Tobacco Road Marathon/Half Cary (Raleigh), NC 03-21-2010

[Tiger Lily 03]

Jackie, thanks for your willingness to set up a dinner ressie. Please count me and DH (Ted) in for Biaggi's. Love the opportunity to meet up.

I'm staying at Embassy and would truly appreciate a lift to the event. Really DH would appreciate it since he was going to dump me and come back to hotel.

Carrie, will you join us for the dinner event? It would be fun to chat before race day. Race day advice. Stick with your plan, if it's cool bring toss away layers. I actually do not have my name on my shirt, but often the bibs have our names on them and yes, people do give a shout out if they can read it. Fun!

I'm looking forward to spending time with everyone. It will be great.

 

[jeanneg]

Jackie: thanks for the offer, but I doubt we'll be able to get up quite that early as we have a big event the evening before. But just for the record, what time were you planning to leave? I have John working on finding us a place to park if we arrive later. There is so little around that area and I'm sure there will be lots of road closures so we're looking for a place that we can get to within walking distance.

I'm disappointed that no one will be hanging around for lunch/dinner afterwards. We are doing so few events this year that it may be our only opportunity to see some of you.

 

[MouseDogMom]

So far for dinner I have Mike & Kathy, Lily & Ted, Bill & me. I'll give them a call early this week and probably reserve a table for 10 or so and see how if I can give them a firm number as late as Friday or Saturday.

Lily, we can pick you up on the way over Sunday morning. That will solve our parking pass issue! If it's okay with you, we'll probably try to be at the hotel around 5:45, but I'll confirm that at dinner Saturday night.

Jeanne, we were thinking of trying to be there by 6:00. Race start is at 7:00, but we have no idea what traffic will actually be like. Our group is meeting at a friend's house in Cary at 5:30, but we probably won't try to meet up with them since we don't need to move people around in our car. Also, we're open to anything on Sunday. We'll be hanging around, since many of our friends are doing the full and we want to see them finish, but I imagine that once the race is over we'll be STARVING! I wish I had some suggestions for places to access the course - there are several huge subdivisions along the course beginning, but I imagine the roads will be closed, and I'm not sure if the neighborhoods will try to discourage people from parking there as well. If you decide to go early, we'll have plenty of room.

Carrie - We'd love to have you join us for dinner Saturday night! It's a great way to get questions answered from some of the veterans and to meet other WISHers. This will actually be my first pre-race WISH dinner. I'm really excited!

Wendy, Joanne, Chester, atrane - Dinner, anyone?

Jackie

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

I'm disappointed that no one will be hanging around for lunch/dinner afterwards. We are doing so few events this year that it may be our only opportunity to see some of you.

Jeanne, we'll be around Sunday but I may need a nap first.

Jackie, thanks. We'll talk at dinner Saturday.

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

I sent some FB notes to those I know who might bes be interested in my cell #. If you don't already have it and think it might be useful, let me know.

 

[jeanneg]

Jackie, thanks for the offer, but we'll probably head over on our own.

Lily: just checked and I have your number.

Does anyone want me to bring anything you might need on the course?

 

[rKyDeX]

Wendy, Joanne, Chester, atrane - Dinner, anyone?

Jackie

Please count me in for Dinner if it's not too late to get in on the reservation.

Chester

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Oh No! I just checked weather for Cary this weekend. Predicted rain/thunder storms on Sunday. Not liking this prediction. Maybe the wind will blow differently and hold off the rain until after the event.

 

[MouseDogMom]

Chester - Will add you for dinner. I'm probably going to make a reservation for 10 and then call them Saturday with a firm number.

Lily - There's an old wives tale that if it thunders during the winter, within 10 days there will be snow. We had thunder last Friday night, and I thought "uh-oh." That would make 4 races in a row! Then I saw the forecast for Sunday and figured thunderstorms are the substitute... I'm not going to panic until at least Thursday, since the forecast usually changes. For Myrtle Beach, on Monday they were predicting 50 and sunny for the race; by Thursday they changed it to 5" of snow. And of course, we got the snow.

Jeanne - I think we'll be okay, but I may toss stuff to you if I'm tired of carrying anything! (Especially if it chooses to rain, which it's NOT GOING TO DO!)

DH is going out today to run 6 miles on the trail. I'm hoping maybe he'll drive the last couple of miles of the course and let me know what it's like, since that's the only part I haven't seen yet.

See you Saturday, or Sunday!

Jackie

 

[getnthinr]

Assuming I can find the restaurant, I'll be happy to join you all. Can't miss out on a WiSH meet in my own backyard.

I don't know if I'll be doing the race or not. In my own mind, I'm shooting for the Flying Pirate Half in April, but I registered for this one and I'm going to feel like an absolute weenie if I skip it.

We'll see what the day brings.

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Wendy, hope to see you sometime over the weekend.

Did you see the final race info included information that there will be a shuttle going from the host hotel to/from the start/finish for hotel guests only.

 

[MouseDogMom]

Wendy - If you've ever done one of the Galloway runs from Inside Out in Cary, the restaurant is in the same parking lot. (That's one of the reasons I picked it - I know I can find it!) PM coming with more details. I know how you feel about not being mentally ready for the race. Myrtle Beach was my spring race, and I didn't run it. I can't get psyched for this one. It will just be another weekend run for me, I think. I'm still trying to figure out how to afford Flying Pirate...

Lily - I should probably actually read the emails, you think? When I opened mine and read off my bib number, DH asked me how I knew my number. He hadn't ready that part of his email. And they're now specifying "late day showers" on Sunday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they're right about that. The low Saturday night will be 50, so it will be warmer than I'd like for the start, but at least it SHOULD be dry.

DH looked at the course yesterday. I'm not going to share his review!

Jackie

 

[momoftwogirls]

Jackie - you need to share that review. Is it really that bad!?!

Mike got his final instructions with race number but I never received that email. I looked at their site and I am still listed as registered but no email for me.

Lily - I did see the info about the shuttle. We still may drive to the race start. We'll assess the situation when we get there I suppose.

I still haven't decided on my gameplan for this race. My legs are still a bit tender from the Princess race. I've never done races this close together so don't know what to expect for an outcome.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in a few days!

 

[MouseDogMom]

Home from the expo. Bigger than I expected, which isn't saying much. Since it's the first year, I was actually surprised they had as many vendors as they did. Nothing exciting in the goody bag. And I mean NOTHING.

Highlight for me was that the chiropractor who did active release and helped me survive plantar fasciitis was there, so we chatted for a while. (That should give you an idea of the size of the expo!)

Jackie

 

[getnthinr]

Thanks for the expo update, Jackie. I'll head there Saturday.

Thanks, too, for setting up dinner for the gang!

 

[getnthinr]

Jackie did a great job of hosting the WiSH dinner at Biaggi's. Thanks!

Good luck today, my friends!

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

I had a really positive experience and would definitely recommend this event to others. It was a small event and I think it fit the trail quite well. It was not overcrowded and I think that those marathoners were not hampered by the halfers they had to pass along the way. It was a beautiful trail and the runs along the streets were interesting as well. The course was well supported with Gu, shot blocks, sports drink and water.

The host hotel was a bit of a drive from the event, but the shuttle bus and car pooling helped me. Host Hotel, Embassy Suites, was a fantastic place to stay.

Thanks to those of us in the dinner picture for your support!
Thanks to Jackie for setting up the dinner ressie.
Thanks to Jeanne and John for cheering along the course!

Cary is really a beautiful place.

 

[MouseDogMom]

Thanks to everyone who shared in the inaugural Tobacco Road event! It was great fun to have a WISH gathering in my hometown.

I had a fabulous time - like Lily, would definitely recommend it to anyone for either the full or half distance. The website was saying that registration for 2011 would open tomorrow (the 25th), but they've changed it to "soon," so I guess they're not quite ready! We'll be happy to have anyone who wants to give it a try come see us next year.

Jackie