not as planned

Friday was supposed to go like this:
wake up, go to work and pack up book fair for 2 hours, come home, lunch, shower, then leave for Louisville, be on the road by 1:30 or so, go to expo, check in hotel, nap, dinner, balloon glow, bed.

It went more like this though:
wake up, got to work and pack up book fair for 2 hours, come home, lunch, shower, drop off dog at parents, take garbage to dump, come back home, switch vehicles, drop off dishes at a friends, leave for louisville.  by the time we got on the road for louisville it was about 3pm.  :(  we thought the expo was at the expo convention center - which is NOT where it was. there were no directions on the website to get us there, the gps did not recognize the name of the building.  i found the address on my phone and we punched that in to the gps.  it started taking us away from downtown, which is NOT where we wanted to go! we stopped at a culvers, so i could use the rest room while jeremy played around with the gps trying to get us in the right direction.  by the time we got downtown Louisville it was 6pm and rush hour.  we checked in to our hotel and went to the expo - which just happened to be right next door to our hotel - ARG!! 

by the time we walked through the expo and i got some shotblocks and a super cute sweaty band (see below) it was 7:45.  we still hadn't eaten and the balloon glow was at 9pm.  i realized it just wasnt' going to happen. so dissapointed that there was no way we would get there in time. even if we got there late that would just put us later getting back to the hotel and with our luck that day we would get lost to or from the airfield, so we went to dinner at outback and then came back to the hotel to rest and watch tv.



Race shirt



Bourbon Chase shirts - front (will run for bourbon) and back with a map of the distillaries and course

my new sweaty band :)





we woke up at 6am on saturday morning, got ready and started walking towards the start line.

ready to leave the hotel

all the runners in the lobby

wonder woman

the trumpeter to start the race derby style

the running elvi

one of the running elvi

the balloon race was at 7am and we could see the balloons in the distance.  this was as close as i got to them this weekend.

 the weather was perfect!! i dropped j off at his corral and went to mcdonald's to use the bathroom and get a drink.  i took off walking to the start hoping i would see jeremy cross the start line, but i had missed him. so then i took off walking to a corner where i thought i would see him between mile 4-5.  on the map it looked close, but after walking for 30 minutes and a man saying it was still 6-7 blocks away I knew by the time i got there jeremy woudl have already gone by! GRRR!!  i happened to only be a block or so from the hotel, so i went back to the room for about 30 minutes to drop off my jacket and jeremy's long sleeve shirt.  i started walking towards the finish line via the race course.  i had 45 minutes to get there so i figured i would either see him on the course there or make it to the finish line in time to watch him! 

Great place in downtown Louisville, close to the hotel. Too bad we didnt have time to go there either the night before

i cheered and clapped for the runners on the way. i kept thinking i would want people to clap for jeremy as he passed even if they didnt know him. i was surprised to see spectators not clapping or congratulating the runners as they went by while they were waiting for their own runner.  it made me a little mad actually!  i made it to the finish line and worked my way up to the gate and watched and clapped for the runners as they crossed the line.   jeremy crossed and was 45 seconds under what he had gone at the end of march.  i had been a little worried that he might have added time based on the race clock time, but there were so many runners there were several minutes difference in his time and the race clock.

almost at the finish line



so close!!



after the race, with his medal