I flew out to Louisville, KY on Friday morning (4/26). The flight was easy, and my connections were made without incident. I arrived around 4 pm, picked up my rental car and drove to my hotel in downtown Louisville. I stayed at the Galt House Hotel, the host hotel for the marathon, and when I arrived, the lobby was packed with a giant line of people checking in, most of them marathoners by the looks of their attire and by the sound of their conversations. When I finally got my room key, I dropped off my luggage and made my way over to the running expo to pick up my bib number. Thankfully, it was only about a block away and was a quick walk.
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| Banner logo at running expo. |
After getting my bib and race shirt, I browsed quickly around at the various vendors, and the Humana booth (top sponsor of the race) caught my eye. There was a woman in the booth who I knew I recognized as a famous runner, and it wasn’t until I saw her holding a 261 bib that I realized it was Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon! She was taking a photo with a young girl and encouraging her to keep running. I asked one of the women working in the booth if Kathrine was taking photos with everyone, and she said that it was time for her to leave and that she’d been trying to leave for awhile because she had a dinner meeting to get to. I thanked her and began to walk away, figuring I’d head out myself to find some dinner. As I exited the expo, Kathrine was leaving and I decided to just say a few words to her. I thanked her for all she had done for women in our sport. She gave me a hug and asked if I wanted to get a picture. I was thrilled! So the man she was walking with took our photo. I was so overwhelmed with emotion, meeting this legendary running hero. What a thrill!
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| Photo with running legend, Kathrine Switzer. |
I was planning to grab dinner at a restaurant nearby called The Old Spaghetti Factory, but when I got there, a two hour wait for a table made me rethink my plan. Apparently all the other runners in town for the race were planning on eating there, too. Instead, I made my way from there to the Fourth Street Live area, a section of downtown that is closed to vehicular traffic and full of restaurants, bars and a place for live music to be staged. After browsing around all the options, I settled on TGI Fridays. Not my first choice, but at least I could get a regular plate of pasta there. All the other fancier restaurants had spicy or creamy pasta choices on their menus that I really didn’t want to experiment with the day before a race. It wasn’t the greatest dinner I’ve ever had, but it was food and the restaurant wasn’t crowded, so it worked.
I stopped at a CVS before heading back to my hotel to pick up water and some other supplies. Once back at the hotel, I checked the weather for the next morning only to realize that the warm temperatures I was expecting were not what was in the forecast. It was looking to be in the high 40’s for race morning! I laid out my long sleeve/pant running gear and tried to get to sleep on the early side. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a very restful sleep, but I slept on and off throughout the night. I guess it was better than nothing.
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