One thing was very important for me and that was to get enough sleep. After spending the christmas time in Germany and flying back to the USA on january 2nd, start working on the 3rd and leaving for Orlando on the 5th, my body was still suffering hard from the jetlag, proving to me that I am really getting old, but still not too old to do these stupid things 😛
Another important thing was to improve my seeding. When I signed up for the race, I wasn’t able to provide any prove of recent times from competiton, since the only running races I did, where with odd distances. And if you don’t provide any times, you were put in the last starting coral and had to wait a very long time before being able to start. The official start time for both races is 5:30am and according to the rules you have to be in your starting coral by 5:00am, otherwise you will be disqualified. Standing there for like 90 minutes before being allowed to start didn’t sound like fun.
So on thursday morning I went to the ESPN Wide World of Sports and was surprised that they didn’t force you to pay a parking fee. The pickup of the race gear went fast and without any hassle. After I had my numbers, I went to the information booth to try to improve my starting coral, which went way better than expected. After showing my recent 10km time from the 10km Run for the Funds run in Seaworld in San Antonio (I was so fast, even Haile Gebrselassie would be scared to race me :-P) I was placed in the fastest coral. It was tough not to laugh too hard, but I remembered the movie Dead Poets Society and told myself “Seize the day”. Afterwards I went to the next hall, where the marathon exhibition took place to pick up my three racing shirts (Donald, Mickey and Goofy) and bought some more energy gel to hit the wall later during the races.
Then the relaxing part started. I drove back to the hotel and had a very long nap, before enjoying a great dinner at T.G.I Friday’s. It is so sad that there isn’t a T.G.I. Friday’s in El Paso or anywhere near, otherwise I could be customer of the month over and over 🙂