Just Your Friendly Neighborhood Expo…

How to Expo When You Live ‘Just Down the Street’

• Quickly look at the expo map, guesstimate the distance, end up spending 5+mi on your clanky beach cruiser (twice as much as anticipated) and question your fitness after breaking a sweat and feeling the quad burn on your ‘easy’ ride

• Meet up with awesome friends (new & old) and spend hours aimlessly walking the crowded aisles nerding out over all things running

3 Sarahs, a Monica, and a Pizza Place Race Expo (SR’s pic)

Kim at Nuun hydrating expo’ers, HTC’er Tiffany rocking the Crossfit booth (I may or may not have agreed to a WOD), and Oiselle teammate Sarah who flew down from Seattle hoping for some sun running

• Be persuaded into going to lunch (Big Belly Deli FTW), leave your bike at the expo, and use your “shakeout run” to go back and get it once you remember where you left it three hours later.

This laid-back, no pressure approach to race weekend is pretty rad, but I have to be honest – I wish I was racing tomorrow.

I wish I was in shape to really put myself out there and do something awesome. My legs feel great and have that twitchy energy conducive to fast running. My body AND my heart are ready to start testing and pushing their limits again. I’m ready to drill down and RACE.

But, in the name of safe/smart recovery, I have to know my limits. I’ve only been back to running for a month (after Zero Month) and ‘hard’ running two weeks. Going out like an overeager lunatic would only break me down mentally and physically, and that’s not really what I need on the first official day of Eugene Half training.

So tomorrow will be an expensive, paper-cup-water, snacks-at-the-finish long run through Huntington with 20,000 friends. (I know how everyone loves to hear that) Semi-injured Sheila and under-the-weather Margot and I are going to lead a bruised and broken briggade through 13.1 miles.

At least until one of them decides my out-of-shape ass needs dropping.

I won’t be wearing a timing chip so don’t try to look me up. 1) because it’s Brian’s bib and I don’t want to “skew” the M25-29 results and 2) because it’s Brian’s bib and he doesn’t deserve an ugly time on his Athlinks account (not that he knows or cares what that is)

So here’s to a STRONG run – measured by effort and not the time on the clock – and setting the baseline to see just how far 12 weeks of training will get me. April 28th and that magical city in Oregon will be calling my name…

• Good luck to everyone else racing this weekend!

Sarah OUaL