Happy Saturday! I’m blogging from the Outer Banks or the OBX as it’s also known. I’m sure you’ve seen that sticker on many a vehicle. If you didn’t know what that means, now you know.
And just in case you didn’t know…here is a brief geography less about the Outer Banks. Don’t feel bad, most North Carolinians don’t have a good grasp on this either.
(source)
The Outerbanks are a chain of barrier islands that stretch almost all the way down the NC coast. X marks the spot where my in-laws live and where I’m staying this weekend. Tomorrow, Brittney and I will be running 13.1 miles from Nags Head to Manteo. It’s a beautiful run and fairly flat until you cross the bridge into Manteo. It’s quite a little climb, near the end of the run. I’m hoping to PR tomorrow so here is how I’ve been preparing…
After making the long six hour drive from Charlotte to Aydlett (too small to be on the map) yesterday afternoon, we slept very well and woke up to a gorgeous morning.
Rascal loves to rush downstairs as soon as I stir, but then rushes back up to mine and Brad’s room when he realizes that we didn’t run down the stairs behind him.
Breakfast was awesome as usual at Casa de la Davis. These delicious beauties were leftover from our meal last night. Sweet Potato biscuits. A sweet and salty marriage made in heaven. I’ve made these several times but have never posted the recipe (courtesy of Brad’s mom Joy). These are too good to leave off the blog, so I have to post it soon.
The rest of our feast:
Egg casserole with onions and ham.
Pears and apples
I had a little of everything and smeared some homemade fig jam (courtesy of Grandma Carolyn) on my sweet pot biscuit.
Glorious coffee
During breakfast, Squeaky, the outside cat, begged at the door. I think he’s troubled by the fact that he’s outside and Rascal is inside. My allergies can’t handle inside cats, so I’m glad to leave him out. Even if he is kind of pitiful with all of his wailing.
Rascal did his fair share of begging too.
He has to work for his morsels.
Brittney and I headed off for a 15ish minute run to loosen up followed by a ~3 mile walk. I left Brad in good hands with his other appendage, the iPhone.
The weather was awesome outside. We returned to the house to shower, eat lunch with the grandparents, then made our merry way to the OBX Expo.
Everything in the OBX is adorned with pirate paraphernalia because of the legend of Blackbeard who pirated the waters off the Outer Banks, 100s of years ago, making it virtually impossible to sail anywhere near the shore.
…hence the Booty Bag. Clever, huh?
Although this is my 5th half marathon, this is actually the first expo I’ve ever attended. I was little unimpressed with the amount of free stuff. In the spirit of the race, we could have just pirated stole our loot, but we chose to purchase it instead. They did have some pretty good deals on racing attire.
Free stuff – OBX tech running shirt (not a women’s size :(), sport sunscreen, brown rice, yogurt covered dried pineapple, un-pictured tootsie roll and tiny Twizzler that I ate.
Purchased stuff – New Balance long sleeve running shirt for only $15(!), Go Belt, which I’ve been thinking about buying for a while to hold my stuff while I run. They were two for $35 so Britt and I both bought one. They had some fun colors, but I liked this purple pattern the best.
After a quick stop by the Teeter for some veggies and another stop by our vice Starbuck$, we headed home to relax.
How do we plan to fuel at dinner for our race tomorrow? God’s gift to runners…PIZZA! 😉
I’ve tried many many different foods before a race, but pizza is my tried and true favorite.
Any other favorites out there? What do you like to eat the night before a race?