I don’t even know where to begin, but I guess I’ll start with my pre-race day prep. All week I was doing what I could to make sure that I was hydrated by drinking coconut water, which I don’t particularly care for, Gatorade, and of course, water. I was also trying to eat whole nutritious foods to carb up. According to Jeremy Hoefs of Livestrong.com, “Marathon runners follow a carb-loading approach to nutrition during race week and the day before the marathon. This temporary diet change calls for an increased carb intake that results in your body filling the muscle glycogen stores that supply energy as you run.”

I got a message from Troy on Friday saying to be sure I eat a lot of bread and fruits. YAY! My two favorite things! But, there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

I started out with a gigantic raisin bagel.

Then I had a roll.

And I didn’t forget the fruit! I had cantaloupe and pineapple.

And I swear cookies counted as carbs, right?!

Oh yeah, more fruit…there were grapes.

And then I felt like I was going to explode. By this time I had spent the last 9 hours or so eating and eating. My stomach was so full that I waddled like a duck. Then it hit me…I scheduled a pre-race massage.

Now, I don’t know if you remember a while back when I had a massage and well…you know…there was a $5 fart. Well I was sure that was going to happen again. WHAT WAS I THINKING?! UGH. I really wanted the massage to help relax my tight calves and Achilles, so I went anyway hoping all would go okay. Thankfully it did, although I couldn’t totally relax…just in case. By the way, if you’re in the Baltimore area and are in need of a massage, I highly recommend Paiton Milbourne. Tell her I sent ya!

After the massage, I continued with eating. Had to have a my obligatory banana for the potassium.

And then spaghetti with meat sauce.

Which was totally YUM!

And of course more bread. By the way, did you know that white bread is easier to digest than whole wheat bread? I was solely a whole wheat bread eater until I became a distance runner. Now when I carb load pre-race, I switch to white bread so that I minimize the risk of gastrointestinal issues on race day.

And my final piece of fruit for the day, an apple.

Full and relaxed from my massage, I started to pack my race bag. I created my “Rookie” sign so that I wouldn’t get ran over on the trail and I created my #RunforJaime sign as I was dedicating this run to Jaime Rowley of Ashburn, VA who was out for a morning run on Wednesday (3/12/2014) when she was tragically struck by a car. While I didn’t know her personally, she was a friend of a dear friend of mine and running in her name was important to her. A support page has been created for her two daughters. http://www.gofundme.com/7hy03o

I could’t decide if I was going to use a belt or a vest. I was leaning towards a belt, but I just didn’t want to get there and wish I had a vest – so I prepared both of them. I packed:

• Salted Caramel Gu’s (not enough…more on that later),
• PlowOn gum, which added a spring to my step on race day,
• water and Gatorade mix for my hydration belt and vest,
• cookies…because apparently it’s an ultra runner thing and I’m not taking chances on braking ultra runner rules,
• my Garmin and my friend’s Garmin, figured better to have two in case one died (and one did die)
• extra shoes,
• extra socks,
• moleskin and blister patches just in case,
• a couple of hand towels,
• change of clothes,
• and my coveted flip flops.

I thought that I would have trouble sleeping, but because I ate like a pig all day long, I was fighting food coma in the end. My nerves from the week had finally settled down, well for the most part. The only thing I worried about was my nutrition. All the eating I did was either going to help or hurt me during the race and I hoped that it wasn’t going to cause an issue. I went to bed thinking, “This was going to happen. I was going to be an ultra runner.”

 

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