11 hours to go...

Well, I have packed my check-in bag and I've set out my running gear for tomorrow morning. My alarm is set. My bib number is pinned to my jersey (which also now reads "ANDY" on the front and back.) Breakfast is waiting for me on the table, and my friends from CRC are going to be waiting in the lobby at 6AM. I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be.

First let's rewind by a couple of days. My last post was on Thursday, after I got back from dinner. I spent a few more hours in the office, and then I caught a train down towards the University of Chicago, where I met up with BUDA Frisbee league buddy John W, who graciously hosted me for the night. He's got a great place and friendly roommates.

The next morning I went back in for another day in the office. It was a particularly busy day and there were a few small unexpected fires to put out, but all in all it was a good day. Every friday every office has TGIF - beers and socializing at the end of the week. I took full advantage of this (after extinguishing one last fire), and I met several people from one of the Chicago teams, and played ping pong with one of them. (I lost best of three by one point, doh!)

Then my CMU buddy Tim R showed up, fresh from the airport, and we drove over to the Chinatown Hotel, where I am staying for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. We met up with a whole cast of CRC characters, including Erin K, Pradeep S, and Jonathan D and two of his sons. On a recommendation, we went to Rosebud's in the theater district, which was great. I had the steak with Portobello mushrooms and wine sauce. How we managed to cram seven people into Tim's rental car, I don't know.

By the time we got out it was late and everyone had a big day, so we retired to the hotel. Unfortunately Tim and I weren't able to go to John W's house party, which was a bummer.

Saturday was a pretty busy day too. The CRC crew and two people we met at the hotel, Jim and Jane, went out for breakfast. Then we split up - Jonathan and Erin went to relax in the Chicago Public Library, Pradeep went to the hotel to watch college football (he's a diehard LSU fan), and Jim, Jane, and I went to the expo to pick up our race bibs and do some shopping. All was well, except that we foolishly decided to walk back from the expo rather than take the somewhat slow shuttle. This cost us an extra hour and I think I got some noticeable UV exposure out of the deal.

Once I got back, Pradeep and I went out for Chinese at Three Happiness Restaurant. Then we had a small pocket of downtime before all of the CRC people (plus Tim and one of his Hoboken Harriers friends) gathered together to carbo load at Mario's Gold Coast Ristorante. It was great getting to see the usual CRC adventurers, including Mike McK, Jay S, Steve K, Ethan D, Liz P, and many others. Hopefully I'll post a picture here when I get it. For our last minute preparations, we ducked into a Walgreen's and stocked up on safety pins, Gatorade, and granola bars. Typical runners' gear. :)

When we got back to the hotel, Liz and Gabrielle gave me the "marathoner's boot camp" last minute pep talk about what to expect on the road, how bag checkin works, etc. etc. I went back to my room and sorted out all my stuff to make it easy for tomorrow. So here I am. All I need to do is get to sleep, so I'm going to curl up with a book and zone out. Wish me luck folks, because tomorrow is GO TIME.