Reserve Your Room ASAP
First things first book your hotel. You will look at the race page's listing of hotels and maybe two or three will be "booked." However, when you go and call to make a reservation you are told that the rooms blocked at the race rate have been occupied. I was on the phone with on particular (large) hotel and the reservations line told me they only had 20 rooms blocked at the race rate. If you didn't have the race rate you were looking at $350 a night.
Michael and I tossed on this one. We prefer to stay at nice, relaxing hotels right near everything. When we are on a trip we don't want to waste time driving places or be uncomfortable. However, this wasn't really a vacation... it was a run and we were arriving the night before just to get the packet and a good nights rest and stayed a second night so I could rest post race. Spending $700 on a hotel just didn't seem reasonable to me. We ended up staying at an OK hotel around 5 miles from the start line and downtown. It wasn't what we were use to but.. it fit our needs. Oh, another reason to book early claim your king bed! We booked to late in the game that there were only doubles left. Maybe its not a big deal but the hubs and I like to sleep in bed together and well he cramps my style if we share a double. So we ended up sleeping in separate beds for those two nights. Not a big deal but something to keep in mind.
Lesson Learned: Hotel listings on a race site are deceiving. The sooner you book the better the deal.
Confirm with your hotel the final pick up time
Our hotel picked up as many people as they could and would shuttle them back. They were not on a schedule but based it on occupancy. You want to make sure they will be there or one their way when you finish. Find out where they will be, and ask what the shuttles will look like- they may not have the hotel brand on them. Get the hotels phone number just in case you are stranded!!!! They can call a cab for you, they can tell you where to go to meet a shuttle and how long it will take for them to get there.
Lesson Learned: Don't trust anyone with transportation. Know what's going on and take numbers down! Get a number for a taxi from the hotel before the race just in case!
Protect Your Cell Phone
Now we would made this call to the hotel if our phones hadn't been destroyed by the rain. That's right my cell phone was destroyed from running a marathon in the rain. If you don't have a fancy smancy protective cover you may want to think of ways to protect your phone. Around mile 9 it started to pour and I wrapped the phone with a plastic bag but that didn't help. Since the race I have invested in a water resistant case. The weather guys were wrong and who would have known I would have been running through a monsoon for almost 6 hours.
Lesson Learned: If you are going to have a cell phone think of ways to protect it. You may need it for things other then music and gps (like calling a cab!)
Rain Is No Joke
Speaking of weather. If there is ANY chance of rain go ahead and pack and umbrella and drop it off before the race. I know in most cases rain can be refreshing but what if it rains for hours and its cool out... trust me an umbrella can be a life saver post race.
Lesson Learned: Screw hour by hour estimates. If there is a 50% chance of rain that day be prepared for it!
Post Race- I'm talking within 30 minutes of crossing the finish line
Be prepared. Ahh, you ran your 20 mile long run and you thought you were in the clear. But how are you going to recover once you finish 26.2 miles. Again, this may depend on the weather but you need to think about how you are going to keep warm or cool down. Where are you going to go to stay warm if you cant hop on a bus right away, how will you cool down if it's 100 degrees and there isn't shade? There maybe little you can do but at least think about it. If you are like me I was so preoccupied with getting warm that I put off eating and drinking. You need to eat and drink!
Lesson Learned: Don't get preoccupied with other things (like getting the hell out of there). You need to drink, and eat remember your body needs this for recovery!
Like I said, I was so preoccupied about the race itself I never thought about bumpy endings. So those our my thoughts.
Do you have any advice?
Did you learn something you never even thought of before you ran a marathon?
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