It was a short night. Got off work at 11:30 PM came home. Made dinner and watched a movie. Organized racing paraphernalia so wouldn't be too stressed in the morning. Finally went to bed around 2 or 3 AM. First Alarm went off at 5AM ...Hit the snooze button...a couple of times! Finally staggered out of bed and got Leta up and moving. I was taking Leta so I could snooze whilest she drove me to the race....ahhh you know what the say about the best laid plans. Anyhow, she wasn't feeling real well and had taken meds for her headache, in addition to her 'normal' meds, so I ended up driving.
We both needed caffeine (to understate the obvious!), but since we were already running late, I didn't want to head through town to our McDonalds, so I thought we would stop at the one in Comfort, which is on the way. We got to Comfort and pulled up to the Drive Thru order station, after waiting about 5 minutes without anyone taking our order or even acknowledging we were their, we pulled over to the gas pumps, as we needed fuel. (Note to Self- next time make sure fuel is in the car prior to race day!) I started the pump and and gave Leta the debit card to go get the coffee and Coke.
I finished pumping the gas and got back in the car, and pulled over to the MacDonald's...and waited...and waited and waited, finally Leta came up and although she had the drinks, she was upset because it took so long, the workers didn't speak English, the place was filthy and even the customers were arguing in the store. As we started off and were getting on the highway, I realized I didn't know what I had done with my wallet. I stopped on the entrance ramp and hopped out of the car, because I could remember placing it on the roof of the car, as I got the gas. Leta looked in the back seat and said "its on the floor in the back". I glance back there and will swear I saw it too. I jumped back in the car and off we flew towards San Antonio.
Part of my preparation for the race was jotting directions on a sheet of paper to the race location,AND downloading the GPS and driving instructions into my new "droid" smart phone. Unfortunately I knew I had the phone which will tell you things like "in a quarter mile turn left onto the ramp" so my notes I wrote by hand were rather cryptic (errr sounds alot better than "messy", ok "unreadable"). I knew how to get very close to the event (held this year at Heros' Stadium in San Antonio) but not the final .5 miles which had about 6 turns! In any case as we approached the final half mile, I handed Leta the phone, which had been resting on my leg the entire trip from Comfort to San Antonio, so she could relay the directions. Of course the phone shuts off as I hand it too her! So I pull over on the exit ramp, and find my hand written notes! Turn left on to Starlight instead of right onto 1000 Oaks (which is the address of the stadium!) Turn left again.... only problem I made the 2nd left about 1000 feet too soon and got on a "highway" and could only look down at the stadium and the people streaming to the race!
Now in San Antonio, the generally don't like the concept of "blocks" so it is sometimes difficult to just "go around the block" to get back to where you need to be, but in this one case, we finally lucked out and were able to circle back to the stadium. I got parked and made it over to the registration table and was one of the last ones to pick up my packet (shirt, timing chip, etc). Even that gave me a scare, as my was filed out of order and it took the official 3 or 4 tries to find it, even though there were only like 10 other packets there! I took the "goody" bag back to the car, and returned to the starting area and got there just as they finished the National Anthem, and then they started the race.
I loved the first part of the race as it was on grass and after walking 3 or 4 minutes I jogged the next 10 minutes. My first mile was mile was 11:48! Each progress mile was slower though and I finished with an average pace of 12:51. The next part of the race was through the parking lot and around the stadium. There was lots of water stations and even some shade. Then after we had looped around a bit we head up a hill! Yikes! Our own "Heartbreak Hill". I even passed "Scotty" ("The Cancer Guy" I've chased for a couple of years!....I even thought I might beat him to finish... Since he was still stopping to take pictures and meet with people! Alas he got me on the final leg home....
I finished felling pretty good, and again they handed out chilled wet washcloths at the finish line. I headed back to the car and we looked for the wallet again, and now we couldn't find it. So we stopped at the gas station and McDonalds to see if anyone had found it, and retraced our steps looking in and along the road for it, but never did see any sign of it. I made it home just in time to take a shower and headed to work, wearing my new (and very cool) tshirt from the race, as we could wear anything that was red, white and blue!
