Ran for 30 minutes alone on the paved trail behind the hotel. Feeling pretty good and ready to go tomorrow.
Paul Tergat is a last-second cancellation. Bummer, I was looking forward to just standing at the same start line as a former world record holder. My roommate at the hotel is Patrick Rizzo, a Hanson's runner and former D-III runner, so we know a lot of the same people and same races. He is running the half as well, but will be several minutes ahead of me. Peter Gilmore, it turns out, is running the full marathon. Perhaps Gilmore's marathon pace will be similar to my half marathon pace. The half and the full have the same start time, and are the same course for the first 9 miles, so that will give me more people to run with, I imagine. Had a nice long breakfast with Patrick and Peter. Talked about running and the economy (what else is there to talk about?). Nice guys. Aside from them, I have not seen any Americans that I know, and really not a ton of Africans either. I am hoping for good competition, but I won't really know until the gun goes off. Packet pickup is later today, followed by an info briefing, and then dinner. The races starts at 7AM, and they will shuttle the invited atheletes to the start (2 miles from the hotel) earlier in the morning. After the race, I will take off with blogger Dave Nelson back to Dave's house until my flight back on Sunday. I've also been able to meet with other friends originally from Logan or from college who are out here, so it's been a really good trip so far. Hopefully I will get a good race too, to put icing on the deal. I hope to break 1:08, but mostly I plan to go out there compete hard, mix it up, and have fun. If I err, it will be on the side of aggression, but that's what I mean by "having fun". A foolish move can be brilliant if it sticks, and the half marathon is certainly more forgiving than the full marathon. So we'll see what happens. I feel fit, but won't really know until the last hill at Mile 9. | 