Mind Over Marathon...

Melissa is still the best-dressed member of Team in Training, even in civvies!

Coach Rob and Coach Paul--I almost didn't recognize them either

You know how sometimes you look forward to something and you imagine how it's going to be in your head, and then you get there and you are totally disappointed?

Here's how the Mind Over Marathon meeting went down in my head:

• I hurry into the building fifteen minutes before the meeting is scheduled to start and it is full of people talking and laughing and catching up on how training has been going. There are 53 people running the Cleveland Full and Half, and they are all here tonight. The room is buzzing with energy and excitement. I get one of the last available chairs and socialize until the coaches tell everyone to simmer down. Everyone I know is here.
• The coaches give us super-detailed course maps and talk about how to line up in the correct corral for the start. They also tell us about our hotel rooms, which have fridges and microwaves as well as a common kitchen on each floor, and give us all kinds of perfect insider tips.
• After everyone's questions have been answered fully and completely, the wonderful purple race-day jerseys are handed out. What an exciting moment! A few people visibly choke up. Most of us put the jersey on over whatever we're wearing and strike cute poses. I take lots of adorable pictures for the blog. A few people have to go up or down a size, but most of us are happy with the fit. We immediately make plans for a jersey-decorating party next week.
• Once the meeting ends, a dozen of us go out for dinner, a few of us even leaving our jerseys on, and spend a companionable two hours eating, drinking, and swapping running stories. I'm grinning from ear to ear the whole drive home. What a fantastic night!

Here's how the Mind Over Marathon meeting actually went down:

• I hurry into the building five minutes before the meeting is scheduled to start. There are 53 people running the Cleveland Full and Half, and about 10 of them are here. People are generally sitting quietly, although one woman is knitting and another is busy with her toddler. I sit up front next to Melissa and wonder where the hell everyone is. Brad and Renee show up, and I recognize Eric and Other Melissa one table back, but I don't know any of the others.
• The coaches start the meeting. There are some handouts that are sort of helpful that they sort of go over, and they mention that the course map is now online. We are meeting in the hotel lobby at 5:30 AM on race morning. The coaches don't know if the hotel rooms have a fridge or a microwave, but Knitting Lady assures us they don't. Great. There are no corrals for this race, so about 9,000 people are all going to start simultaneously off the same start line with no organized structure. We are told to bring a trash bag for pre-race warmth and be careful not to go out too fast.
  
• The purple race-day jerseys aren't here yet. We won't get them tonight. They are being mailed to our homes instead. When? Um, hopefully this week sometime.
• The meeting ends and Melissa has to take off. My husband comes up from work, and he and Brad and Renee and I go to P.F. Chang's for dinner. Renee says the meeting has completely wigged her out and she felt fine before, but not so much now. Oh, and the Victory Party is being held right after the race, not a week later as it was last year. Brad is disappointed, because he is not sure he'll even be done walking his full marathon by the time the Victory Party ends (3 PM).

I enjoyed catching up with Renee and Brad, but other than that, the meeting in my head was SO much better.