Day #159 - Reykjavik, Iceland

I don't know what this means - but the red thing is the symbol for the race

Great skies today

The running course laid out on big map at Expo - very flat course

My resting spot this afternoon

Mountains and sky - does this look like Iceland

Friday, August 20th

The day before the Reykjavik Marathon. Low key for me. Trying to keep off my feet as much as possible.

I had to get some money before I left the hotel, because the buses would only take change. I have 30,000 Iceland Krone in my pocket. I had a small panic attack when the money came out of the ATM. I was like - "Did I just screw something up?" I calculated it about 3 times, in 3 different ways. Paranoid. I just can't get comfortable with these bills.

I took the shuttle down to the Expo Center to pick up my runner's packet. In pretty much all marathons, there is an Expo the day before the event. Generally, there are a ton of booths setup, with running gear, food, upcoming races, etc. Pending the marathon, the expo may be held in a huge convention center (Chicago) or a small tent outside (Missoula, Montana). Alot of times I'll just get my packet and exit. Today, I needed to find some food for tomorrow. That's the one thing that's different over here when I run long, I've been using any energy source I can get my hands on. Luckily, they had a few gel packets that I'll be using for tomorrow. They are twice the size of the normal ones however - I'll have to make due.

I decided to just hang out at a coffee shop for a few hours in the afternoon flipping through some travel borchures. Very mellow. I'm starting to see many runners coming through. Temperatures are predicted between 46-54 deg F tomorrow - pretty perfect. It's windy today - which makes it feel cold. If the wind calms down and the rain stays away - it should be ideal conditions. I plan to start in a t-shirt and shorts.

I walked back over to the Expo Center around 4:30pm. They were having a Pasta Dinner for the runners. Again, this is very typical of all marathons. At most events, the pasta dinner is an add-on. Depending on where I'm at, I may or may not eat at the expo, Today, the dinner was actually included within the registration fee. This was great. I sat down at a table and met a really nice couple from Iowa. I'd put them in their upper 50's. They had been travelling around Iceland for the past 2 weeks. They told me they were on 'sensory-overload' - in their eyes - Iceland is phenomenol. The first week they did some hiking and touring with a group. This past week they rented a car and drove around the entire Ring Road. They couldn't stop talking about how fantastic this place is for visitors. We discussed running and travelling. These people were awesome. They are also into triathalons. They've even done 1 full ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 marathon). That's my dream one day. I've done the Springfield, IL IronHorse (close to a 1/2 ironman) - but nowhere near a full. My highest athletic aspiration is to complete a full ironman. I hope to make this happen in the future. They said: "If we can do, you can do it. First, just believe you can". Expandng the mind to go places that you can't even fathom are possible - that's what it's all about.

I'm back in the room now. I'm doing the typical checklist of tasks before I go to bed. My brother always laughs that he will write a book one day giving out his tips for an everyday, average runner. A short list includes: attach number to shirt, attach timing chip to shoe, lay out running gear and shoes, get food prepared, get liquids prepared, get aspirin and bandaids, plug in your Garmin running watch, call for 2 wake-up calls (15 minutes apart), plug in your Ipod, figure out transport to/from event, get money, and finally - be in bed around 9pm.

The nerves are running a little bit right now. This is typical for me. I just need to mentally focus, be confident, and tomorrow I'll go the distance. See you after 26.2