The Day Before The Chicago Marathon

I arrived in Chicago and was met at the airport by my wonderful friend from college, Thi. As we drove toward my alma mater, there were hints of the marathon all along the way.

There was also lots of traffic. Go figure!

My alma mater: Illinois Institute of Technology (this bridge was bright red back in the day).

Here is Thi. I will be her bridesmaid in July 2011.

Here is the architecture building. I spent about a zillion hours here.

At IIT we met up with my hostess Katie (also a college friend). After a quick walk down memory lane, we went to lunch in Greektown.

Mmm Giordano's! Man oh man - I miss this stuff.

After that Katie and I said goodbye to Thi and headed to the marathon expo. It was HUGE! I figured as much, but wow. After we got my race bib and stuff, we strolled upon none other than the Ultra-Marthon man himself!

Yes, that is Dean Karnazes. That makes two stars I have met within a month's time!

A fellow in front of us was wearing this shirt while listening to Dean.

We plopped down to investigate the goody bag.

I am always ready for exit 26.2 - trust me!

"10-10-10" was all over the place.

The coolest thing in the whole expo was a huge wall that had all participants' names in tiny lettering on it. It took forever to find my name, but I did!

The letters were only about a quarter inch tall... 45,000 names...

Now this is interesting. Even though the projected temps were in the 80's, the event status was "low." I highly disagreed with that, but I was not running the show!

After the expo we headed back to Katie's condo in suburban Oak Lawn. I unpacked and we proceeded to laugh and catch up. We talk via e-mail nearly daily, but we only see each other every few years. Then we headed out for a pre-race dinner. I had fettuccine with marinara and sausage. I was in bed by 9 PM for my 4:30 AM alarm.

Stay tuned for the big day!