We arrived on Friday at midnight. My idea was to get off the train, find an open Dennys or all night diner, and hang out until the Expo. Roy, having a brain, decided that this was not a good idea as we are no longer 22. He booked a room in a dodgy, but clean motel about half a mile from the train station. On Saturday we got up bright and early, found a Starbucks and had our breakfast. Then off to the Expo! Did the whole Expo thing where I met Jared of Subway fame and had my picture taken with him. The expo was smallish, but nice for a first time! I picked up a really CUTE running skirt and a marathon singlet. Sadly, my hat would not match my getup. Oh the things we go through for running fashion.

Sunday morning found us up bright and early at 5:00 a.m. We were about 7 blocks from the starting line, so we didn't have to rush. It was an easy walk over. We went down to see what the breakfast was in the lobby of the nicer, less dodgy hotel. I had a bagel and peanut butter and some tea. I should have probably eaten more and this would come back to bother me to some extent later in the day. I'm used to a more substantial meal, but was on a low fiber diet for three days.

We got all of our gear on and walked over to Hayward Field. There were lots of people milling around, although not nearly as many as I'd expected. The loudspeaker was naming names of runners and where they had traveled from, which was a very nice touch! It was fun to hear them mangle Roy's name. It made us feel like "big deals" even if just for a moment.

We started to walk around to warm up and made one last dodge for the porta potty lines. I considered a gu, but as I had my normal pre-race stomach issues, decided against it. I was glad about that later on. We found our pace area. Roy wanted to hold back some, but I knew from experience that in a race with so many newbies, we didn't want to go back too far because people would certainly have seeded themselves wrong. Since half and full marathoners started at the same time, we were able to start together!

I think I ran a pretty solid run. My laps were pretty evenly split. I may have brought in a few "fast" laps too early costing me a bit in the end. Overall I feel very good about my performance. I didn't push so hard that San Diego, in five weeks, will be difficult. At the same time, I didn't phone it in. I finished with not a lot left in my legs, telling me that I made good decisions on the course.

Bring more Gu! I was seriously HUNGRY by the time I finished. I don't think it inhibited my run, but if it had been hotter it might have.

I went into the food area and grabbed three bananas and wolfed them down right away (they were cut up) and stuffed a bagel into my pocket. I saw Roy and hobbled over to him and told him "I made a PR!" and started to cry. I don't know why that was so important to me. I don't know that I even KNEW it was that important to me! But it was and wow, it was really making me emotional! After grabbing some food for the train I left the food area. (Thank you, coordinators, for keeping it separate so people weren't feeding their families off the food. That's a MAJOR pet peeve of mine.) We talked about the shuttle bus, but as I knew I had 7 hours on a bus and train ahead of me, I felt it was best to walk. We walked back across the Autzen footbridge and into downtown Eugene, stopping to stretch here and there. That was a good decision, I think. My Nike+ was WAY off (telling me I had two miles to go when I crossed the finish line) so I kept it running until we hit the two miles, so I know I added at least two more miles of walking onto my day.

We found the Rogue Brewery open so went in and I had the BEST Salmon Sandwich in the WORLD and fries and a diet Coke! Oh man that was good...seriously. Nothing tastes as good as anything after 26.2 (and change) miles.

The fact that I'm not very fast, as always.

For an inaugural race, this went off VERY well! I was quite impressed. After hearing horror stories from the VA ING marathon, I knew to bring my own water. I didn't need it on the course, but better safe than sorry. My only two criticisms, and they are minor; start walkers either well ahead, or slightly behind the runners for everyone's safety. Have some form of Gu or gel on the course. One water station was out of cups, but they had water for you to put into your bottles if you needed it, and as I ran past a few 100 yards later someone was booking it to the station with more cups. Oh, and the Thorlo people at mile 24...do you have any idea how NOT COOL it is to be having a water fight with the water meant for the runners, rather than handing water TO the runners? Seriously! You run for over 4 hours in, by that time, the sun and see how you feel as you watch teenagers splashing each other with the water meant for you and your fellow runners. Very very uncool. You let at least 20 runners run past without water (at that point, it just hurts too much to stop) as I was going past. Shame!