Indy was Monumental: It's finally here (race morning)!

I woke up about 75 minutes before my alarm on race morning, excited that the day I'd been thinking about for months had arrived!  I relaxed in bed until almost 5:00 a.m., then began making breakfast as quietly as I could while Jon and my dad slept.  I took my time eating, hydrating, checking social media, getting dressed, foam rolling, and doing some glute activation before doing last minute checks of everything and leaving the hotel room around 7:00 a.m. to walk to the elite staging area.

Elite staging area floor - I think I was changing my shoes

I bundled up to walk a few blocks from my hotel to the elite room, since it was 28 degrees with a windchill of 19!  I'd worried all season about marathon weather being too warm (since all of my other races this season were), but that was certainly not the case.  I didn't mind the temperature (although it did force me to wear a full singlet instead of the cute pink crop I wanted to wear), but the wind was brisk, which isn't what you want when nearly half the race is into it.

Like a kid at Christmas!

I left my bag in the elite room, said hi to several runners I knew, used the bathroom, and went back outside to jog a mile.  I then went back inside to stick 3 gels in my pockets and change my shoes before we were called to head to the starting line at 7:45.  We were allowed to keep our warm up clothing on, and had an area to do last minute warming up in.  The start area was very crowded, but the elite area was well-organized and I found Sam and Tawny to line up with.  We started about 5 rows back, a bit behind the 2:45 pacer.  I looked around for my dad and Jon, but couldn't see them - they also later said they never saw me, because they couldn't get to the left side of the start, which was where I lined up since our first turn was left.  Luckily I've given them both hugs when leaving the elite room!

What I actually raced in (plus shoes)

I was relaxed and just treated this like any other run on my schedule; as if my coach wrote "26.2 miles in 2:45:00 or under - first 10K at 6:20, then drop to 6:15 through 20, then see what you have left for the final 10K, but don't obsess with your watch at any point."

The next obsessively detailed recap section is here.