Busy day at Squaw! (2 days to go!)

It's another beautiful day in Tahoe! I got a solid 8 1/2 hours of sleep last night, a bit shy of the previous night's 9 1/2, but I'm feeling rested and ready to go!

I'll be heading over to Squaw with my pacer Jay and friend Pam in a little bit. We're going to hike up to Escarpment, about 4000 feet in 4 miles, for a ceremony at the top of the mountain. The highlight, though, will be meeting my coach Andy Jones-Wilkins and his family for the hike! After we've climbed down from the peak, there are a series of seminars available--everything from blister treatment (I'll pass-if I have nastier than usual blisters, I'll be begging an aid station medic for assistance) to final crew instructions to a Q&A session with a few veteran runners that is being MCed by my coach! The real highlight will be milling around with my fellow runners and their friends and families. I imagine there'll be a pre-race energy today!

Tomorrow morning I have a 9 am weigh-in followed by a race expo. At the weigh-in, I'll receive my yellow wristband that is my lifeline to the race...lose that, for any reason, and I'm out of the race. It's the only way that all of the volunteers can ensure that only healthy runners are competing; it's also the only way the race organizers can administer a final test to weed out the morons among us: if you can't go 20 hours without losing the wristband, they probably don't want you out there running 100 miles in the mountains. They'll give us the final runner instructions at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon, and then it's back to the house for a pre-race pasta dinner and last minute packing of drop bags, etc. Breakfast is served at Squaw at 3:30 AM on Saturday morning, and the gun will sound at 5 AM sharp. From there, my big adventure will have begun...and 20-some hours later, I'll hopefully cross that finish line at the Placer High track.

One little note: As I was wandering around the Village yesterday, I was drafted into servitude for the race. When you see the runners run under the huge start line banner on Saturday, and assuming it doesn't fall down on anyone, know that I was one of the able-bodied who helped set that up! Photos to come later.

Time for a shake-out run!