Cleveland Marathon Part 1

The events of Marathon Weekend started on Friday evening with a VIP reception.  Thank you for inviting me Jenn!  It took place at the Hyatt and we enjoyed salad greens, a pasta bar, and delicious cupcakes.  The chef was very accommodating to my dietary needs.  I can't digest olive oil so he made me my own pasta stir fry with vegetable stock and it was delicious.  It was nice to listen to the speakers.  It really got me excited for what was to come.

Saturday morning I was up early getting all of my stuff packed for the marathon.  After I finished packing and picked up the babysitter, I grabbed some breakfast and then headed downtown to check into the Renaissance Hotel which would prove to be the worst hotel experience of my life.  Imagine my surprise upon check-in when I was informed that they couldn't accommodate my request for 2 beds.  I made the request for a reason.  Three people and one bed just don't add up!  The front desk's solution was to send a roll away to our room.  It was blatantly obvious that they knew of the screw up because the roll away was already in the room when we got upstairs.  Cue the housekeeper who knocks on the door to deliver the requested roll away bed.  The poor man was thoroughly confused by the fact that there was already one in the room.  He also couldn't understand how we could possibly fit a roll away in the room without having to crawl all over each other just to use the facilities.  He promptly called the front desk and told them we needed a new room.  They told him that they would call us back which of course never happened.  We headed downstairs to talk with the manager in regards to the situation.  She took my phone number and told me she would call if anything came up.  I did manage to get a free parking pass out of her which was a bonus.  With our room situation up in the air, we headed to the expo.

We arrived at the expo around 2 PM for the blogger meet up.  We were joined by Sara and Connie and we took advantage of the photo-op!

After the photos, we headed to get our bib numbers and goody bags.  Dave was less than impressed with the very female oriented products in the bag.  Pretty sure he doesn't need Lady's Speed Stick or headbands.  He did put the headband on.  Of course over on his blog he mentioned that we didn't get a picture but we so did!  Here's the proof!!

We walked around the expo for a bit and ran into the Cleveland 10 Miler girls.  The girls couldn't contain their excitement when they realized the shirts were pink this year!  I love those girls and I am so glad I got to meet them through Dave!  Thanks for using your "shy" personality to make new friendships Dave!!  After this we continued to walk around the expo.  As I turned the corner to go down the next aisle the word HYPONATREMIA was on the presentation screen.  The slide brought back memory's of last year's Cleveland Marathon where I collapsed at mile 25.52 from this awful medical condition.  After a minor freak out I collected myself and stopped at my friend Katie's booth.  She was in need of a potty break so I worked her booth for a few minutes.

After standing in for Katie, I got in line to meet Bill Rodgers and Anne Audain.  After they signed my bib, we talked briefly about my experience at Cleveland last year, and then we took a few quick photos.  The picture of me with the speakers is too funny because Bill Rodgers is reacting to my story from last year's Cleveland Marathon.

Just before we were getting ready to leave the expo the Good Greens booth was drawing a number for a $100 prize.  As I walked past a little boy, I saw his number and realized he had won the money.  I told his parents to which they said no way.  The little boy was in shock and amazement.  I couldn't help but smile.  It was the perfect ending to the expo.

We headed back to the hotel to find out the status of our room situation.  When we approached the manager again she seemed to have absolutely no idea who we were.  I gave her a quick recap and then she seemed to remember.  She handed us keys to room number two and told us to check it out and see if it was any bigger.  The room wasn't much bigger so we went back down and she handed us keys to room number three.  I was hoping the "third times a charm" saying would come into play at this point.  While the room wasn't huge by any means, we decided we would be able to make it work and took the room.  We moved all of our stuff into magic room number three and then headed out for the pasta dinner at the Hyatt that Jenn had won us free tickets for!  I told Dave it was his job to pick our table because he is a magnet for great conversation.  His table choice did not disappoint.  We sat with wonderful people that had some great stories to share.  As we were finishing dinner Joanna sent me a text and she made her way to our table.  We had a wonderful conversation with her and it was almost as if we had known her for years.  As we were getting ready to head back to the hotel I got a text from Morgan letting me know that she was headed to our hotel because she had goody bags for Jenn and I (thanks girl). She felt bad because she didn't realize Dave was with us so she didn't have anything for him.  I had been looking forward to meeting Morgan all week and Dave was enjoying making fun of me for it.  I will be the first to admit that I have a girl crush on Morgan, and I even told her that Saturday night.  She just smiled and giggled and seemed perfectly fine with it.  Morgan is an amazing writer and I wanted to meet the person behind the keyboard.  Her personality is definitely synonymous with her writing.  Seriously, the girl was hugging us two seconds after we walked up to her in the lobby!  She has an incredibly bubbly personality and a fantastic sense of humor which was evident when she asked the security guard to take our picture and she had the man laughing so hard he could barely keep the camera straight.

After the pictures, we made a final plan to meet in the hotel lobby at 6:00 AM.  We headed to our room and got everything ready for race morning.  We instantly became slap happy and we laughed so hard that I had tears streaming down my face.  Laughter is definitely the best medicine for stress relief.  Jenn and I headed to bed around 10:30 and Dave headed down to the lobby for a bit because as he said it was way too early for him to go to bed.  I slept quite well and woke up easily to the first alarm at 4:30 AM.  I had no idea what would be in store for me....

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!!