Race Day Cometh Tomorrow! Come hell or high water...

Well tomorrow is the big day I've been training for since January and the event in the half marathon in Knoxville, Tennessee (United States). There's been a lot of obstacles today such as the interstate that runs through town having 2/4 lanes shut down over the weekend so I had to take a back route to and from packet pickup.

I snapped a couple of pictures downtown near the starting line which is next to the iconic sunsphere which was built for the World's Fair in 1982 and still is a part of the skyline (if you'd call it that) of the small city. The first picture shows the bridge that the race starts on and just off to the right is the sunsphere (not shown in the starting line picture but just out of view on the right side of the bridge).

STARTING LINE SETUP ONGOING THIS AFTERNOON

And of course here's a picture of me with the sunsphere in the background (the shirt I'm wearing is from the 2011 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC)

ME AND THE SUNSPHERE

Then looking ahead there's the forecast for the 7:30 a.m. start...it's been changing between 20 and 50% chance of rain and temps slightly above the freezing mark at the start of the race. Not ideal but March weather can give you sunny warm days or blizzards here and anything in between. It has given sub freezing temps, pouring rain, sunny skies, warm, cold, and everything imaginable all the years I've run this race.

Weather and traffic problems be damned, I'm going after that sub 100 minute time for the 13.1 mile race just 8.5 hours from now..I need to get to bed but it's been hard to fall asleep ever since we set the clocks forward an hour a couple of weeks ago (and I'll spare the griping about that because I already did it in this post.

So I've got my stuff laid out and ready to go no matter what the weather throws at me and no matter how little sleep I get. A lot of runners have a hard time falling asleep the night before a race and I'm not exception, but I've run some of my best times on 4 hours sleep before.

I'll wake at about 5:30 a.m EST which will give me time to eat a little bit, get some fluid in, and a little bit of caffeine and let that settle on my stomach before race time. I've got a trash bag with a neck hole cut out to wear as a poncho in case it's raining walking to the starting line so at least I can start the race dry. After that starting gun fires all bets are off on staying day. But I'll accept what the sky throws down at me as I didn't spend the last 2 months training to do anything but give it everything I've got and even if it rains I feel pretty confident I'm gonna beat that time goal.

I'll be sure to share my results tomorrow in my regular Sunday running post that I've been doing since I started training for this. I've noticed a few other runners have races this weekend and I wish them all the best of luck.

Goodnight to you all and I hope to report some great results tomorrow!