Friday Reconnaissance Run and Carbo Loading [Posted Monday, 5/9]

We were up early, about 6:30, for our pre-race reconnaissance run. The five of us gathered outside, as all of the GPS watches (the Austin boys all had one...the Carolina boys eschew such running toys at this point) did their synch thing, and then we had a nice little run. We ran about the first mile and a half of the race course, then turned and ran the last mile or so, pointing out the markers for 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 mile left to go. Especially useful was knowing just how far the finish line would be, and knowing the two spots where there were "false finish" lines (the photographers' perches over the course at about a quarter mile to go, and a pedestrian walkway at about a half mile to go). That's the main thing I want to know about any race: What does the last bit of the course look like? It makes a huge difference as you push hard down the last mile of a race if you know exactly the landmarks down that stretch. The run finished off with a nice little excursion down the canal towpath that winds through Indy. The weather was beautiful, maybe 55 degrees, with full sunshine. It felt warmer than that, though. We ended up doing about 3.3 miles at a comfortable 9:45 average pace. Frank, Alex and I did some striders in the parking lot, like good little Gazelles, and an abbreviated stretching session that we finished later in the room. I felt loose, and all systems said "Go."

After we got cleaned up, the traditional Einstein's bagel snack was next, and then we toured the giant Expo. Packet pickup was totally hassle-free. We picked up a few souvenirs and such at the Expo, and Frank and Alex even took the time to drive the racing simulator that was in the middle of everything. Jeff, of course, saw at least 5 people that he knew there. This wasn't a total surprise, since he is a former resident of Indy, and the running community was about like Austin's...we all sort of know the most active runners in town. The Elite Runners Coordinator was there (another friend of Jeff's), and she told me to tell Gilbert that she wanted him back up in Indy to run the race again. I promised to pass that message along to Coach.

A quick lunch was followed by a driving tour of the race course. As I remembered, it's really really flat. Just a few very minor bumps, but basically board flat. When we got to the Speedway, we went inside, on a whim, and took the van tour of the track. Our little bus held us and a bunch of Mennonite kids there on a trip. It was funny to try to imagine two more different groups of folks.

Once again, I was reminded that the Speedway is big. Really big. 2.5 miles of track, and we'd be inside the Speedway for longer than that. There would be three water stops inside before we exited on the east side. After the tour, we picked up a few souvenirs in the shop there, and then headed on out for the rest of the driving tour. In particular, we noted the 10 mile mark, where Gilbert had advised us to "GO!" for our finishing drive. A quick grocery visit allowed us to procure bananas, crackers, water, and other pre-race essentials. Again, it's all about food and hydration before the race.

We took some time after getting back to prepare our Accelerade and/or Endurox for the next day. We also laid out our gear for the race, and pinned our numbers on the singlets. It never hurts to prepare ahead of time. All my stuff was neatly laid out on one half of my bed.

As an aside, I was amused all weekend watching five different runners all trying to observe their own specific pre- or post-race rituals and timing. I could detect occasional times where one or more guys were having to adjust to another's patterns, and it was sort of a quiet contest of wills to see whose schedule would be followed the closest. I think I was the least structured guy in the bunch, willing to go along with pretty much any time schedule, but I might be wrong about that. :)

After that, we met up with Jeff's friend, Mark, and we had a nice pasta dinner. The waiter was just goofy, though, telling us that he just couldn't understand why anyone would want to run "13 and a half miles [sic]." We all drank water until we couldn't stand it, and ate a couple of helpings of the really good bread, along with our meals. While we waited in the parking lot to leave, we called Gilbert, and got our last words of wisdom from Coach. We were all pretty excited and keyed up by now, with the race less than 12 hours away. By the time we got back at about 9:00, it was time to shut it down. We had set my watch alarm, plus the alarm clock in the room, plus an emergency backup alarm on Alex's phone. Finally convinced that we'd get up in time, it was time for lights out at 10:00. I did a little more reading, but succumbed to sleep pretty quickly.

That proved to be illusory, however. Alex's phone rang at about 11:00, as his Mom called him to return the call that he had made about 3 hours earlier. Alex was so asleep that he thought it was time to get up already. We all crashed pretty quickly after that, though. Then, at 2:50, a loud ringing alarm went off in the room. I thought it was the alarm clock, and in my grogginess, started slapping the clock, trying to turn off the annoying alarm. Frank got up, and he and Alex started staring at Alex's phone, thinking it was Alex's alarm going off. Finally, Frank woke up enough to figure out that it was the fire alarm blaring away. While he went to the door to see what was up, Alex and I started figuring out what we needed to take with us if we had to evacuate (race gear first, of course! :)). The alarm turned off after a while, then popped back on, but it finally quit for good by 3:00. Convinced it was a false alarm, we crashed back into slumberland. It was sort of funny, if we had only been awake enough to appreciate our respective actions. Time to sleep really fast for 2 more hours!