oak hill flyer: lehigh valley marathon (part 2 of 2)
i told my sister throughout the past several months that getting to the start of the marathon was the hardest part. sickness, injury, fatigue and tragedy will all do their part to keep you from race morning. apparently fate believed that i had forgot this lesson and needed to be retaught en route to allentown.
- 5pm friday flight to detroit departs on time
- 9pm friday flight to allentown is asked to deplane becase we don't have a pilot (fail #1)
- 1030pm friday flight to allentown is canceled; we are stranded in detroit (fail #2)
- 1130pm friday we are booked to philadelphia (1.5 hours away from allentown) the next morning
- 1230am saturday we get to our comp'd hotel room, next to a high traffic area of vending machines. further, the relay to our AC unit was extremely loud when turning on or off *clunk, clunk* (fail #3)
- 645am saturday we wake (not like we slept much anyway); i find an 830am flight to state college and rebook tickets over the phone
- 740am saturday we arrive at detroit security with boarding passes and a 10 minute line in front of us
- 750am saturday both my bag and k's bag get pulled for screening. they dig through our stuff and have to individually inspect our phone chargers, computer chargers, wristwatches, eyeglass cases, contact lenses. i inform security about my grave concern about the time. the screening takes 30 minutes. k sprints out first.
- 820am saturday i sprint 300m through the airport to get to our gate. once there, k realized that security never gave her back some of her essentials. we miss the flight (fail #4). we rebook for the next state college flight at 1030am.
- 1030am saturday flight to state college is asked to deplane because of a ground stop. penn state home game; too many planes on the tarmac. (fail #5)
- 1200pm saturday ground stop is lifted; flight to state college departs. parents drive us to allentown; family gets dinner.
- 800pm saturday k goes to take her first shower in 1.5 days. no hot water in our room, my parents' room, my sister's room. i bitch to the innkeeper. "fuses went out; let it run for 20 minutes" he says. (fail #6)
- 830pm saturday k and i take cold showers. i bitch again. "no no, DON'T let it run for 20 minutes." i call BS and give him a piece of my mind.
- 850pm saturday for fun, i check the water. no hot water.
- 930pm saturday bedtime. alarm set for 530am.
- 1000pm saturday the room phone rings; it's the innkeeper. "your hot water should work now; try it." "you just woke me up." *phone slam* (fail #7)
- 1100pm saturday downstairs guests start playing drum-heavy music. dial zero and bitch to innkeeper. (fail #8)
- 520am saturday a friend (bless his heart) calls my cell to wish me good luck at the marathon that morning.
it was nothing short of a miracle that we didn't get a flat tire en route to the race. at our rate, i was quite convinced that the earth was simply going to split in two and swallow us whole.
fate be damned; i got to the start. and with my sister running her first marathon, you bet your bottom dollar i was making it to the finish.
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