Race prep for P. F. Chang’s Half Marathon 2014

I picked up my race packet today at the Expo and bought a SpiBelt. Since I will be running in an LLS/TnT shirt without pockets and would like to use pocket-less shorts, I will store my stinger waffle and a couple of salt pills in the SpiBelt. It will also act as my bib number holder.

In the afternoon, I went for a non-descript bike-ride for a bit more than an hour. Remember, the race tomorrow is not an “A” race for me. I just want to do slightly better than 8-minute mile pace and come home somewhat fresh.

In the evening was the LLS dinner at the Embassy Suites down in Tempe. Morris (who is on my TnT team) gave an emotional speech peppered with humor. Morris has a rare from of blood cancer tat was first diagnosed about 20 years ago, but relapsed about 20 months ago. I am not a fan of long speeches, but Morris had the audience engaged with his own story about his fight and survival. Especially funny and sad was his bucket-list on which the first item was “Live” and the last item was “Have sex – preferably with a partner.” It had us in stitches!

My clothes are all laid out and I am ready. There was an issue with the shuttle (my name was not on it) for tomorrow, but the nice lady at reception took care of me. Than you!

The prep for the race tomorrow is done. I have examined every mile of the course and have my estimated splits down. The race is flat to slightly uphill for the first few miles, gets steeper between miles 7 and 9 and then is virtually all downhill for the final 3.5 miles. As you can see from the table to the left, my best guess is that I will finish in around 1:43 tomorrow. We’ll see…

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