Starting from the Beginning

I took Friday off so that Mom, Karen, and I could visit the Health Expo downtown. This is where we would pick up our race bibs and all of the free goodies that go along with it. We also would be taking the girls to finish their last mile downtown and both errands would be cutting it close even if I went into work for a few hours. About 9:30 Karen and I headed over to Mom's to pick her up to go downtown. We arrived at the expo just about as they opened...Getting our race bibs and Tech Tee's was a breeze...we spent some time looking over the 'Official" race gear in the CMM shop...Mom bought us some pins, and Karen a visor. After we checked out, we drifted into the expo itself...it was full of booths of the companies that sponsored the events, everything from shoes, nutrition, signups for other marathons, Miller Genuine Draft Beer, and even Buffalo Wild Wings were in attendance and thankfully, everyone had free stuff to give away...Along with the free stuff, a lot of folks had set up shop. Some of our friends from Fleet Feet were helping out the Garmin people and also the Brooks Shoes Folks...we took a moment to talk with Christi Beth who was my pace leader the first timeI ran with FF. It was nice to catch up with her. After that we checked out the booth the One More Mile folks had set up. They had a bunch of awesome running shirts...This one was purchased for Mom (for Mother's Day, I know it is early, but it was a great find) and for Karen (mainly because she had to train hung over a few times because of them)...

http://www.onemoremilerunning.com/short-sleeve/will-run-for-margaritas-short-sleeve/prod_535.html

I also took the opportunity to purchase 5 bumper stickers...I got (3) 13.1 stickers, one for each of our cars (of course I told them they could use them if they wanted, or just throw them on the wall somewhere)...I also purchased a "In my dreams, I am a Kenyan"...which I thought was brilliant and something I needed and also in honor of one of my personal heroes John Bingham, a "Waddle-On" sticker...Are they all going to go on my car...probably not, I have to save room for my 26.2 I am getting next year...I only spent $56 which was not bad...a mere fraction of what I will most likely spend at Disney next year. Anyhow...the expo was fun, we finished up and went home. We checked some email and before long, it was time to go get the girls. I pre-made them a pasta meal for their pre-race "carb load"...



After dinner, the girls were ready to rock...here they are with their Longview Running T-shirts and race bibs...



After struggling through some pretty vicious rush hour traffic, we finally made it to LP Field, home to our beloved Tennessee Titans. Here is a picture of the ladies walking towards the stadium...



There was a ton of folks out there with their kids from schools all across Nashville. The Longview Running coaches did a great job keeping the kids occupied while they were waiting for their grades to run. In order to keep things safe, they broke the kids up into grades and gender starting with the 6th grade boys and working their way back to the Kindergarten Boys and Girls...Here is Claire at the Starting line....



After Claire started, I rushed towards the finish line...it took me about 7 or 8 minutes to find a place about 20 yards from the finish line. About 2 minutes after I got settled, I see these three come trucking around the corner...



Claire is on the far left, you can see how fast they were moving...they finished got their medals, and did not even notice that it was Coach Jeff Fisher (of the Titans) that was giving them high fives as they crossed the finish line. One of her friends Mom told them to go get him to sign their shirts...he was kind enough to do so. They were all so excited.

Stalker pic of Coach Fisher...



Now that Claire was done and got her medal...



...all we had to do is wait for Bella to finish. Mom and Karen were at the starting line wait for Bella to start while Claire and I hung out and kept our spot at the finish line. After Bella started, Karen came over to watch her finish...here is one of the pics we got of her running past us...



Kind of a crazy picture, but like Claire, she went buzzing by us and did not notice us...once she finished and go her medal and jacked this picture of her getting her picture taken in front of the 'official' sign...



AND FINALLY, here is a picture of both girls with their medals...



We are really proud of them. They both stayed on task to complete their 25 miles before Friday night, you can see in their faces how happy they were to be done.

We eventually got home around 8:30...Karen and I put out our gear...attached our bibs to our race tees...I was wearing my Fleet Feet Training Shirt and Karen would be wearing her race Tee that she got from the expo...it matched her new visor. After we felt we were ready enough to roll out of bed the next morning put our gear on and leave...we went to bed...at around 10:00 PM. The alarm was to go off on marathon day at 4:00 AM.

to be continued

--I am doctoring some pics of Bella at the starting line and also the pics from the Expo...I hopefully will have them posted to my flickr account at some point soon...

I also did not proof read this at all...there are most likely some grammar and spelling errors...sorry...

j