The Race

Ugh.
I drove from North Augusta to charlotte packed my race stuff and headed to Greensboro- no problem right?
You forget my curse in life. Get with in a 3 block radius and then circle for the rest of my life. The one and half hour drive from Charlotte to Greensboro turned into almost three hours because I couldn’t find my hotel, Then when I got to it the people at the desk were stupid and slow. This is a personal pet peeve because I worked for two miserable years at the Marriot in SLC and I know what is supposed to happen!
Apparently there was some night audit training going on and so they took for ever to give me my key- at the Marriott we were supposed to have someone completely checked in one minute unless they were setting up a reservation right there. I hate watching people peck and type. There was a girl at the Marriott who never moved past that speed and watching her made you want to shove her out of the way and just do it yourself! Never ask her for directions people! UGH!
Anyway… Back to William.
He took forever to give me my key and then he didn’t turn on my phone so I had to call down and ask in my sweetest 1:30am been in the car for over 6 hours voice.
“William, why isn’t my phone activated?”
“oh, I’ll do it right now. Just press 9 to get an outside line.”
“I already did that as well as read the instructions which tells me to dial an 8 to get an outside line.”
“oh, then do that.”
“Fine.”
I make my calls and then call down to get a 7:00am wake up call.
William tells me no problem.
Well, the wake up call never happened but it didn’t matter because I was woken up every few minutes to the sound of each person starting their shower from 6am through the time I checked out.
I was so pleased.
I go to the race in time to pick up the packets for Dad and I (hey, he had paid for them.) I also realized that I had left my Carb Gel and heart monitor on my couch and that I had started my period.
Race start was cold and late. I started to fast and burnt out before the halfway mark – felt terrible and looked just as bad because some very nice women asked me if I was Ok and said I looked like I was crying.
It was hard to get into the “race mode” my head was all over the place. I got too hot and then I felt cold and clammy for the rest of the race but knew if I put my T-shirt back on I would be too hot. I also got my first experience with chaffing! At mile three! With 10 more to go!
This was the first race I have honestly not wanted to finish, it’s also a race you can’t really just quit on because you are in the middle of the woods for the whole thing. So I finished with a horrible time and got to wonder around the finish line by myself waiting for them to post the times which they never did. It was freezing and windy but I decided to get my first ever post race massage. Very nice. We also got a cool T-shirt and packet out of the trip.