'Twas The Night Before Race Day

'Twas the night before race day and all through the home
A high-strung runner took deep breaths, finding some inner shalom.

12 hours until the race!  I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!

Let's look at my morning to-do list ...

- Take Marissa to the airport --> Done! She was at her gate with plenty of time to spare AND had free wifi and gchatted me from the flight.

We have a tradition of me taking a picture of her every time I drop her off at the airport. :) Apparently the controversial body scans weren't even turned on today at Hartsfield Jackson when she went through.  How boring.

- Set up internet at the new house --> UGGGGGH this is turning into a process.  I'm trying to get the same internet service provider we had when I used to live there and it's not working.  I called and the woman told me they didn't service that area.  I know they do.  Then I live chatted and the guy told me I had to verify the address by calling.  So I called back and the office was closed.  Then I took a deep breath.  CT friends - what kind of internet do y'all have?


- Buy an inexpensive salad bowl (we're bringing salad to the Lloyds for Thanksgiving and Bruce just called and reminded me that I prematurely packed ours!) --> Done!  I went to IKEA, because they have a good selection of inexpensive multipurpose bowls.

Added bonus:  IKEA is fun to walk around.

And I want that mirror.

(Ahem - Mom)

- Go to the farmer's market (for the last time, sniff) to buy lots of fresh veggies for said salad --> Outsourced to Bruce, who said he would stop at the grocery store on his way home so I didn't have to go out and deal with Atlanta traffic again.  I love my husband. :)

- Hydrate and fuel --> Done!

Lunch was the largest plate of macaroni and cheese ever.  I may never recover.

I'm actually still full from this!  I'm going to keep dinner on the light side.  And my water bottle hasn't left my side all day!

- Pick up and vacuum the living room --> Done!  But I realized through this process that I am definitely going to have to spot clean the carpets after our furniture is moved out.  Oy.

- Do laundry --> Done!  Four loads of laundry, washed, dried and folded!  Except now it's sitting on the living room floor.  I guess that defeats the purpose of the above "to-do".

- Charge my garmin(!) --> Done!

- Pack for tomorrow and lay everything out for the morning --> Done!

I bought a 6 pack of Deer Park water today for $2 at Target, drank two of them and mixed gatorade in the bottles.  I'll carry one when I run and have the other for after the race.  The good thing about these bottles is that they are are pop tops and will be easy to swig from while I run.

(On my longer runs, I've been carrying this Nathan Sprint Hydration Carrier, but I wanted to carry more gatorade than usual tomorrow, so I'm going this route.)

Every laid out!  Notice a color theme?

Bag is packed, chip is ready to go on my sneakers and pins are on the bib so I could put it on in the morning.

I wrote myself a reminder note - with a little inspirational message on the bottom. :)

- Don't psych myself out for the race --> I plead the fifth.  Actually, I'm calmer than I would have thought.  Just ready to run!

***

Oy - I got distracted while I was writing this and now it's after 8:30 - in 12 hours I will be running!  I'm excited, because I'm running with a friend from church, my friend Chris and his sister are running and I've connected with two other bloggers running as well.  I definitely do not feel alone in this.

It's hard to believe that four months ago, when I was still working my way through grueling 24-hour on-call shifts at the hospital, I put this out there as a out-there possibility of something to do post-CPE and now it's almost here!  I've been thinking a lot about my training for this race, its correlation to CPE and the new chapter we are about to embark on soon.  I'll share those thoughts post-race when I'm a little less distracted.  I really feel like something awesome is happening in my life right now!

Alright, it's time for me to take a shower and crawl into bed.  5 a.m. comes early, y'all!  Say a prayer for me!

xoxo
Sarah

(p.s. I'll update as soon as I can on here, but I will be able to tweet from my phone, so check in with me on twitter to find out how I'm doing!)