Victoria

Drove down through rain and sunshine. Circled around, finding the starting area, and the finish line, although I was lost most of the time in between. Went to the Harbor Towers to pick up my race package. I was the wandering person, but I actually knew more than most- like my number! 9231, bitches!
There are numbers 1 through 14000! I asked the guy in line behind me at 9000-10000 if that meant there were 14 thousand people in the race, kind of floored to learn I was going to be in the middle of a crush of bodies, and he thinks there are! I am nervous for that kind of crowd, what the fuck! How is my a.m. cab even going to get near!!
So that's a little scary. Have to set out early.
I got my room organized, and am sad to see my standby Travel Inn is shut. They used to give me a twin bed in a windowless room for $40. There are 50 more Travel Inns, so no problem, they just aren't the score that it was. Laid out my stuff for the morning, and made a plan to go get stuff, shop a little.
I always forget that I don't like shopping. I thought the bib with my number on it would be a sticker! I need safety pins! And cream, for my a.m. coffee. I figured I could score some pins off of clothes in the mall, and squeamishly went around from store to shitty store, hating being in the mall. All the tags were on plastic strings, no pins, I was getting frustrated. As I came out of the Guess store some dude asked me if I was alone, if a pretty lady like me wanted company, to go for drinks? What! Haha, I was as polite yet firm as I could be, I think he meant it in a nice not pervy way, but that is really weird to me!
Treated myself to dinner out, nice big bowl of pasta. I'm happy to be on my little solo mission, glad to be on the way back to the hotel. I've been terrible with the picture taking!
I decided in the end to just buy my two cups of coffee and ice them, since there's a microwave in the room. Much better than running around in the morning. Put on some hand lotion in the mall that stank so much! Two hand washes and it was still there...
I'm excited. Nervous. I hope the morning goes well. Set my alarm now, Im trying really hard to not do anything differently. My right arm hurts from weedwhacking, and now my knees and ankles are sore from walking. Took a good relaxing bath, icing my knees, might get some more ice for the ankles, why not?
All the leaves are out here in full. It's beautiful, but there's a cold wind I'm going to hate in the morning. OK, bedtime for me!