Saturday, October 31, 2009

Marathon Expo, Getting ready for the marathon and life's small emergencies



Yesterday I met up with an old friend to pick up all my marathon paraphernalia at the Jacob Javits Center. The two of us were in a bit of a frivolous mood, she was just off a plane from Geneva and well I'm always frivolous. Anyhow, I bought practical stuff like cliff shot bloks, long sleeved running shirt which was half off and wicks moisture, running socks that don’t slip and help prevent blisters, expandable running belt to hold ipod, etc… then slightly less necessary, arm warmers, anti-fog sunglasses, and the most frivolous: Halo Headphones - these are practical in that I always listen to my ipod while running and I hate that I’m constantly having to push my headphones in (especially when the ears start getting sweaty) but not something you’d call a need.

So today, I had a game plan of stretching, drinking lots of water and resting my soon to be weary legs. After some morning stretches, I thought I'd take a morning bath to get myself even more relaxed. I'm not a bath person as I just tend to get really bored. So I had the bright idea that I'd listen to an audio book on my ipod. BIG MISTAKE! Yours truly somehow manages to drop ipod into bath. On any other day, I would have looked at all the internet 'how to repair submerged ipod' links and tried my best to figure this out. BUT I have the marathon tomorrow and the idea of 26.2 miles without music or audio book could not be faced. So my poor mother who'd been working all night volunteered to drive me to the nearest apple store (40 min drive away) to see if they could repair it. As you can guess, they couldn't and it was out of warranty. They then suggested that I could recycle said submerged ipod an get 10% off a new one. Now of course I could have gotten a cheaper ipod on Amazon but as I mentioned this was a marathon emergency. So I sucked it up and got this new baby:



I've been out of the ipod loop since I got my last one two years ago so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my new baby has FM radio - super cool and a video camera - xtra super cool!

So now I'm home and want to relax but not sure on that one as my lil bro is desperate to go to a haunted house. My mother has to work tonight and can't take him and I want to relax after my 'harrowing' day and marathon tomorrow but I feel bad that he can't go. We'll see how that pans out.

Anyhow, I'm crazily promoting my charity that I'm running for. You can donate at www.firstgiving.com/carylpierre and there are lots of awesome prizes to be won: Check it out here. I'd really appreciate the support and I think it's a pretty great cause especially after my summer as a volunteer in Ghana.

2 comments:

Suzie Johnson said...

26.2 miles is painful enough - no human should have to endure it without something to listen to. Good luck tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

Caryl - just read your iPod adventure. Your new one sounds awesome! Are you sure the NY Marathon allows them, though? Many marathons don't. I tried to check on it in the handbook but it took too long to download (I'm on an 8K connection).

Well, you're probably sleeping and won't read this until after the marathon. Have a fantabulous run!

SnailRacer