There’s no backing out now

Come 10:00 pm tonight Derek is running his first half marathon.

I’m so proud.

Running a 10:00pm marathon is a tricky one. How does one mentally and physically prepare for a race so late in the evening? What does one eat?

Well, to prepare physically they take lots of naps.

After breakfast Derek went back to bed for two hours and he’s currently napping next to me in the hotel room.

And to eat?

Well, I’m not sure if a crab house is truly the best option, but, hey, it’s a start.

A couple of days ago I received an e-mail from my online friend, Dana, letting me know her fiance, Graham, and her would be running the Wine & Dine Half this weekend and asking if Derek and I were free to meet them for lunch.

I first ‘met’ Dana over a year ago when she had sent me a video that her and her then boyfriend had made documenting their first marathon. That video inspired me to document my own first marathon via flip camera, which led to many other racing videos (all can be found on the bottom of this page). Without her inspiration I’m not sure I would have ever thought to have created those videos!

Many of you might be familiar with the Running Love Story Dana had guest blogged about this past May. If that doesn’t sound familiar then I highly suggest you check it out here. *hint* it involves both a marathon and a proposal.

The four of us met for lunch at Fulton’s Crab House in Downtown Disney.

I remember going her a lot as a kid, but can’t say I’ve ever gone back as an adult. I’m not sure why, it’s a great high scale restaurant with a great menu, ok prices, and great food.

Our table began with some hot sourdough bread and I had two slices.

While everyone else was carefully choosing what sort of meal they wanted before race time (Derek had veggie pasta with red sauce), I felt very happy to be able to choose what ever I wanted. Which in this case was the Seafood Cobb Salad.

The salad was piled high with egg, avocado, cucumber, tomato, crab, shrimp and scallops. It was a feast all in it’s own and I had barely made a dent in it when I was full. Despite his measures in being so careful in ordering his own meal, Derek had no problem polishing off the rest of my salad.

After lunch I wanted to get Derek a post-race treat so I brought the group to Goofy’s Candy Co to build our own candy encrusted masterpieces.

On the way we made a pit stop at Ghirardelli where they were handing out the seasonal Pumpkin Spice Caramel Chocolates.

Very pumpkiny!

The concept is easy at Goofy’s. You pick a base, you pick a chocolate, you pick a coating, and you pick a drizzle. You hand it off and it’s created right in front of you.

Our new friends were fans.

Derek and I selected the Rice Krispie Treat dipped in Dark Chocolate, coated in crushed Butterfinger, and drizzled with White Chocolate.

I had a couple of bites for quality control purposes.

The rest will be saved for later!

Expo Time!

T-minus 5 hours until race time!

Here goes nothing.