race weekend

If we need a 5th member in a pinch, we could make Mark do it. He'll be training with me anyway, so I'm sure he'd be able to run whatever distance we put him at. Plus today when he saw that the 10.6-miler gets a separate medallion than the marathon and the relay, he was like well, better start training for the 26.2 mile run...cause he wants one of the fancier medallions.
So, about my race weekend:
Saturday we had to register and pick up our bib number thingys and the t-shirt. They have this "health and fitness expo" that is free and just has a bunch of booths from health stores and different fitness brands, and you can buy pretty much anything, like shoes and other gear plus food stuff. The shirts for our race are long-sleeve off-white and they are nice. The bibs have your name printed really big on them so people can cheer you on by name. It's funny.
This morning we got up at 4:30. I turned on the tv in the hotel room just to help me wake up, and "Rudy" was on. We got breakfast at the Dennys across the street, cause the race didn't start till 7:30 so it's not like we'd be full or anything. We had to catch a bus near downtown Monterey at 6 am. The marathon bus left at 4:15 am, and I'm not sure about the relay bus. Anyway, you guys have driven down highway one south of Carmel so you know it's sketchy at times. That highway on a SCHOOLBUS is freaking terrifying. And about 20 minutes past Carmel I was like "we are driving really far...." We got dropped off at the Rocky Point Restaurant, which was our starting point, and it was in between the 15th and 16th mile of the marathon I think. It was pretty cold, but once we started walking it wasn't bad. The wind was pretty bad at times. It didn't rain, but it wasn't sunny at all either. Which was nice, cause then we didn't need sunscreen. So we had to walk down a giant hill to the end of the line at the starting point, and then walk back up the giant hill to start the race. They let us go in groups, so we didn't actually start the race till about 12 minutes after the "gun" time, but we had those time-keeping tags on our shoes so that's our real time. For the relay it probably goes by gun time, since it's not the same tag the whole race, right? I'm just assuming.
Anyway...
The first few miles went by really fast, and there isn't any spectators, just busloads of children helping at the aid stations with water and gatorade and stuff. They high-five you and it's funny. After a while the 10.6-mile racers thinned out and that's when the 21-mile and marathon racers started passing us. There were "course marshalls" that would warn us when a runner was coming up, and then everyone would cheer for them. So I'm thinking that the beginning of the race for the full marathon is probably pretty lonely, untill you start passing the walkers around the 17th or 18th mile. The "lead runner" of the marathon passed us and was hauling ass. I checked his time online, it was like 5:46 per mile. For 26.2 MILES!! He is not human. After about the 20th/21st mile it gets closer to Carmel and goes through the Highlands. The road SUCKS cause it's all sloped for the drivers, but wherever you try to walk or run on the road, one leg is hitting higher than the other one. My knee hated me. There was a lot of locals that would come out to the main road for this stretch, and at one point they were handing out strawberries. It was awesome. Also, you get to pass all those ridiculously nice houses and wonder what the hell kind of person can live there. I mean, what do you do for a living? Carmel has nothing. After the 22-mile mark was where all the relay runners were waiting to finish the race with their team. Around then it was a bigger group cause all the runners had caught up with the walkers, so it was constant runners passing on the right and walkers had to stay far over to the left. The last few miles of the race sucked big time. The road flattened out, which was nice, but there was more and more spectators as you get closer to finishing, and then the last like 1/2 mile was big crowds, and they all know your name. It was annoying. Right in front of the finish line there was BLEACHERS! It was kind of embarassing. So I'm going to go ahead and not take the last leg of the relay, cause I am not going through that again.
At the end of the race there's a big finish-line production and they have a guy on a microphone making comments about the finishers, and then they'll pick out the bib numbers and then say over the speakers the name of the people who just crossed and their city. He pronounced my name wrong. But with the relay runners, he just says the team name. Then you get handed your medal, and then you get herded into this food tent where they hand you a cardboard box and you fill it with fruit and ONE baked good (there was a limit. wtf? I just walked 10 miles!) I got a peanut butter cookie, strawberries, and raisins. They also had apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, and carrot sticks. Then you have to leave the tent and you are in "marathon village" which is just more booths. They post finish times, there's big massage tent, and a beer tent with free beer for finishers. Then we took our schoolbus-shuttle back to downtown and ate lunch at the Crown and Anchor pub, which is our standard for judging pubs. None have come close.
So, sound awesome? The first few legs are super early, and after the racers get thinned out it is probably pretty lonely. After you catch up with the walkers at mile 17 there is more people around, and then the last leg is for someone who likes a gigantic crowd (not me). If Mark is our 5th I vote for him doing that leg.