Last year was so hot and I was committed to running a fast enough pace that I wound up failing on the day, despite finishing in an otherwise-fine time. My aim this year: redemption. I chose a slower time to pace to help guarantee that I could keep the needed pace and finish OnPace. 4:20 was ideal, given that yet again (as seems to always be the case for the Air Force Marathon), it was PLENTY hot (even if not quite as hot as last year). As I understand it, sometime shortly after I finished, the organizers changed the status of the race from "green flag" (good conditions, no specific precautions needed) to "black flag" (dangerous conditions, technically they could simply end the race prematurely -- but it sounds like they were merely advising people still out there to severely drop their paces, if they hadn't already). But I am getting ahead of myself...
Once again, the Shiningers (pacer Bekah's parents Charles and Diane) hosted about half a dozen or so pacers Friday night (complete with homemade pasta dinner and lodging), race morning snacks, and post-race cookout. For those of us who weren't departing until Sunday (which, this year, turned out to only be me), dinner again and another overnight. But rather than my feeble attempts at describing the situation, Bekah can do a much better job of it: Shininger Shindig
I'm not someone who uses Uber all that often, so I'm not totally familiar with how some things will appear in the app. When I landed in Dayton and got my gate-checked bag, I ordered an Uber. And it was taking quite a while to connect. So, as I was walking through the airport to get outside, I figured that if I didn't have a car on its way by that point, I would simply take a taxi. When I first clicked the button to confirm the ride, it looked like it was saying it would be 4 minutes for a car to arrive. Great -- that's about how long it would take to get outside. However, it was actually telling me the amount of time to get to the meeting point. Turns out the ride I was connected with was 20 minutes away, and once the app actually told me that, the ride was considered booked, and I had no way to cancel. I was set to arrive at the Shiningers' 30 minutes later than desired in terms of getting underway to the expo to help man the OnPace Race expo booth. They were totally gracious about the timing, and a few minutes later, Bekah, Diane, fellow pace Thi, and I were underway to the expo.
As per usual, there was a customized sign with all of the pacers' names and assigned times listed.
And, yet again for this marathon, Mush was our sponsor. Not only did we have plenty of overnight oats to give out as samples, but their new product line of protein mini bars. My personal favorites are the apple cinnamon overnight oats and the peanut butter chocolate chip protein mini bar.
While there are additional vendors (not pictured from the earlier high angle) that are located upstairs in the arena, it is still a relatively small expo; smaller than one would expect for an event weekend that has 8500 total registered participants.
Oh, and you want to know what we were set to run?
Shortly after we returned from the expo, Diane starting prepping dinner. Several of the pacers had yet to arrive in town, so the spread was going to be available (and being made in batches to remain fresh) for several hours. A traditional pasta dinner: salad, pasta with spaghetti sauce, and Texas toast. And plenty of other goodies (cookies, and various types of muffins that some of the others brought).
A little later, I compared directions I had pre-written from GoogleMaps with Charles, so that we could avoid the semi-fiasco that we had last year getting there. What I had mapped out jibed with what Charles had been figuring would be the case. Phew! Hopefully things would work out in the morning. Shortly thereafter, it was time to head on down and try to get some shut-eye. Always tricky on marathon eve, no matter how experienced you are.
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