Austin, Texas United States Freescale 65F / 18C Overcast

Total Time = 3h 46m 20s Overall Rank = 193/1885 Age Group = F25-29 Age Group Rank = 35/361

I AM THE MARATHON MASTER!!! 3:46 BABY!! My previous marathon personal record was a 4:38...I shaved off 52 minutes!! Bring on the Ironman, I ain't scared!! Okay, someone get a hold of me before I get drunken with power, lol. I'm just so excited with my run today.

Pre-race routine: I drove to Austin on Saturday and picked up my packet at the Palmer Events Center. Then I walked around the expo. I bought a pouch that goes on to your race belt to carry my hammer gels. After leaving the expo, I checked into the hotel around 3:30 pm. I decided to try out my little pouch. I loaded it up with gels and then jogged around the room. It bounced all over the place. Oh no no no! This will certainly not work. No problem, I can solve this. I brought a cycling jersey to wear in the run. I put one gel in each of the three pockets (they didn't bounce around with my race belt around my waist to hold them down), then I could put three down my sports bra (one advantage to being a woman), and then I would hold one in my hand and take it after the first half hour. My best friend showed up around 5:00. It's tradition for me to go eat at the Spaghetti Warehouse whenever I'm competing in Austin so that's where we ate. We came back to the hotel where I was planning to take a shower and go to bed around 9 or 10, but we got caught up watching the Blue Collar Comedy Tour on Comedy Central (I have seen it before, but it just cracks me up...probably because a lot of it hits too close to home). So, I ended up going to bed around midnight.

I woke up at 4:00 am to eat my power bar and drink some oj, then I went back to bed and reset the alarm for 5:15 am. I of course, couldn't sleep so I woke up a few minutes before the alarm went off and I hear it pouring rain. I yell, "No, no no!" My best friend jumps up, "What?!" "It's raining!!" She tries to calm me down and tells me that it will stop before the race starts. All I can think about is how much it's going to suck to run with wet feet. I get ready for the race, but I am always so nervous before events and just going spastic. I ate 4 pb crackers. Once I think I'm ready we start to gather up our stuff to head down and check out. That's when we hear the hotel-rattling thunder. I'm quickly losing hope. Why didn't I think to get any rain gear when I saw everyone and their dog buying the stuff the day before at the expo. I really should have expected it because whenever Lindsay and I get together it always happens (I don't think I can remember a single camping trip where we didn't get rained on at least a little bit). We go downstairs to checkout and a couple of women are also checking out and they ask the clerk for some trash bags. Great idea! So I get one too. Whose trashcans are these? Jolly green giants?? I'm tripping on it, it's so long. But hey, I'm covered. Lindsay drives me as close as she can to the start. I leave my car keys with her. We planned to try to meet up at the finish line, and if we didn't find each other, I would take the shuttle back and meet her at the hotel. So, off I go in the rain towards the starting line in search of the porta-potties. I get there and I'm like...I feel like I'm missing something. It was warm enough that I was just in a short sleeve top and some spandex shorts (and one super duty trash bag). I've got my gels, my ibuprofen, tums, number...that's when I look down at my feet. My race chip! I left it in my bag which is in my car, which the keys are with Lindsay, who is now gone. I start to panic; that's what I get for being so concerned about the rain...I couldn't think clearly. I run to the bag check and they send me to the information booth where I was greeted by a nice lady who said no problem. All I had to do was turn in my number and get a new number with a new chip. I was kind of sad to give up my number because the numbers were really cool, they had your name typed big across the top so people would know your name. But I would rather be counted so rather than being runner 4079, I was now number 262. Whew, crisis averted and I still had time to go to the bathroom. By this point it had stopped raining, but as I stepped into the porta-john I hear the rain start to beat down. Hmmm, perhaps I could just chill in here until the race starts, lol. After leaving the bathroom I headed to the start and just lined up where I fell...the 3:45 pace group. I was thinking to myself, I should move back, there is no way I will even see this group out on the course. I took my ibuprofen and tums, and was ready to go. The rain even stopped, hooray! I'm saved! So I ditched the trash bag as we walked towrads the line. Warm-up, other than jump-starting my heart with the chip scare would be the 3 min. walk it took me to cross the start line.