Race Expo and Kick-Off Lunch

I came up to Denver last night to spend as much time as possible with my mom and Dominique since they were both super awesome and flew all the way from Connecticut to support me this weekend. After an awesome dinner and experience at "Casa Bonita" (a childhood favorite of Dominique's) it was great to spend some quality time with them. Friday was great!

I woke up on Saturday feeling a little bit nervous but I immediately let the excitement of the day overcome those feelings. After breakfast at my favorite breakfast place on 16th Street, mom, Dominique and I made our way to the Convention Center for the Race Expo. I picked up my race packet (bib #5111) and then we spent some time walking around and enjoying the expo. We got massages, evaluations, loads of free samples and I finally broke down and bought a "stick". It was really neat to see the two of them get interested in the vendors and I was able to explain a lot of running things to my mom. The three of us even got to cross the finish line together! :)

We met up with the rest of the team from Colorado Springs and Denver to walk to our pasta part. Upon walking into Maggiano's, we were greeted by close to 30 "cheerers" - our staff members, coaches, captains, mentors, family and friends. They created a walkway for us to walk through as they cheered and clapped as we made our way to the lunch room. The program was full of good wishes, pictures of our personal heroes, speeches, and motivation from everyone there. Dave McGillivray, the Race Director and a very accomplished distance runner, gave one of the best motivational speeches I've heard in a long time. He's had such an amazing life full of running and I can't wait to read his book. It was a truly inspirational lunch - it's so great to see such a large group of people all working together for the same cause and to see so many survivors and people that are living with cancer. It's evidence that all the money we're raising is going to some great research and is truly making an impact on real lives. That's so motivating.

As many of the Colorado Springs group that we could get together for lunch.

The entire Rocky Mountain Chapter of Team in Training

Vince Lombardi said ... "Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team." I truly feel this perfectly describes Team in Training and I absolutely love it.

To see the rest of the pictures from today (and tomorrow's marathon) visit this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/dawneanderson/DenverMarathonOctober2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCPCy0aef6NTYgAE&feat=directlink