Before My BIG DAY

Hi again, For one last time before the BIG DAY ....I still cannot believe this Sunday is the marathon and would like to say THANK YOU for all your support that came in "in all shapes and sizes” – from encouraging me, running with me, from moral to financial support by donating to my fund-raising campaign. . . I will be running the marathon having reached my fund-raising goal and beyond! $ 2, 351 raised (117%) – this is unbelievable! I cannot thank you enough for your support! Without you, this whole experience will not have been the same - I simply would not have been able to make it to the start line! I’ll be running on Sunday for every
single penny you donated to LLS! It’s amazing!!! And we can even do more:
it’s not too late to make a difference. Donations are accepted 2 weeks after the marathon (Nov 13) so if you think procrastination made you miss another opportunity, this is probably one of the few times in life, when this is NOT the case. You can do it after the marathon. Specifically, those of you who said they’ll double their donation only if I finish in one piece (you know who you are!) I dare you - just watch me!

You know the web page: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/nyc09/gdimitrova

Speaking of “watching”, if you recover from your Halloween night, come out and hit the Streets of New York. You can spot me by my TNT purple shirt or my bid number 43183. What does my number mean? It means my start time is 10.20am and that there are around 28 000 runners before me, and 14 000 behind me. Yes, there are about 42 000 runners registered and every year
there are about 2 million people cheering along the road, so some coordination is needed. To facilitate, here are some points:

1. A course map can be downloaded here:
http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/entrantinfo/course.htm

2. I am running always on the RIGHT side! And you should look for the purple shirt!

3. Track me down through a GPS! How? I will have my blackberry in my running belt (No, I will not be checking e-mails). The reason for having the blackberry is that I will be logged into the “latitude” application of google map which pretty much shows my location at any point in time. The application is accessible via phone, PC, iPhone etc. All you need to do is download the application and send me a friend request before Sunday http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html . Call me/e-mail me if you wanna use this and have issues downloading.

4. Alternative way to track me down is on the ING marathon web page by signing for “athlete alerts”. This is a good way to track me down if you want to see if I am still alive but it might not be a good way if you wanna give me high five on the course because there might be delays on the server. See info here http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/athlete_alert.htm

5. For those of us who simply love spreadsheets, here is another approach: download the spreadsheet http://im.jackrabbitsports.com/jackmaraguide09.xls and enter my race number
43183. Here is the moment to break the news to you: Ryan Hall is NOT my brother, that’s why I don’t run 5 min per mile for 26.2 miles. But rather multiply this by 2 and this should give you a good average for the entire distance.

If you think you might be around somewhere along the course, let me know around which mile so I will look for you too- again, it’s going to be crazy so it might not happen but despite that you can still enjoy the free entertainment on the streets. (120 bands are playing – it seems like the
largest block party I’ve ever been to - we shall see!)

One Last note: as of now, there is 40% chance for rain- showers in the morning & and some weather channels predict even storm in the afternoon. If any of you have a special ritual, a pray or sunshine dance- anything, please do it for me and bring sunshine on the race day! According to stats, there was no rain on marathon day since 1997, but this year chances are very high. (And yes, maybe I have a bad spell since my first half marathon was wet as well). Please, if there is one last thing you can do for me- pray for sunshine! One thing for sure though, in shine or rain, I will be at the start line and will do my best to make it to the finish line even if this means I have to swim!

Thank You once again for everything and hope to see some of you soon! Stay
tuned for after-marathon notes!

Galya

Ps. another incentive to come out on Sunday for those of you who are into
this: celebrity watch! check out the list
: http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/celebrities.htm . . .one of my favorite
Alanis Morissette is running too- well, I hope at the end I will not be
singing her hit from the early 90s called IRONIC that sounds like “ it’s
like rain on your first marathon day . . isn’t it ironic – don’t you
think?”On the brighter side, I might be one of the people that will be able
to say “I swam with Alanis Morissette in the streets of New York! Ha! It’s
an exclusive club, “only” 42 000 people in the world will be able to say
that!

More fun info on the race:
http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/entrantinfo/jitp.htm