4 Bridges Half Marathon- Pre Race Festivities

I ran my first half  around two months ago, at the time my longest distance since April. I wont lie, I was nervous. I questioned my training and my ability to run this distance. I described it as such to Mike, my marathon mind thought 13 miles was nothing but the fact I was not trained for a marathon and only trained for a half, I questioned my ability. I just didn't feel like I trained enough when in reality I trained plenty for a half.

Enough about that. We arrived the night before and stayed at the Chattanoogan.

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As I mentioned in an earlier post here, we got a sweet deal from hotwire and really liked the digs. As always, the plan is to go to bed early so we tried to take advantage of the beautiful fall day as soon as we got there.

The first thing we did was go get my bib. I don't know if it was because it was a Saturday or what but we drove in circles for some time before getting a spot.We had some trouble finding this location as the tent was set up near a "rhino statue" not a physical address.

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Not being from the area we walked searching for it. I guess it wasn't a big deal but it was annoying- control freak here I like to know what/when/where I am going. It took all of a minute to get my bib. There weren't a lot of people when I arrived. There was a small expo with headbands, belts etc they did have someone there taping up people which I thought was nice.

After the expo we walked around taking advantage of the beautiful fall day. Coolidge Park (where the rhino is housed) is really pretty.

Mike and I really like Chattanooga, like we could live there. It was so down to earth yet hip. We checked out a few local shops, went to a coffee shop and sipped hot cocoa. It was perfect.

Later, we went to the city's Oktoberfest which was free and right down the road.

They had the bands playing, kids dancing, a local market set up and of course beer. We hung out there for awhile sipping on our beer listening to the band. It was just nice.

Not long after we went back to the hotel and swam. I wanted to loosen up the muscles- I was pretty tense and nervous about the race so floating around in a pool sound really nice. The pool was sweet. it was indoors and no one was there. It was enclosed by windows and you could see the mountains. The pool had a nice glow from the lights in it that made it so inviting and it kinda reminded me of the water in Caribbean. After some floating around I hit up the steam room. I LOVE steam rooms, saunas etc. and they had both.

It was interesting though (sorry no photo) there was only room for one person! Literally the steam room had a one person seat. This was fine by me but it was just kinda funny to be sitting there in a (small) room. Literally the walls were built around your seat. Anyway, it was nice, I felt lose and its exactly what I needed.

For dinner we opted to stay in. We ate at one the restaurants in the hotel (I'm a big fan of protein the night before a race). Burgers and sweet potato fries for the win, followed by a cheesecake boxed for desert and movies in the room.

The day went smoothly, I felt like we took advantage of our time in Chatt without going overboard and actually experienced the city. We were able to go to sleep satisfied from our day, relaxed and tired. I easily fell into a deep slumber ready for the next day's race.