In Spokane - Ready for Bloomsday?

Here is the gorgeous deep tub where I am going to soak myself tonight in preparation for the Bloomsday run tomorrow morning. That, and some sort of pasta tonight for dinner, are my final race prep efforts. It'll have to be good enough.

Right now I am (again) lolling on my exceedingly comfortable bed at the Davenport Hotel. We flew in around midday, and after checking in I decided to forgo going to see Kathrine Switzer in favor of a rest and nap. I've seen and met her twice before, and already bought all her books and a Marathon Woman tee shirt, and I wasn't even completely sure that she'd be here. There's always a chance that Joe Biden scared her out of flying. I'd been inexplicably tired today and lying down was irresistible.

After a couple hours I dragged myself out of a drugged-like state to head out for some lunch and the Bloomsday packet pick-up and trade show.

We went to Madeleine's (a charming coffee shop/cafe kitty-corner from Macy's) where I had a delicious turkey sandwich and my mother had an even yummier grilled panini with tomato and cheese, and tomato basil soup. (It was yummier because of the melted cheese, of course.) Madeleine's also has the best lattes (and a tall comes with two shots, and they have sugar free toffee syrup).

From there we headed on to the convention center to pick up my race packet. The wind was blowing in an alarmingly stormy way (and has continued to do so). I am praying that it lets up by morning!

The trade show is HUGE but for once I didn't succumb to the lure to buy anything. We did, however, succumb to the Franz display and I grabbed a handful of Mother's iced animal cookies for each of us. (LOVE those cookies.) Then we just battled the wind on the way back to the hotel. (Please PLEASE let it stop.)

While I am in Spokane it seems like everyone else I hear of is going to the Eugene Marathon/Half Marathon. Nobody I know personally, but numerous bloggers I read are headed that way. I picture them all heading to Eugene, just like everyone in the Seinfeld finale packing up and heading to the Good Samaritan trial. Good luck to all of them, as well all the other race runners this weekend. (And there are many! This is a big weekend.)

And a special good luck to my friend Gina, who is running a half marathon in Lincoln, Nebraska, where at least hopefully the course will be flat!
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