AM: 45 mins.
6 miles
PM: 3 miles + strides
Welcome to the longest day of my life. I mean, not literally, but it had to be up there. It all started when I woke up early to finish packing and squeeze in a run prior to meeting Scott and Mike. My run was pretty craptastic but I'm not super concerned about it. We left for the airport at 9:30, eager to get to California so we could mentally and physically prepare for tomorrow night's races.
The first leg of our trip, Charlotte to Phoenix, commenced just a few minutes off schedule. We were in the air by 11:30 but, to our dismay, were seated in the very back of the plane. As in, literally the very back seat. As the flight progressed it became increasingly apparent that we would be cutting it very close for making our connection in Phoenix. The time between flights was a mere 30 minutes, which is pretty iffy even under the best of circumstances, and these certainly weren't the best of circumstances. By the time the entire planeload of people filed out and we made it into the terminal, we were looking at about 15 minutes until our flight was supposed to take off. "Don't worry," the flight attendant on our flight had said, "they know you're coming."
Well, they may have known, but they certainly didn't care. We reached our gate at 1:24 only to discover that the boarding door has been irreversibly closed at 1:22. FML. Long story short, we ended up getting booked on the next flight...which didn't leave until 5pm Pacific time. Sigh. I suppose the silver lining is that by the time we arrived in San Jose, procured our rental car, checked in to our hotel, changed clothes and headed to Stanford for our shakeout, it was well past 9pm. Since I'm not racing until 10:10 tomorrow night (which will be 1:10am to my poor, bedraggled body), at least I would have a chance to simulate what the late-night running would feel like.
To my pleasant surprise, I felt amazing on tonight's jog. I guess what everyone says is true; the air around here is magical. Mike, Scott and I opened up the run by taking in a few laps on the Stanford track. Talk about surreal; to think that the very place where I was casually jogging tonight would be the site of my long-awaited race tomorrow night was hard to wrap my brain around. There were a few other athletes milling around and getting in their last-minute race prep (including Sara Hall, who was apparently just learning how to go over the water barrier for her debut 3000m steeplechase), and after a few laps we decided to cruise down the bike path/gravel trail around campus for the rest of the jaunt. I finished up on the track around 22 minutes for some stretching and a few strides. The air was completely still, as evidenced by the motionless flags hanging on the pole, and I can only hope for a replica of tonight's weather tomorrow.
Once Mike and I were finished with our respective routines, Scott picked us up and we packed it in for the night. I'm exhausted and need to get in a good night's sleep. I'm also beyond nervous and could very well vomit by the time you're reading this. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
6 miles
PM: 3 miles + strides
Welcome to the longest day of my life. I mean, not literally, but it had to be up there. It all started when I woke up early to finish packing and squeeze in a run prior to meeting Scott and Mike. My run was pretty craptastic but I'm not super concerned about it. We left for the airport at 9:30, eager to get to California so we could mentally and physically prepare for tomorrow night's races.
The first leg of our trip, Charlotte to Phoenix, commenced just a few minutes off schedule. We were in the air by 11:30 but, to our dismay, were seated in the very back of the plane. As in, literally the very back seat. As the flight progressed it became increasingly apparent that we would be cutting it very close for making our connection in Phoenix. The time between flights was a mere 30 minutes, which is pretty iffy even under the best of circumstances, and these certainly weren't the best of circumstances. By the time the entire planeload of people filed out and we made it into the terminal, we were looking at about 15 minutes until our flight was supposed to take off. "Don't worry," the flight attendant on our flight had said, "they know you're coming."
Well, they may have known, but they certainly didn't care. We reached our gate at 1:24 only to discover that the boarding door has been irreversibly closed at 1:22. FML. Long story short, we ended up getting booked on the next flight...which didn't leave until 5pm Pacific time. Sigh. I suppose the silver lining is that by the time we arrived in San Jose, procured our rental car, checked in to our hotel, changed clothes and headed to Stanford for our shakeout, it was well past 9pm. Since I'm not racing until 10:10 tomorrow night (which will be 1:10am to my poor, bedraggled body), at least I would have a chance to simulate what the late-night running would feel like.
To my pleasant surprise, I felt amazing on tonight's jog. I guess what everyone says is true; the air around here is magical. Mike, Scott and I opened up the run by taking in a few laps on the Stanford track. Talk about surreal; to think that the very place where I was casually jogging tonight would be the site of my long-awaited race tomorrow night was hard to wrap my brain around. There were a few other athletes milling around and getting in their last-minute race prep (including Sara Hall, who was apparently just learning how to go over the water barrier for her debut 3000m steeplechase), and after a few laps we decided to cruise down the bike path/gravel trail around campus for the rest of the jaunt. I finished up on the track around 22 minutes for some stretching and a few strides. The air was completely still, as evidenced by the motionless flags hanging on the pole, and I can only hope for a replica of tonight's weather tomorrow.
Once Mike and I were finished with our respective routines, Scott picked us up and we packed it in for the night. I'm exhausted and need to get in a good night's sleep. I'm also beyond nervous and could very well vomit by the time you're reading this. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
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