Grandma's Marathon: Pre-race excitement

This is post 1 in my Grandma's super lengthy comprehensive recap series; my main summary post can be found here, and it contains links to all of my other posts about the race.

My trek to Duluth with my parents began on Thursday morning.  We left from the Kansas City area in my parent's RV, after a friend was kind enough to accommodate me on Wednesday night and let me leave my car in her extra garage stall for nearly a week.  We spent the day on the road, and since I was riding in the RV I was able to sleep in a bed, cook in a microwave, foam roll, and pee all without stopping!

Foam rolling while rolling down the road...

We hit the expo on Thursday evening to avoid the crowds.  I typically don't dawdle at race expos, but get my packet, take photos, and get out.  I didn't buy anything (also the norm), but picked up a few free items for Albani.

We did stop to write on the pace car.

Matthew 10:27b

 And my parents participated in the photo ops!

I ran into a couple of women who I've connected with thanks to Strava and Instagram, Tawny from Utah and Susan from Arizona.  Tawny was also trying for the 2:45 so we talked about strategies (her training was amazing but race day just wasn't her day).  Susan was trying for a decade PR, and she ended up getting it by running 2:52 in her 50's!

Since I ran Grandma's last year, I knew what to expect for the most part.  However, last year I had an elite entry, and this year I applied too late to get one, so I certainly realized even more how spoiled I was last year!  The "non-elite" logistics were still very easy to navigate and everything ran smoothly.  You can really tell that the race organizers know what they are doing, and the whole race seems to run like a well-oiled machine.

Friday we did several activities in Duluth, which I'll write about in my upcoming Grandma's + vacation post.

Race morning I woke up around 3:45 a.m., mostly just really excited.  I didn't really get nervous for this race at any point; I was just ready to go!  I got out of bed around 4:30 a.m. and ate, dressed, foam rolled, double checked my bag, etc. before giving my parents final hugs and hopping onto the 5:30 a.m. bus that would take me to the starting line!

Everyone was wearing random throw-away clothes

Mine was a 1998 Circle High School sweatshirt, but my
coach's husband ended up saving it for me so it lives on!

On the bus I took an open seat near the front, and was later joined by Kati, a runner from Minnesota who I chatted with on the ride.  She went on to run a 25 minute PR (I know this because we are now friends on Facebook)!  She was kind as could be, and after the race even messaged me to ask if I hit my goal.  The bus ride went by quickly, and excitement continued to build for all of the runners.  It's hard to match the energy of a bunch of marathoners who are fully tapered and dying to bust out some miles!

The story continues here...