The Best Parts of the Tucson 1/2 Marathon

1. Having a change to visit with my Tucson family and friends. On Saturday, I had lunch with my grandmother and uncles who I have seen since my brother's wedding in May. It was great to catch up with them and made me wish I had some more time to hang in Tucson. Saturday night, I met up with my work buddies Kristine and Stacy for a pre-race, carb loading dinner at Gavi, a fantastic Italian restaurant in Tucson. Saturday morning, I met up with another work buddy, Heather, and Heather's friend Tracy, at the start line (well, actually in the porta-potty line). These people were absolutely the best part of my weekend.
2. Support crew! Kristine came out in the cold at a god-forsaken hour in the morning to stand around at mile 1.5 and take excess clothing when Heather, Tracy, and I came by. This was awesome--I got wear my long sleeve jersey while I was still shivering at the beginning of the race and then ditch it after I got hot without having run the rest of the race with it tied around my waist. Kristine was also at the finish to cheer and then she drove us all back to the parking lot so we didn't have to wait around for the shuttle bus at the end of the race. So nice.
3. I lost two pounds. I'm sure this is mostly water loss, but considering the enormous amount of food I've consumed in the last two days, this is still a shocking number. Let me lay it out for you. Saturday morning, I ate two eggs and a piece of toast for breakfast. I then proceeded to Starbucks and picked up a grande Peppermint Mocha Twist, with whipped cream thank you very much, for the drive to Tucson. For lunch on Saturday, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant where I had a Thai iced tea (you know, the one with real cream and a ridiculous amount of sugar), and some kind of delicious beef and noodle dish that I forgot the name of but tasted delicious. I devoured almost all of it. Saturday night, Stacy had the brilliant idea of sharing our entrees so that we could have a pasta dish and protein dish in preparation for race day (Stacy ran the full marathon--I can't even begin to contemplate adding another 13 miles onto what I did yesterday. Yay, Stacy!) The portions at Gavi are big, so it's not like half of two entrees equals two dinners. It's really more like I had two dinners. And I ate them both. And they were wonderful. Sunday morning was the dreaded half bagel and banana. After the race, I had a subway sandwich, chips (salt tasted soooo good) and root beer. Then, in Casa Grande I stopped at Dairy Queen, where I had a Blizzard with Snickers. THEN. I got home and Moses had made lasagna. mmmmm. So I had two pieces of that, salad, and a piece of pie that was leftover from something last week. See, I told you. A ridiculous amount of food. And I STILL lost two pounds. Awesome.