One More Day Before RAAM

This morning, Jody and I ran the half-marathon that I mentioned yesterday. It was a hot and hilly run, and quite possibly the most difficult of the three half-marathons I now have under my belt, but we made it to the end and finished in 56th and 57th place, respectively. (We actually crossed the finish line together and were given the same time, but one of the race officials decided Jody finished ahead of me.)

After the race, we went out for lunch and once again pigged out. The portions in America are, on average, substantially bigger than those in Japan, and, even though I hadn't forgotten that, I'm still pretty surprised whenever the food arrives at our table. (Some of you may be wondering why the heck I'm writing so much about food, but trust me, I'm just not that happy with the food situation in Japan.)

After lunch, Jody and I drove down to Oceanside, the starting point for RAAM. That's where I got my first real taste of the race, as I met some of the race organizers, staff members, and racers.

Tomorrow we will have our first official duty: bike inspections. Those will continue on Tuesday, and probably on Wednesday morning, and then we finally hit the road.