Lucky for me, my friend has a house on Schroon River which is not too far from the start of the race.

Fellow runner/blogger AJH was running this race too & I invited her to stay with me.

I planned on getting there early Saturday morning but actually AJH arrived before me.  Then we headed to the Expo, my first,  in Schroon Lake.

It was a pretty small expo.  First we picked up our race packets.  Instead of tee shirts, they gave us a cool green race jacket. So I decided to buy a tee shirt – one with the logo on the front and the name of the runners on the back.  Can you believe it?  I’m not even racing this one.

Then we had lunch. We went to small cafe that specialized in crepes.  Yes, the French teacher in me came out.  It was delicious!! I had a chicken, brie, apple crepe and we split a smores crepe for dessert.

I bumped to my running friend Mary on the street who had come up to get her packet and look at the course.

AJH & I decided that we’d like to drive the course.  We headed north and followed the Marathon route.  It was very scenic, many of the leaves had changed colors but it was VERY hilly.

Finally we arrived at the start of the half marathon. 

They said it was flat – not really but definitely less hilly that the 1st 13 miles.  For most of the beginning miles you had a great view of the lake and the race ended at the beach.

I started to get excited about the race but then reality set in – I’m not racing it… I can’t.  I will finish and have fun anyway.  I repeat.  I will finish and have fun.

So then we headed back to the house.  It took about 11 minutes.  Yes, we were pretty close.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Schroon Lake for the Pasta dinner.  I was surprised how elaborate it was.  I succeeded in carb loading – 2 plates of pasta & some cheesecake. We sat with a nice couple from NJ.  He was doing his 1st half and she was training for the Chicago Marathon.

Remember that 11 minute ride.  It turned out to be much longer on the way home.  We missed 2 exits and then accidentally got back on the highway when we didn’t need to.

Finally got back and spent the rest of the evening on our laptops while planning our morning routine.

To be continued…