It was Fun.Fun.Fun!

I don't even know where to start with my Surf City race report. Do I start with the pre-race fun or just skip to the race???
I actually started a post last night and then I accidentally deleted it.

The weekend seemed to be one adventure after the other. We started the trip by holding up a whole plane full of people as we were dilly dallying. The great thing is we had no clue until we got to our gate and were informed we had 30 seconds before they closed the door so there was no stress. I am usually very concious of time so it still surprises me that we cut it so close. We giggled the whole time we were running to the plane.
Once we got to L.A. we were the U-turn girls... the wrong exit girls... the just plain wrong way girls. It might sound bad but really we laughed through it all and had fun, well almost all of it!

I had been nervous about our Hotel ever since I booked it back in November. The host hotel was sold out and thankfully so since it was pretty expensive. We paid for 3 nights what it would have cost 1 night at the Hitlton. You know the old saying "you get what you get pay for" well it could have been much worse but we definately weren't living it up in high style. The good news it was clean and no bugs. The bad news our pillows weighed 10 pounds each and were as hard as bricks, no elevator, etc.
It was late by the time we checked in Friday night and got settled in our room. Midnight in California but 2:00am Arkansas time. We pretty much fell into bed, normally when I'm that exhausted I don't have a problem falling asleep but with the brick pillows I could never get comfortable and did not sleep well.
Saturday morning we didn't set our alarms and just woke up when we were ready. We were both anxious to explore our surroundings and go to the Expo so we were awake by 8:00am.



I was pretty impressed with the Surf City Expo I would compare it to San Francisco maybe just a bit bigger,definately better than Memphis or Little Rock!! We got our race packets and made sure our "D" Tags were working and then it was off to explore.
I didn't really find anything I couldn't live without, except for a new pair of sun glasses. I also got Michele some cute Marathon Girl running pants, oh and I almost forgot I did buy myself a long sleeve t-shirt.
SCAM ALERT... Maybe scam is too strong of a word for this but I don't know what else you could call it.
I wish I could remember the name of the running skirt booth.. Jazzy skirts or something like that, I picked up a skirt to look at it, and the sales person came over when I questioned where the pockets were. She was very perky and told us the skirts had some kind of special energy/balance thingy sewn in. She asked if I wanted a demonstration. She had me stand on one leg and put my arms out sideways, she then proceeded to push down on on arm until I lost my balance, she then grabbed a skirt and had me hold it in my hand and once again raise my arms our to the sides and stand on one leg, once again she pushed on my arm and lo and behold I didn't topple over. I was so impressed I had her do it again and it was then that i realized she was a shyster. I guess I was so nervous about having a strange person manhandle me while balancing on one leg that I didn't noticed that when she put the skirt in my hand she pushed down on both arms not just one. Well of course equal pressure you aren't going to lose your balance. I just smiled and walked away...I wonder how many people fell for that???

After the Expo we headed out to find Target so I could get a new pillow! We were also starving since we hadn't had breakfast. Normally a burger would be the last thing I would eat the day before a marathon!! I told Bailey since we are just here to have fun and our only time goal for Sunday was to finish before the cut off and there would be plenty of port a potties we decided to live dangerously and have what our hearts desired and that was In N Out Burgers! We were in California we had to have In N out!! AND it was so worth it!!
After our burgers we made a trip to Trader Joe's and bought some water and banana's ... along with a few other goodies for after the marathon.

After several hours spent driving and shopping we finally made it to the beach!!! Bailey and I both have strong ties to California and we were in heaven the whole weekend!!

Saturday night we went to main street and had dinner at ???? darn I am drawing a blank :( Anyway it was a pretty long wait out in the cold...We had bruschetta for an appetizer and then I had salmon with rice. The best part of the meal was the bruschetta! After dinner we went to a chocolte store and bought some fudge for after the marathon. Bailey got a caramel apple and we shared it on the way back to the hotel... something else I would usually never do the day/night before a big race!!

Ok... my eyes can't take anymore. I will have to finish this later!