Friday, September 17, 2010

Pre Race Spazzing

I am having my usual pre-race day flip out . . . all of it in honor of "Pre"!

As I sit here typing I am in a hotel room along the water, maybe only a mile at the most away from where Steve Prefontaine has been laid to rest. I am ready to rest! Next to me I plugged in my portable DVD player and am watching Fire on the Track - the Prefontaine documentary. It's a good one, I suggest watching it if you get a chance!

I imagine I'll be asleep really fast. I've been going non-stop all day. After work I finished packing and got on the road for my 90 mile drive to Coos Bay, Oregon. I checked into my hotel, which seems to be pretty nice for Coos Bay. I couldn't get my room door open, so I had to lug my stuff back to the front desk and get help. Oh yeah - remember that last posting about how I can't travel light? Let's take a look at what I have in my room right now. Mind you I am only in this room for less than 24 hours, and tomorrow afternoon I'll be heading back to my own house.
That would be one purse, 2 totes, 1 small suitcase, a spare beach towel and a "security" blanket to help me sleep.  For one. freaking. night. This doesn't include another jacket in my car, the one I was wearing, a banana, and a cooler full of water and Power Ade!

Okay, so what else? Um, I left my room and stopped at a grocery store to see if there was something I could just fix in my room since I notice I have a microwave and fridge. Eh, not really. I wanted pasta! So I drove 3 miles down to the casino. There was a 24 hour restaurant and I was thinking maybe they'd have a little bit of everything. Whatever - I was so very wrong. I turned around and went back to my car. I settled on a place called the Kozy Kitchen. It was kind of a mom and pop diner with old fashioned home-cooked style food. No pasta. Darn it. But I was so hungry and tired, I was just going to eat there no matter what. It was good. Let's take a look!
A Glamour magazine, French toast and hashbrowns. I didn't eat it all, but what I ate was yummy!

On the way home I saw the street I'd be starting the race on in the morning. I decided to turn down and check it out. What I didn't realize was I was driving the wrong way down a 1 way street. You'd think the barricade in the road would have stopped me? Ha - no.  So a little turn around, and I was heading back toward the hotel. But then I saw another street name I knew. This was Pre's street. I admit it, I totally stalked his mom and drove by her house! We run by it tomorrow, but I wanted to stake it out so I would know what to look for in the daylight. It was really cute!

One final detour to go find the Catholic church area where packet pick-up will be. Found that, plenty of parking, I felt better. Turns out there is also a big festival going on this weekend, complete with a parade! So tomorrow might be a challenge. I'll be sure to be out of my room early and allow enough time to get parked before the spots are gone.

I've combined everyone's suggestes from the prior blog, so I'm not flipping out about tomorrow anymore. Thanks for all the comments!!  My final decisions will be made when I see what the weather will be. Basically it is going to be windy and rainy. My camera phone sucks when it is moving, so I might be brave and ditch the phone in the car, and just use my SPIbelt for my camera if the rain gets bad. I've used my camera for all of my races but 2, and it doesn't phase me at all, so that's good!

I think that is enough random babbling. Time to sleep. I have just under 12 hours until start time now!



5 comments:

Thanks for reading my little blog, your comments rock my compression socks!! ºoº