Busy weekend

The city of Edmonton is one busy place this weekend.  The Fringe Festival, the Canadian Derby (I couldn't find a link, but it's a horse race that went on today), The Dragonboat Festival and of course, the marathon tomorrow.  Good thing I booked my room way back in January.

Speaking of, the hotel is awesome.  The rooms are extra quiet, they're providing a free breakfast in the main lobby for all us runners tomorrow, the beds are super comfy, and they are one of the few places that I know of that actually serve brown rice and it's on the menus.  It's not an expensive change out item!

I got my much-needed 6 shots and a low fat turkey sandwich at Starbucks (just down the street from the hotel), and then found the train, again, right down the street.  This will make tomorrow so much easier.  Went to the Expo (a little lame...only 8 or 9 vendors and one of them was the Running Room - sponsor of the race!).  Picked up my bib and shirt (it's nice), had a wander, figured out where the race starts in the am, and then took the train back downtown.  Did some more wandering, finally finding the mall, where I found a Sunterra (yay) right across from a McDonald's.  I was much happier with my choice of chicken salad (chicken breast, greens, peppers, tomatoes, & broccoli with raspberry vinaigrette), a whole wheat baguette with tomato, cheese & basil and a rice krispie square, for my treat, than what I could have found at McD's!! 

Dropped some stuff of at the hotel, then went for another wander, down towards the river.  That's where I discovered that the Dragonboats were racing, so I stopped to watch for a bit.  Got a call from another runner that I know from Eau Claire, who's running  the marathon tomorrow as well, and met up with her and her man for dinner.

I had the maple smoked salmon with brown rice, broccoli, red pepper and asparagus.  I was still a little hungry when I got back to my room, so I ate a Honey Stinger waffle cookie and drank some water.  Running gear is laid out and ready to pull on in the am.  Coffee pot is primed and ready to roll, chocolate milk is chilling.  I also have my OJ and sea salt ready to throw into my water bottle.  Bring this race on!

L. and I are going to hang with the 5:30 pace bunny and see how we feel.  This will be a better time than Calgary, but not as good as Toronto, but I'm also testing out my "bootcamp vs. running" training program, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.  If I feel it, I'll pull ahead...if not, still a very respectable finish.

Time to start shutting down.  I am actually tired,  so should fall asleep quickly tonight.  Race deets to follow tomorrow.

Later,