It’s 5 am now and in just an hour, I’ll be on my way to Portland . I’m expecting the drive to take me about ten hours , which should put me there by late this afternoon. The drive is just over 600 miles from where I live and 550 miles of it, is on interstate 5. , so it shouldn’t be to difficult.
I’ve never been north of the California , so this should be a non boring for me. I think it’s so cool when you get to cross over state lines to visit a place you’ve never been.The last long drive I did was San Francisco to Las Vegas ,which is about the same distance. Of course, the scenery was completely different.
Saturday will be a day of checking out the local sites and familiarizing myself with the general lay out of the town. I might also take the tour of the marathon route to see what I’ve gotten myself into. I also wanna scout out potential parking spots in advance . My hotel is a full mile from the starting line and I don’t wanna walk it the morning of the race. Normally , Id use that mile as a warm up, but with 26 in front of me, I don’t need the extra one.
At the Expo I’ll be hooking up with Phatgirlwalking and do some last minute shopping. I need something that I can wrap around my wrist to carry all my pills.
Later in the day I’m hoping to meet Pam of Walk About Magazine She’ll have a booth there. Her magazine is publishing a story about me in their fall issue.
Sunday morning will probably begin much like every race ever I’ve done… EARLY!
Not because the race stars early , but because I’ll be up at 4am and with about 2 hours of sleep. ( I can never sleep on the eve of an event.)
I hope to meet up with everyone at the Hilton by 5:30 and get to the staging area no later than 6:oo to warm up. The race starts at 7am.
A far as an estimated finish time, that’s not even a concern this time. Originally , I had guesstimated 6:20 , but that was before I got sick. Now, I’ll be very happy to finish PERIOD. I can always try for speed the next time.This time I’m just going to walk as far as I can and adjust my pace to my comfort level. Unlike previous races, this time I’m going to have to actually stop and take rest breaks, medications breaks and breathing breaks along the way. But, I’m still pretty confident that despite my less than optimal level of health, that I’ll be able to walk at least half of this marathon, after that…who know? And, if anything forces me to drop out of the race, it will be the leg cramps , not my lungs. These cramps are very disabling and I’m still having them. I can only hope that they will ease up by Sunday.
So there you have it. My mini vacation/ marathon attempt. Win or loose, these are the kinds of mini adventures I live for.
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