Frederick Report -- Part II

(ORIGINALLY POSTED 5/5/08)

The alarm was set for 4 am but, like every other day this week, there was no need as my body woke me at 3:30. Might as well get moving!

Everything had been laid out the night before. All of the body ointments, sun block, etc. all lined up in the bathroom like good little soldiers. Clothing all set in dining room. Morning nourishment ready to be consumed. I thought through very carefully areas where I had previously had issues -- chafing around the waistband of my shorts, rubbing of my arms and thighs. Got those areas all glided up. Took some ibuprofen. Even had time to brew a pot of coffee and drink a cup. Then it was 15 minutes of stretching at home.

Dave was picking me up between 4:50 and 5:00. Dave is NEVER late. The day we met at the gym at 5 am for a long run -- I arrived at 5 till, Dave had was there 10 minutes before waiting for me. At 4:50, my cell phone rang. It was Dave. "SHIT! My two alarms didn't go off -- I'm leaving in 5 minutes -- sorry!" Okay, this wasn't part of the plan.

I think I just walked around the house aimlessly. Too much nervous energy. I waited outside and Dave pulled up at about 5:15. We were off -- Dave driving like a bat out of hell. Once we hit I-70, it seemed like every car we passed had a "26.2" sticker on the back bumper. At least we knew we wouldn't be the last to arrive.

There was an option for me to stay at the hotel in Frederick, but I decided against that. Riding with Dave was perfect. He'd been my personal "coach" really since the beginning of this journey. Not the training part, but the real beginning, in July, 2006. This was perfect. Dave said he knew this day would be here a year before, when we went to Delaware. Certainly not this specific day, but the day I would run a marathon and that we would do it together. When I commented to him in the lounge the night before his DE marathon and my 10 miler that next year we'd run one together, it was just one of those things you say that sounds good. To me it would be a dream, but I couldn't imagine all the effort that would be required to make it the full distance. Here we were, 50 weeks later, going to run a marathon. Together.

Dave pulled off the exit into traffic headed to the fairgrounds. Traffic was moving, but slowly. We pulled into the parking lot at about 6. Just 30 minutes to the start. Dave got a quick picture with his camera phone and I headed of to the TNT tent. "Good luck, man, you'll do great!"

In a way, the delay served as a distraction to the miles ahead. Once I arrived, there was really no time to do anything other than the business at hand. Drop my bag at the TNT tent, find a restroom (nothing like the camaraderie of 6 guys sharing a dumpster) and get to the start. I was looking for Terry and Laura -- since I had run with them at some of our weekly TNT long runs, I thought it would be great if we ran together, at least through their half marathon. I found them along with lots of other TNT'ers and we waited for the start.

Finally, 6:30 arrived and we were off. 26.2 miles to go. . .

L'Chaim!