1 Day and Counting – Friday, January 6th

Oh my Gawd. One more day. Tomorrow I'll be running in the biggest race of my life. What does one do the day before a big race? Sleep. That's right I slept in. Although I originally work up at 7am, I forced myself the stay in bed until 9am. When I finally got up we dressed and went to Sanford, Fl to visit Al's aunt.

Al's aunt is so cool. She's retired with a PhD in education and has participated in a lot of exciting adventures. Stuff like going on safari in Africa, mountain climbing in Peru, touring Europe, cycling and some other cool stuff. She currently does arts and crafts out of her home, mostly painting and decorating gourds. She took us to a restaurant near a lake that had alligators in it and we ordered the gator nuggets. Gators taste like a cross between fish and chicken. It wasn't bad, but because it was actual alligator I couldn't savor the flavor. After lunch Al's Aunt took us to the Blue Springs Park to see the Manatees. I didn't know what a manatee was before we went there. They are these slow moving mammals that sort of resemble walruses. And I got to see them up close and personal. I thought that was really cool.

After leaving Sanford, Al and I went to City Walk outside of Universal Studios. Earlier that day Al's Aunt told us that this weekend will be the coldest it's been in Orlando in 19 years. We were able to experience this record breaking cold first hand as we wandered around City Walk and ate dinner at this open air restaurant. I don't think folks in Orlando ever thought that it would get windy or cold because a lot of their eating establishments are open air venues that are sealed off by garage doors or plastic tarps. Al left his coat in the car and I was shivering. So we hurried up and ate then headed back to the hotel. I'll check out the rides at Universal some other time.

Back at the hotel Al did his best to find information about spectator viewing locations. For a race as big as the Disney Half marathon, they really don't make it easy for spectators to watch the race. Either he got up and got on the bus at 4am with the runners or he was SOL. So, once that was settled we both went to bed early with all alarms set for a 2:30am wake up call.

- Sweet Dreams