Race Report Part I--the pre-race (this is the good, the bad and the ugly and there may be TMI)

*9:55 p.m.(Saturday night)--I finally go down to bed after getting everything prepared (name and "Rockin' Mama" logo ironed on my shirt, bib pinned on my shirt, chip zipped to shoes, fanny pack packed and ready to go etc. etc.) I was exhausted. I took some calming tea and I think it helped. As I fell into bed, I suddenly panicked that I would sleep too soundly and miss the alarm. I had set the alarm on my watch (which worked for every early long run) and the clock in the bedroom. I was having anxiety about sleeping through them. So I took 5 minutes or so to set the other two alarms on my watch for various times that still gave me enough time to meet the girls at 5.

*11:26 p.m. (Saturday night)-- Kenny came to bed and I was still awake. Thank goodness many, many people had warned me that I would not likely get a lot of sleep the night before, so I wasn't super stressed about it. Usually when I stress about sleep is when it doesn't come at all.
*3:38 a.m.-- I woke up, looked at my watch and realized that my alarm would be going off in two minutes. *sigh* I guess I worried for nothing...
*3:45-4:30-- drink a zip fizz (vitamins and caffeine), eat some oatmeal, get dressed etc.
*4:30 a.m.-- I was able to poop a little (yeah) before leaving the house. **This is where the TMI starts. LOL
*4:40 a.m.-- Leave for Jen's house. On the way, I saw a girl walking out to her car in the dark, carrying a white gear bag. I rolled down my window and told her good luck! I was giddy with excitement.
*5:05 a.m.-- We are on our way! Jen's hubby, Greg, woke up at o'dark thirty to drive us to the start line so we wouldn't have to worry about parking, shuttles etc. He was the hero of the hour. Traffic was TERRIBLE and we were crawling up Laurel to the drop-off area. We ended up getting out of the car and walking 5 or 6 blocks to the start area.
*5:45 a.m.-- We decide to use porta-potties first and it was a good thing we did. The closer race time came, the longer the lines got. Second poop of the day... yippee, I am thankful that I got that out of the way [cue the foreboding foreshadowing music...dum dum dummmmm]
*6:00 a.m.-- We drop our gear bags at the UPS trucks. My gear bag had a change of clothes (didn't use), flip flops (needed desperately after the race)and a sweatshirt (definitely came in handy). Afterwards, we stretched for a while on the grass.
6:20 a.m.-- We head toward Corral #11 where we would start. We were all getting very excited. We decided to try to use the potties one more time to empty our bladders before the race. We get in a long line and low and behold, we see our Stroller Strides buddy, Tara!! Out of thousands of people, what are the odds??? Tara trained with the San Diego Roadrunners. She had already signed up for their program by the time we all formed our little "Rockin' Mamas" group. We were excited to see her.


6:25 a.m.-- A lady sings the Star Spangled Banner. I get tears in my eyes. We were still in the potty line, btw.
6:30 a.m.-- The wheelchairs start. Laura decides that she doesn't want to get caught in the back of the pack, so she goes to line up in our corral. We wait a few more minutes and then decide to go with her. Did we really need to go again?? Let's get this thing started!


6:35 a.m.-- The race begins! It takes us about six minutes to get to the start line.

I will post more about the actual race later!