Here is its, the night before the big race. After taking care of stuff at home my friend and I headed to Arlington. This time I drove…no need to have any metro incidences again. We are so EXCITED about tomorrow! I have no idea how I’m going to sleep! The Bitstrip totally reflects how we’re feeling.

On the way down we talked about our conversations we had with family members regarding a marathon. My friend said that her husband told her when she was a bundle of nerves, “You’ve run 20 miles twice already, it’s only another 6 miles.” her response was, “Can you run 6 miles after you run 20 miles?” Well said my friend, well said!

Then I told her about the conversation that I had with my mother after my first marathon last year.  Okay, so if you’ve been reading my blogs for awhile, you know that my mother is Taiwanese, so you have to imagine this conversation in her Taiwanese accent.

Mom calls: “How was your walkathon?”
Me: “It was fine mom, I ran the whole thing.”
Mom “Oh, you ran it? Did you do it for charity?”
Me “No, I didn’t do it for charity.”
Mom: “So you did it for nothing?”
Me: “Yes, I did it for nothing. That’s why I was running. I was trying to finish the walkathon as fast as I can.”

It always amuses me how non-runners relate to marathons. My acupuncturist asked me twice how long a marathon was. Now, he’s a really old guy and I think he’s hard of hearing, so I’ll let him slide.

Thanks to another friend who was able to hook us up with incredible rates, we’re staying at the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City.  Boy do I wish I could afford staying here every night! The service is amazing and the hotel is just beautiful. If our calculations are correct, we’re about a mile from the start line.

By the time we got to the hotel, I was starving. I hadn’t eaten much today and I could tell that my sugar was dropping. I know better than to allow myself to get to this point, but it couldn’t be helped with the running around I had to do earlier in the day. So, after we unpacked, we grabbed some light appetizers before getting ready for dinner.

We met up with two of our other runner friends and went out and had delicious pasta at Il Radicchio’s. It was absolutely perfect, except for the bread. There was no bread. They said that they had too many reservations and that the bread would take too long to bake, so they just sans the bread instead. how can you not have bread in an Italian restaurant?! Anyway, they made up for it with the food.

Nom, nom, nom

We’re back at the hotel and are settled in. My back is starting to tighten up so my friend suggested that I try Arnicare. Apparently it’s good stuff and I’ve had other friends recommend it to. I’m going to give it a try and see how it goes. Hopefully I’ll wait up with a decent back tomorrow morning.

I’m going to start with the 4:45 group and hope that I can keep up. One of my other running friends picked up a pace bracelet for me at the expo. I totally missed it yesterday, so I’m glad she picked it up.

It’s so good to relax the night before a race with friends to help calm our anxieties. It seems that all of us have gone through states of nervousness, semi-break downs (thanks a lot taper!), and panic attacks. This has really taken a toll on us physically and mentally and I think the best therapy is to be among your running kin commiserating together, encouraging each other, and letting each other know that it’s all okay. We are not weird crazy people, we are runners…it’s the rest of the world that’s weird and crazy.

Crap…just found out we both forgot toothpaste. Anyway, wish us luck! And to all the runners running MCM and other races this weekend, prepare to release your awesomeness!