Arizona Marathon: Pre-Race

In addition to my summary of the trip ("Seasick in the Desert, but a PR all the Same"), I wanted to add a little more about the race. It was just an amazing experience.

I felt just fine the morning of the race, with the vomiting and vertigo of the day before in the past. We were up about 5:00, with the race to start about 7:40AM. In San Diego the year before, we had to be up about 3:30, so sleeping until 5:00 was great. My roommate, Chuck, is a great guy. It was his first marathon and he was trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon with his time. Obviously he is much faster than me because I couldn’t qualify for the Boston Marathon if someone drove me the first 25 miles. He is active with Team in Training and has helped out with several half-marathons in the capacity of participant and mentor.

We had all of our stuff carefully, some would say obsessively, laid out neatly in our room. You don’t want to forget anything on race day. I ate the bagel and banana that I bought the night before for breakfast, met the rest of Team Virginia in the lobby, got some group photos taken, and loaded up on the bus. We had people on the team from Richmond, Tidewater, Charlottesville, and one young man from Kentucky. We all hung out a few blocks from the race start, chatting and trying to stay warm in the 45 degree air. It was looking like a beautiful day coming up, and everyone was excited. Everyone hit the porta-potties a time or two, including one extra time for me (see my post “O Canada”).

About a half hour before the race, our teammates who were doing the half-marathon said goodbye and left. My tremendous walking teammate, Suzanne, gave me hug and told me that she and her husband Warren would see me at the end of the race. Warren had battled non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2007 and I had written his name on my race shirt. It really meant a lot for her to tell me that she would wait to see me at the end as it would be easy for her to head back to the hotel and get some rest.

After my porta-potty incident with the wonderful Canadian ladies (boy, that sounds a little weird, doesn’t it? Just read my “O Canada” post, OK?) I got in the very back of the marathon pack. I mean, I was in the very last row of participants in the whole race field! When I finally passed the starting line, a number of people were in a cherry picker over the start, including the governor of Arizona Janet Napolitano and a number of famous athletes, most notable Frank Shorter. Mr. Shorter is the first American male to win a gold medal in the Olympics in the marathon. I snapped a quick picture as I got to the start:



Then my race began!