First send-off

Last night was our TnT send-off party for those running Avenue of the Giants and Vancouver Half Marathon. It was at the San Leandro Yacht Club. For some reason, people have trouble finding the building. Maybe because it's called a "yacht club" and from the outside looks like a fishing shack. I know I was confused the first time I went there.

I left the office early because I had no idea, with the freeway collapse situation and all, how long it would take to get there. Not very long, it turned out. I didn't care. I had my mindless diagonal multidirectional scarf to keep me busy. I mellowed out knitting for a while, watching the birds over the marina. It was very peaceful.

The send-off was fun, seeing all the people about to run, in some cases, not only their first half marathon but their first race. I remember how excited I was before my first marathon and these peeps are feeling much the same. There was pretty decent support from the rest of the team and most of the mentors were there to support their mentees. We started the night with potluck. It's funny how very few people actually prepared the food they brought. Aside from one pan of lasagna and some cookies, most of the food was prepared by Safeway and Costco. I should talk, I brought some yummy veggies and some pasta salad from Safeway. There was, as is usual at these thing, way too much food. I managed to stick with the healthy stuff, except for one yummy cookie.

Mama Lisa, one of our coaches, gave her patented pre-race talk about how to pack, what to eat, what to do. It's a good (long) talk, but unfortunately most of the mentors/captains have heard it many times. I'm pretty sure that most of us were on the edge of our seats, waiting for something different, or wanting to say "oh, you mean" when she paused. We didn't, we all like her too much to interrupt or be rude during the talk. Although I must say there was a bunch of light chatter in the background.

Then Coach Gary (and I just can't get used to calling him, or anyone other than Lisa or Alphonzo, "coach") gave his pep talk. Y'know, the "go out fast, die like a pig" talk. After that we heard from our Honoree Captain, to put the whole thing in perspective.

The final speaker, as is his right, was Coach Al. Some day I'll talk about Coach, what he's meant to me and what he means to the team. Short version, I adore him; I come back to TnT simply to have him be my coach again. He's warm, caring, inspirational, funny and a damn fine coach. He'll be going to Vancouver; Mama Lisa will be with us at Avenue. Anyhoo, Coach talked about Brenda and Cole, got teary eyed along with the rest of us. He told us to believe in ourselves, believe in our training, believe in our angels who will carry us along. He gathered us all in a big hug circle (yeah, all of us, it was quite a sight), had our moment of silence for our honorees, past and present, then told us to just to out and DO THE DAMN THING!

So Sunday morning at 8:00 am, that's exactly what I plan. Right here, right now, I'll say that Bree and I will do the damn thing and finish in 5:45! You betcha!