Race day...

This picture says it all. Today on my run I was thinking about my next race, the NYC marathon and trying to figure out a way to get over the pre race nerves. The morning of a race you start to realize that all your training has lead up to that very moment. All of the early mornings, late afternoons and mid-day runs are about to either make or break you. It's the moment of truth and it's time to put up or shut up!
Now my first scary morning of truth I decided to run possibly the most historic marathon in recent history. Yeah, no pressure al all! All the news reports were full of stories about all the hotels being booked 8 months in advanced and millions of spectators! Excellent, so if I had screwed up it would have been in front of millions! Luckily things went fine but that's a lot of pressure. Plus all the hype and it being the first for me my stomach was in knots! Going to the common and sitting on a big yellow bus for an hour did not help the situation. My first stop at athletes village was the porta potty. Now no one wants scabies but no one wants to crap their pants in front of millions either. So you close your eyes and pray nothing will jump out  and eat you!
What I learned on that day back in April was that I get race day nerves. I can go on a run all by myself and enjoy it, but as soon as there is a paper prison number safety pinned to my shirt and a free banana waiting for me, I'm a mess! The 2 races after Boston were small yet those same nerves came back to haunt me. Yet once I passed the start Tarmac and put one foot in front of the other my brain was like "oh yeah we got this:)".
The holding area is always a lot of fun as well. Everyone is excited and talkative. The great thing about runners is that in general we are a nice crew. We are happy just to be there and always up for a good chat. Every race I've done I've met some great people before the start and lots of congratulations at the end. It's such a positive group, maybe because we all have runners high! My goal for NYC is to PR  but at the end of the day it's just about finishing and enjoying the moment. Plus running on 5th avenue past all the shops is a bonus!!! Great early morning run today in bean town dreaming of our sister city!! 11 weeks until the larget marathon in the world and hopefully less bathroom breaks! Have a great day everyone!