Oh my goodness.
Can you believe we’re actually, ACTUALLY here? That little dream I had of putting together a team of readers to run in the St. Jude half marathon is actually a real thing. And it’s happening. Tomorrow!
A total of 17 runners make up our team. Two of them will be running the full marathon. At least 7 of them started their training at the “couch” end of a couch to 5K program. The great majority of us are completely non-runners (or at least that was the case when we signed up for this crazy ride), and now we are all actually, legitimately prepared to run THIRTEEN POINT ONE MILES. At one time. Without dying.
Needless to say, as I sit here typing just a little more than 24 hours before the starting gun, we are pretty geeked! Four racers arrived in Nashville yesterday morning and our festivities have already begun with a little Nourish-making fun, chicken caesar sandwiches for lunch, and fun girl time and shopping in downtown Franklin. (I think our boys spent that time changing tires or oil or something not as fun.)
(left to right: Olivia, Keight, Ashley Kirnan (from The Poppy Chain!), Ashley Ward – I took the photo)
It’s so fun to know that we’ve done all the work, and now comes the big payoff – a fun weekend with a bunch of people I feel like I already know because we’ve been training together for the past six months, a race that I’ve never run but I know I am equipped to finish, and pasta like I’ve never eaten it before. (Do y’all remember the episode of the office when Michael Scott “carbo-loads” by eating a huge bowl of Alfredo seconds before the race starts? Yeah, not like that.) :)
Last night we had a fun dinner out, then came back here and ate more cheese and chocolate and weird chocolate chex mix (not my favorite thing…) and played a rousing late-night game of Taboo (yes, of course the girls creamed the guys!).
And now it’s early morning Friday. Everyone is still quiet in their beds while I clickity-clack away on my laptop, too excited to sleep. We’ll be leaving in about an hour and a half for Memphis (a kid-free drive! Twelve points to all!) and our first stop might be my favorite: the expo! I seriously love expos. So much swag. So many things I never knew existed but now wonder how I ever lived without them. Great fun!
The team will slowly assemble as today goes on, and by dinner time tonight we’ll all be sitting down to a big bowl of noodles of some kind all together, talking about training highs and lows and how cold it will be in the morning and how we can’t believe it’s actually real.
The starting gun is at 8:00 tomorrow morning, and we would LOVE to hear your cheers! We have been tweeting throughout our training with the hashtag #TeamFMF and will continue to do so as the festivities continue over the course (see what I did there?) of the weekend. We’d love it if you’d join us by sending us encouragement either in the comments here or on Twitter using #TeamFMF as the hashtag.
And now, it’s time to pack. (Yes, I still haven’t packed. Don’t judge.) And shower. (Yes, I do that from time to time.) And get on the road. I will leave you with a re-introduction of our teammates first posted at the beginning of August when some of us hadn’t even run a 5K without stopping. Oh yes, we have come a long way! (And don’t forget that you can click on most folks’ photos to visit their blogs and their Twitter handles are listed beneath their bios.) Go, #TeamFMF!
good luck to everyone! have fun!
Whoo hoo!! I wish ya’ll the best, run hard, stay strong, don’t give up!!! And remember to use the bathroom before starting the race! :) I as well will be running Sunday: in a relay race! whoo hoo! I am pretty pumped seeing I have a 4 month old at home! :) :)
Good luck! I started the C25k program a few months ago, and just signed up for my first 5k-Christmas morning, and got my whole family to agree to join me!
Good luck!!!!! I wish I could be there with all of you!!!!! So excited to hear about the race!!!!
Christine
Way to go! I’m sure you are already done running so I hope you all did fabulous. If you put a team together again I would love to join you. I definitely could not run a 1/2 or a full right now, I’m lucky to run 3 miles! I love race days for 5k’s, I could not imagine the excitement around running a 1/2 or full.
i really need to start running.
that is all!