Welcome Runners!
Welcome to the 2018 Garden Spot Village Marathon | Half Marathon | Kids Marathon!
You know you’re a runner when you go to bed thinking, “I’ve got to get some sleep so I’m ready to run tomorrow and you wake up in a panic at 3:00 a.m. because you think you forgot your running shoes.” It may not be running shoes for you but we’ve all experienced it. I’m still afraid my GPS will get me lost and I’ll arrive late for a run. The pre-race jitters, gotta love um!
The Weather
Hey, we’re gonna get a couple of fabulous days this weekend, 50 – 80 degrees and sunny. It will make for an amazing after party on the lawn – chocolate milk shakes!! Bring sunscreen and chap stick you’ll probably want them. We’ll have coolers of ice at the water stations. If you’re from around here, you know it’s been a cold winter. Saturday will be the hottest it’s been all year.
We want you to have the best run ever and enjoy it like no other! Please, do yourself a favor, if the heat starts to get to you, slow down, walk if you must. Heat exhaustion isn’t any fun. It’s better to finish a little off pace than not at all!
We’re Getting Ready for You
The link to the Runners Guide and your bib number is on the home page of the website. Check the date at the bottom of the Bib Number list for the day it was posted. We will update the lists this morning (Friday). If you switched races or something like that and your bib number isn’t there, no worries, we’ll fix everything when you check-in. If you try to e-mail me, or Mike or call our main number to get a hold of us for some reason, please don’t get frustrated if you don’t hear from us today or tomorrow, we are really, really, really, busy getting everything ready for you. If I find a minute to check my voice mails or e-mails it will be a miracle. It’s not that I don’t want to, I just know what it’s been like in years past.
Have a Great Time!
We’ve got amazing volunteers. They will be wearing bright green hats. We all get stressed – please cooperate with the volunteers especially in the parking areas. They are trying to park a lot of cars very quickly and get everyone to the starting line on time. Where they may direct you might not make sense to you but we’ve worked out traffic patterns that are best for everyone.
The planning team will be wearing blue hats with Marathon 2018 on the front. If you see me I’d love to say hello. If you see the others with the blue hats please thank them. You can’t imagine the amount of effort they’ve put in to making the day special for everyone. I know I’m extremely thankful for each one of them.
Without the volunteers we couldn’t do this. Please thank them, the fire police and the EMTs out on the course. We all want you to be safe and have an absolutely fabulous experience!
Packet Pick-up starts today (Friday) at 2:00 p.m. There’s an expo and an amazing pasta dinner. The Kids Marathon runs at 6:00 p.m. Packet Pickup opens Saturday at 6:30 a.m. The race starts at 8:00 a.m. sharp.
Welcome! It’s Going to be a Great Weekend!
Run On!
Scott, -rd