Second Saturday - Chapter 3

Tuesday, April 19, 2016 

Yes, I'm typing this from the air, folks.

Cha-ching! I splurged and bought the Wi-Fi access for one flight.

Sunday (or second Saturday, as I called it in the first of the series) started with the text/phone call from our hero, MOBYCARP. He had arrived at his hotel, located the Citgo sign from there, and was ready to walk the remainder of the route before heading over to packet pick up. It didn't open until 9.

Being me, I volunteered to meet him at the finish line. And we found one another in that madhouse via the modern day normal method. Show up, pull out your cell phones, and talk one another to a meeting point. This is important to remember, boys and girls, for a later lesson related to having a back up plan for when you run out of bread crumbs...

Happy to see one another, we proceeded to the Hynes Convention Center, along with thousands of our friends (yep, instant friends by shared experiences), making our way through security check, and standing in the first of what would become MANY lines of the day/weekend. Here he is after they opened it up and we wound our way to the front:

Yep, he looked like he fits with this crowd.

Interestingly enough, apparently, I do too

One of the fun games of the day before, in this huge venue with 30,000 runners on tap was looking at clumps of people and playing the "which is the runner? Are they all runners, or do we have cheerleaders, too?"

After collecting the essentials, we did cruise through the expo but didn't make any purchases. Lines too long, merchandise available in other venues and not worth the expo discount to wait in that line...

We proceeded to my hotel, where I provided healthy snacks for us both... I had an extra apple and yogurt and nuts... I told y'all before, he pretty much eats the same as I do, he just needs more of it for his 6 foot frame and marathon training regimine. Half the battle is getting enough high-grade calories into a dude who is running!

Then he connected with a running buddy of his that I'd seen on line but never met, and off we went to meet them. I met one of the Jeffs (he has two, one he calls "fast Jeff" and one he calls "young Jeff", and I am SO confused as to which is which) and HIS personal cheering crew, a wife and daughter.

If you have been following my status photos you've already seen the one of me with Kevin and Jeff from that same meet up. The runners did what runners do: talked about their race day plans, other runners they know and their race day plans... it is a way to set them in our minds and calm ourselves, for those of you who do not do events. I totally "get it".

The two groups split to go search out lunch, and Kevin still needed to check in to his hotel, which wasn't an option until 3 p.m. But it was MY lunch time, so we picked an option that was known and safe for both our plans... yep, back to that Subway, because it was on the way from my hotel to his. Then he and I went our separate ways. I went back to my room and napped, he went and checked in then did his two mile preview run of the tail end of the course (the walk in the morning didn't count). When he was back and showered, he texted that he'd figured out how to take the T to the pre-race supper, and I was rested, so that's what we did for supper... sorry, no photos.

Pasta is classic the night before a big race. Then it was back to our rooms and sleep as best he could, because he had to be back over to the bus loading at 5 a.m. Being me, 5 a.m. Eastern is 4 a.m. my time, and I'm awake, so I planned to be there to see him safely onto the shuttle on "Sunday" a.k.a. "Marathon Monday".

... to be continued...