Jog a Little, Stretch a Little

Today was damp and cool, in the 30's, but a large crew gathered this morning at 7:45 for the pre-marathon shakedown cruise on the trail. All bundled up, we did a truly easy 2.2 miles, 10:00 pace or so, just to get our legs moving after a couple of days off. 10 x 100m striders followed that, and we checked out the tent village starting to sprout up at Auditorium Shores that will contain all the post-race support activities. It started to drizzle harder, so we moved the stretching first to the sidewalk outside RunTex, and finally we moved inside for a nice warm stretching session. Thanks to RunTex, as usual, for helping us out. We were all over the store, stretching away, and I ended up on a low platform to lead the stretching, which was pretty funny. The energy level was awfully high today, as everyone is anxious for the race to start.

We took some group photos inside, and then Gilbert gave us our last pep talk and advice. It's all up to us, now. I made logistical plans with Alex and Frank for tomorrow's journey up to the start of the race, talked with Pete and Margaret for a while, and then it was time to get going. Hot tea and a bagel with cream cheese at Einstein's made the damp weather go away for a while, followed by the rest of the drive home.

It's time to run.