Monday, 2/24
It's here, the last week. 2 more days left of work. 5 days till the race. Today will be the very last tuneup -
4E + 3x 1T (5:23. 5:23. 5:22) w/ 2 min rest (actually took the rest) + 2E
It went well enough! I feel a bit disconnected in my bowelys; an imminent period. Chose less hilly terrain because I didn't need the extra stimulus. Just wanted to shake things up and feel fast. I enjoy getting the runs done in one shot. Leaves so much more time to do life stuff. After work M and I cleaned up, set a large tablescape for my book club, and he was our servant for the evening, cooking a menu indicative of the Stork Club in New York City, 1940's, on theme with our book of the moment - City of Girls. He made us a menu of: London broil, Bearnaise sauce, grilled asparagus, steamed peas, house rolls, flavors heightened by Cremant d’Alsace.
Miles for the day - 9
Tuesday, 2/25
Woke at 5:45 am, out the door and up the hill; got in that good 6@6 with Derek, staying flat, chatting race advice, Lagat, shews. Out from his pocket, a ziplock bag of good luck notes from his family, and beer $ for that first post race beer. Such a love.
Honestly, I tuned out of all things extraneous and super tuned into the Trials experience from here on out. The rest of what's left is spotty for language, for the time being felt as unnameable emotions and vivid images.
In my last day at work, I organized all that I could & hoped for the best. I left thank you cards to those who I felt provided comfort these past few years. Or safety. Or a coffee here and there when I looked particularly tired at work. I'm not a fan of superficial (is anyone?), or small talk, and I shy away as much as possible about talking about running with others, unless they're my people, my team, my fellow nerds. It's kind of like a continued, childish, "ughh mom!" 'tude I've maintained from the sassiest of years. That, and/or I don't like the attention. I had a relaxing evening. Ber came over with a good luck package (sweet soul), and then we got an alert 10 hours before leaving that our Bellingham flight was cancelled. We'd paid extra for the flight out of Bellingham, to save energy and travel time. There were no other options, and buses couldn't get us there in time for the connecting flight in Seattle.Then we got another alert that our flight was rescheduled and we were good to go, so we called to confirm & they were like, nuh uh, that's weird, it's not.
Miles for the day - 7
Wednesday, 2/26
With big coffees to go, M and I were out the door by 3:45 am to drive to Seattle for the connecting flight (now having to park our car at the airport for 2 weeks). We'd figure out how to fix it all, including the returning flight to Bellingham we no longer needed some other day. Little did we know that the Corona would hit Washington while we were away and bog up all the airlines' customer service lines. Once we landed in ATL, they let out the front half of the plane, but then stopped the rest of us from leaving for 30ish minutes because the stabilizer at the back wasn't in place and they were afraid we'd tip. "This is awkward. Hasn't happened to us before," said the flight attendant. When we finally got out of there, we met up with Kennedy, hopped into an uber, and were delivered to our airbnb high-rise suite in an offshoot of downtown ATL. The high rise condos were connected to the Hilton, and our host had to hand deliver all the security keys to us in person. As M waited for the host to arrive, Kennedy and I decided to run up to Centennial Park to check out the area we'd move to the following day once the Omni opened up to the athletes.
It was bitter cold; to say I was under-dressed is an understatement. There was a lot of ogling, a lot of side-smiles and shakes of the head. I had to laugh along with them. I was l'idiot. We circled around Centennial, which helped to gain bearings. Back at the hotel/condo thing, the host still hadn't shown up. We started to panic that we'd been fleeced. But, after a little over an hour, the dude comes running in covered in sweat apologizing. The high-rise thing? It was objectively nice, but bad. Smelled like smoke. Handmade fridge sign saying that if you drank the liter of coke in there it would cost you $8. Also the bag of Lays, same price. 0 soaps. To like wash your hands with, bathe with. A half smoked doobie in the kitchen drawer. No wine key, lol. A hardly working wifi and tv. But damn was it a fine view. Floor-to-ceiling windows on an L-corner with a view of the city. There may have been weird extraneous items under the bed and the sheets might have been forgotten, but the sun set in filters across the place. As I read through how those 24 hours went, it seems like I had fairly good reasons to be stressed, and I think it also sounds bitchy & entitled, but really none of it phased me. Just makes for some interesting buildup in what would account for as an incredible half week in ATL. I think it also speaks to where my mind was at, simply - ready.
We chose a vegan place for dinner, for Kennedy, called Herban Fix Vegan Kitchen off Peachtree. Had fresh tropical fruit salad, vegetable spring rolls, stir-fry rice vermicelli with shiitake, spicy margarita, bites of a local bakery's vegan chocolate peanut butter and carrot cakes. After, picked up groceries and stemless wine glasses for our barren airbnb. Found a guy who'd fallen asleep in the middle of the floor on a too-small circle cushion all-a'splay, with a security guard watching over, and some drunk girl taking pictures of him, and as we walk by the security guard puts his finger to his lips and says, "shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
Miles for the day - 4
Thursday, 2/27
We set out to get our run done before checking into the Omni, but decided sipping on our hot coffee & walking there more relaxing. We arrived at the Omni to begin the race check-in process, which was multi-tiered and would take a couple days to complete. Scurried over to the secret Nike room, where we were verified and fitted for the Nike Alphafly. Came to find that athletes were selling them online for $1500-2k (a small batch was released the day of the OT, but no one I know could get their hands on a pair even in waiting with their finger on the mouse). We were thrilled to get our room early; it had a lovely peek-a-boo of the finish line area and the Skyview ferris wheel. Went for an easy shakeout back to the airbnb to grab our things, ubered it all back over, and finished out a run with Tony from WWU & friend.
We spent our time chilling in the Tracksmith hospitality suite, admiring our kits, lounging in Normatec's, eating from the snack bar, drinking LindenxTwo pour overs & sparkling waters. Felt like exotic, professional runner luxury. Got to catch up with all my 50k world team family - Liz, Sarah, Devon, who were all a part of the Tracksmith OT Program as well. Made Kennedy come out thrifting with me for a few hours. For dinner we were bused into the Coca Cola Headquarters for a buffet of meat skewers, hummus, veg, salads, teriyaki style rice dishes, red, white & blue donut balls, coke of course. It was weird. Long lines of people who didn't know what they were standing in line for, tiny bamboo plates. We scarfed everything like rabid beasts so we could pile on more. I ate like 8 donut balls and pounded a coke and Kennedy grabbed a fist of pita bread, and we were laughing, because the whole thing was such a weird, atypical series of events and choices we saw ourselves in and choosing prior to one of the biggest races of our lives. Stayed up watching tv as we decorated our bottles in prep for drop off tomorrow. Heads buzzing in all the activity, stimulus, fan-girl moments.
Miles for the day - 4
Friday, 2/28
Woke around 8 am to get some breakfast in the hotel - fruit parfaits in stemmed goblets, bagels, various fruit breads, coffee. Tracksmith led a shakeout at 9:00 am, and a large group of us did circles around Centennial. Bumped into other friends from the racing circuit, did strides along the park. I wanted to make sure I was as lowkey as possible for the rest of the day, so mostly stayed room-ridden, save for kit and shoe check, bottle drop, and acquiring my bib. The process was well organized and kind of cool, save for when the kit check guy taped over "BDP" on my Tracksmith singlet. I was thinking, that's ok, I'll just remove it before the race, but then the smarty took a picture of all the newly taped gear, and I was shit out of luck. None the matter, I have horse girl hair, and the pony would cover it entirely anyhow.
When Kennedy, her bf Conner, M and I re-entered our hotel room we were shocked to discover that someone had pooped in the room. Which is the only reason it smelled the way it did. And we'd been gone for a few hours...I've never had someone other than me poop in my room.
We had a women's only tech meeting at the hotel; I wore my beloved Liz Eder-Northern 50k World Team fan girl polo shirt that was sent to me by her loving mother. I love all of them, they're like family. It was a pretty succinct meeting, and it was the first time I started to feel nervous. The guy on the mic, who would be in charge of course marshaling/street closure etc. the following day was funny, until he said something like how we should all respect those top athletes who were there to make "the team," because of course most of us were simply fortunate just to be there. Then I didn't think he was funny anymore. After the meeting, it was the men's turn. Kennedy & Conner went out to dinner, and I walked myself over to the Georgia Aquarium for the pre-race dinner, alone. The flippin' aquarium was gorgeous. It's the largest aquarium in the western hem (10 mill gallons). I grabbed (another small) plate full of pasta and meat and red sauce and cheese and stood before the belugas blowing bubbles, bottlenoses, eels, rays and hoards of flickering fish. Found Tara from the 50k team, and enjoyed spending some time with her and a friend from CO. We saw Jake Riley eating alone and sat beside him to catch up, him and I talking about his parents, his upcoming travels, Boulder, and the woman we shared good stories with, the old Bellingham Herald sports reporter, Michelle Noland.
Was able to hang out with my dear friends LB, Matt, Cousin, Neil, Greg & M (who had all come to Atlanta to support me) before heading to bed; was also able to get them tickets to an Atlanta Hawks game from some sweet ATC volunteer/member, who made sure my friends and family were happy for the rest of the trip and gave me a big hug post race, though she didn't know me, because that's just how freaking nice the people are over there. Kennedy and I stayed up late watching comedies, distracting ourselves with some pretty depressing gossip on letsrun. We were happy to be afforded a sleep-in.
Miles for the day - 4 + strides
Saturday, 2/29
The day I've been working towards for near 7 years. I want to write about it in it's own space. Please see here once it's ready [2020 OLYMPIC TRIALS MARATHON].
Miles for the day - 27.6
Sunday, 3/1
Miles for the day - 0!
Miles for the week - 55.7
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