I know I really should be aware of the existence of early morning hours after my 6 months of training, but I don't think I ever started a run before 7am, despite my best intentions.
And, lo and behold, I am up at 5:00 in the morning. Thank god we sent the cat with my parents
after my birthday because I can only imagine the hissy fit she would be having.
I packed my bag, at last, last night (typical). I'm pretty sure I haven't forgotten anything, but I do know that my carry-on feels like I've remembered my whole life. Of course, this isn't my doing but rather general common sense when running a marathon internationally. EVERYTHING needs to be in your carry-on: your shoes, your socks, your running gear, your vaseline, your first aid kit, your food, your water bottle - everything.
Obviously this is to be sure you have it all on race day incase the airline loses your luggage; and knowing Jeff and my luck with this whole experience to date, I am fully expecting lost luggage on this trip.
On the plus side, the Toronto Airport isn't reporting any delays, neither is our airline. The snow has suddenly plopped down on the area after a mild autumn, but the traffic reports are also saying everything is clear. This is good, load em up, we are off and away!
Thursday, December 10, 9:30am:
9:30am. Flight departure time. My goodness Terminal 3 is cold. Yup. Terminal 3. Not the plane.
That's because we're not on the plane. And no, our plane is not delayed or cancelled.
Those traffic reports that said everything is clear - they lied. Plain
and simple. We travelled most of the way at about 20km/h to avoid jack-knifed trucks, cars in the ditch, and for our own general safety. At about 8am, I tried calling Continental and the airport to see if we had any options, since we knew we would be late, but there was nothing to be done.
We left Guelph at 6:00am and arrived in Toronto at 9:00am - a typical 45 minute drive. We ran from one end of Terminal 3 to the other, raced to the first available kiosk and were told that the flight was closed. Deep down I knew this already but I was hoping dropping details like 'marathon' 'charity' 'diabetes' '$10,000' would cause them to rush us through security or something miraculous.
In hindsight, I should have bribed the man at the kiosk.
Either way, he switched us to the next available flight - the same one, tomorrow. TOMORROW??? We have officially lost an entire day, and missed the luau celebration hosted by the marathon. This sucks in ways I can't even describe but I am trying desperately to keep Jeff from punching something by repeating 'Worry about what you can control', and so have to agree with this mantra myself.
Jeff rightfully refuses to drive back to Guelph, so we are thinking about a hotel - and of course admitting to our friends and family that we missed the flight...
Thursday, December 10th, 8:00pm
After wandering the airport for about an hour, we found a booth with information for local airport hotels and got a great rate for 'Distressed Travellers'. The hotel seemed a little run down - front doors broken, hot tub in repair, etc, but it works. We plan to take the first shuttle to the airport at 6:45am, as the man at the kiosk told us to arrive at 7am (for our 9:30 flight...weird, I know).
We've just gotten back from a little jaunt in the exercise room where I calmed some race day nerves on the treadmill.
We also used the opportunity given to us through this missed flight to do some Christmas shopping at Square One, get some snacks for the plane, a nice breakfast for the morning, and an underwater camera for Jeff.
We spent some time testing it out in the hotel sink and I'm excited to see what images he gets while we are away. We're both so tired that we are setting up separate beds to maximize our sleeping hours, although I don't know that it will make much difference for me.
I keep thinking that we have had such horrible luck with this whole experience that something else is bound to happen - our flight gets cancelled, we crash, it rains on race day. Of course the last isn't so bad, but really, when you think about it....
Hopefully, this time tomorrow, we will REALLY be in Hawaii!
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