Race Day...Hiccups

First off, for those interested, I do still plan to post about our Gore-Tex TransRockies Run experience. There is just so much I want to say.

On another note though, I LOVE running marathons! One of the cool things about marathons is that you can prepare, train, visualize,  organize and study profile maps prior to race day; but come race day, anything can happen prior to or during the race.

Ben and I ran another marathon on Labor Day (I will review the race in another post). We felt pretty prepared for it after coming off of such high mileage during the TransRockies only a few weeks before. We packed up with all our gear (and some extra to be prepared) and headed to Colorado Springs. Needless to say, my allergy meds, which I rely heavily on (especially as seasons change), conveniently jumped their way out of my bag prior to leaving. I added some Benadryl to my bag of electrolyte tabs and mentally psyched myself out of thinking anything could be wrong.

We arrived at the pickup spot on time. However, the buses ended up leaving a few minutes late which caused a time crunch at the start line. Conveniently, at the start line location, there were too many runners for the porta potties that had been provided. As the announcer was making the five minute call, I decided to skip the line and head to the bushes. I found the prime spot, took care of business, and headed out of the bushes to meet Ben near the start chute.

 I felt something weird on my shin and when I looked down, I thought I had mud on my shin. As I wiped some away into the grass, I quickly realized the smell was much more reminiscent of poop that it was of mud, and I started to panic as the announcer was counting down the minutes to start. Ben sprayed water from his hydration pack onto my leg as I frantically wiped it away and stifled a gag. When we got to the chute, it occurred to me that I had more than just a unique runner smell… I smelled like crap. What a great way to start a race.

The race started without another hitch and no one did ever comment on me smelling like crap, which was a really good thing. That said, throughout the entire race, I had to be so very conscious of not using my hand to wipe sweat off of my face or high five people as I ran by. I was so relieved to finally have clean hands as soon as we were done!

I will continue to embrace the unknown of the marathon, but I can tell you that from now on, I will always look before I squat!!!