Greetings from the Middle of Nowhere, Florida (errr… Brooksville)!  Meghann, Kelly (Meghann’s sister), Abbie, and I are checked in our hotel and anxiously awaiting our big race tomorrow — a 15.0 Mile Trail Race! 

The race is in Withlacoochee State Forest, which is absolutely beaaautiful.

OK — backtracking a little bit…. Kelly and I carpooled to the race location together.  Before we left, I had a bowl of cereal.

And a bunch of grapes in the car.

We arrived in Brooksville around 5 PM and met up with Abbie and Meghann.  This was my first time meeting Abbie, and she is so sweet and interesting!  She is actually racing the 50K version of the race tomorrow (like 31 miles)…. isn’t that loco!?  Plus, she gave me this awesome "Easter Basket" upon my arrival:

A running CD mix tape, tons of yummy bars, instant oatmeal, peanut butter… OH MY!  And she made these amazing pineapple donut holes (which are raw).  I had one of these:

We drove to the race start to pick up our numbers and packets. 

I love the Crooms’ shirt!

And then we decided to go out to dinner…. we originally intended to go to this lovely Italian place, but it was closed for Good Friday. 🙁 We ended up randomly selecting this very Southern BBQ place.

Yea… we’re in hicksville right now.

I looooove BBQ!  The homestyle type is the best.  I ordered 1/2 BBQ chicken (which I only about 1/2 of), corn on the cob, half a roll, and baked beans.

Dinner was delicious, but it really didn’t hit the spot for some reason.  I definitely didn’t feel like I had eaten enough pre-race carbs, and neither did the other girls.  We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and grabbed a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked FroYo, which we ate in our hotel room. 😉

My 1/4 a pint:

And now…. maybe we’ll go explore the hotel pool! And snooze on our double beds and watch TV.  :)  I’ve got a SERIOUS case of pre-race nerves, but I know I’ll be just fine.

Stay tuned for the post-race recap!  I’m taking my camera on the trail (yes, seriously), so maybe I’ll have some cool pictures of myself huffing and puffing on the trail.  🙂

Good night!