Fargo Marathon Expo

After driving through some torrential downpours on our trip up north, (thank GOD Megan was driving, I seriously closed my eyes at times) we made it safe and sound to the Fargo Dome!  I knew that EO was shortly behind us on the interstate, and no sooner had we picked up our bibs that I found him.  Why yes, I am jealous that the Boston jackets this year were green, how did you know?  I made sure to stand reeeeeeal close to him in our picture just in case speedy sub-3 genes can be transferred by osmosis.

Megan and I meandered through the Expo and I managed to buy only one thing.  Whoo!  I found a super cute tech shirt with a funky Fargo Marathon map on the back.  Since the race shirts were zip-up long sleeves (super de duper cute!), I figured I was justified in my shirt purchase.  Although, I must say that I am fairly jealous of the guys who got lime green jackets (we had a royal blue color).  And I'm fairly certain the 10k'ers got kelly green.  Green with envy.....

My precious......(es).......

There were some really fab-o signage, so clearly I managed to snap a pic in front of all of them.

Megan and I looking ready to go.

I dare you to count all the turns.... might take you 4 1/2 hours.... ;)

As Megan and I were getting ready to leave the expo, we randomly ran in to Ed, a friend from Dailymile.  He was looking ready to run, as well.

And then of course we randomly ran in to Jeff, one of our favorite running friends who moved away last fall.  It was nice to catch up briefly and to listen to him and Megan talk about missing the marathon maniac aka Jenn.  Luckily for me, I had never been with Jenn pre-race so I didn't get to observe her psychosis first hand, but I had to laugh and it definitely helped to calm me down, since my brain is equally as crazed pre-race. :)

As we were set to leave, the skies opened up to a downpour, so we decided to take a seat and wait for it to let up.  Lucky that I did, because I ended up getting to meet Lisa, a bloggy friend.  Lisa was running her FIRST MARATHON and seemed cool as a cucumber about it.  Also, I'm glad we got to meet up here, because I ended up running in to her 3-4 more times throughout the weekend, and each time I was super scatter-brained and out of it.  Check out her blog because she ROCKED the race, seriously.

After we left the expo it was off to our hotel and then to dinner.  We expected to have a crazy long wait to get seated and to get our food, but we got right in, and our entrees came out when we were on bite #2 of our salad.  It was really really good.  Made me wish we were having that for post-race so I could enjoy some deliciously dairy filled fettucine alfredo and cheesecake for dessert... Mmmmmm.

It was back to our hotel and jammin' to a Lady Gaga concert on HBO while getting everything laid out for our race morning.  Megan and I snuggled up in our full size bed (definitely a snafu on the hotel's part) only to realize that Jenn had tried to call both of us!  We got to skype with her briefly which was great.  So wish she had been there for the weekend.  :)  

Run-domness

Attention:  I apologize slightly for the randomness of this post. You see, I've been practicing doing everything in 9 minute increments to prepare for my SUB 4 finish on Saturday, so clearly my brain can only fire in quick 9 minute flashes as well. ;)



Kudos and threeve bonus points to Bree and Sarah who were brilliant enough to get my sweet Will Ferrell SNL Jeopardy! skit quote.  There was a time in college (really a full semester and a half) where Will Ferrell's Best of SNL dvd was playing on a loop in our dorm room. 

This weekend I was the laziest runner girl tapering for a marathon in the history of the world (bold statements... I LOVE EM!)  Seriously, I went from Thursday to Saturday without a run.  It was a pretty easy decision given the dark/cold/gloomy/rainy/windy conditions.  And likewise, the taper crazies have been lifted as well.  I (and mostly KK) am/are seriously beyond thankful for that.  KK cracked a joke that I should never plan to run a marathon while pregnant, because the crazy hormones from pregnant plus the lose-your-mind insanity of the taper would cause me to end the world.  I told him to shut up and stop joking about me being knocked up.  So that's that.

Go figure, I was rewarded for slacking off on my runs all weekend with a gorgeous sunshiny day on Sunday.  Ignore the fact that it was 20-30 mph winds throughout, that's just come to be expected, ya know? (working on my Canadian/Fargo-ian accent for next weekend!)  I did 8 slow-ish miles for my last long run.  During the last mile I was bored so I did some 100 m. stride/pick ups to keep me from falling asleep on my feet.

Sounds like the plan for the expo on Friday is to be there in the 2-2:30 range.  This gives us 30 minutes of potty breaks en route to the great north.  This will probably not be enough.  Neat.  Let me know (if you haven't yet) if you want to meet up with me and Miss Megan!

And finally (as if this post weren't random enough), I have a fun little poll for you guys.  Except it's not truly a poll at all, but merely a question that I hope you will answer via comments or tweets.  When do you typically start to doubt yourself and your finish goal time in a marathon?  My thoughts: I'm hoping your responses will calm me and prepare me for when those doubts creep up on Saturday, and I'm able to say (in my head of course, because I don't want to be that creepy girl talking to herself while running a marathon), "Well [insert super fast runner friend here] wanted to give up at [insert mile marker here] and didn't and went on to run [insert super fab-o marathon time here] so suck it up and sub 4!"  Annnnnnnnnnnnd go!