"

Have air mattress, will travel :)