Karma Got Me

So it really served me right when I showed up in my purple shirt hoping to blend in with the Team in Training runners....

And everyone else at the run was wearing orange for Team Challenge.

They were not running for Team in Training

Hi, Team Challenge!  I see you like to wear orange shirts...

Instead of blending in with the masses of purple that I expected to see, I stood out like a sore thumb in the sea of orange that ruled this race.  I have to admit that this serves me right for pretending to be a part of a charitable group in hopes of hearing a few people cheering me on. 

Despite my foiled wardrobe plan, I had a really great race.....once the race actually started....  Apparently there were transportation problems with shuttles from the hotels so the race actually started about 40 minutes late.  I'm pretty surprised that it started so late since last year they had the same problem.  I guess the race organizers didn't learn anything from their inaugural race and I wouldn't hold my breath for the problem being solved next year either.

Once we actually started running, the run felt really good.  My dad and I ran the first two miles together and then I told him he could go ahead without me.  The weather was a perfect fifty something degrees with an occasional breeze.  The course also had a significant portion that was shaded with trees, which made the run even more enjoyable. 

Me and My Favorite Running Partner

I finished the race in 2:17:04 chip time, which would have been faster had I known that the race was going to start 40 minutes late because I would have used the port-o-potty one last time and would have eliminated the bathroom break at mile two.  I paused my Garmin for the potty break and my finish time was 2:15:03.  I'm pretty sure that's frowned upon in the running community but I don't care.  In case you don't remember, my goal for this race was 2:22:00 so I beat that time by a five minutes!

I'm pretty proud of myself!  In comparison to my first half marathon time of 3:22:27, I have improved by over an hour :)  To top of my elation, I got some pretty nice finishers gifts as well.

Riedell Wine Glass.  Fancy!

I love getting a technical shirt instead of the regular cotton ones but I have to admit, this one is pretty ugly.  What $100 for this shirt.  I also really like the medal that we received.  It is a bottle stopper AND has a corkscrew on it!!  My one complaint is the medal weighed about fifty pounds and while walking around with my nice wine glass, it hit the glass once or twice and I was pretty sure the glass was done for.  Thankfully, the glass held up to the beating but maybe the race organizers should rethink that combo.

What has been your favorite race swag?

Full moon at the May Day 5k

Or is it a new moon since it is covered in black spandex?



Let's just say, it's not the most flattering picture of me.  Well, I managed to run the May Day 5k, win third place AND make a new PR for myself.  Woo!  Official time was 28:28.  I'm pretty sure I have never ran a 5k in under thirty minutes so I am pretty excited about my time.  Winning third place in this race was actually a sweeter victory than third place at the Turkey Trot 10k because there were ten people in my age group as opposed to four.

I really enjoyed the May Day 5k.  It's a smaller race, I believe we had about two hundred people running it, and the running group that hosts the race is awesome!  My parent's music studio was one of the sponsors for the race so my dad played the harp for the national anthem before the race began.  Seriously, what other race kicks off with a harp performance??

Anyway, I grew up on the street that the race started on but that didn't make the course any easier.  Within the first mile of the course, we had to climb a ridiculous hill and then three quarters into the race there was another killer hill. Ashamedly, I walked a good portion of the second hill.  Doing hill sprints is always something that I think I would like to do in theory because it would help increase my speed and potentially make me less fearful of hills but is something I never really get around to doing.  Shocking, I know.

Any embarrassing pictures of you out in cyberspace for all time and eternity?

What should you do but don't?

Apple Blossom 10k

This past Saturday, I made Alex and Julia wake up at the crack of dawn so that they could watch me huff and puff 6.2 miles and then enjoy a day of carnival food and fun.  I really don't love driving more than an hour to a race the morning of but we had some serious bowling to do the night before so that's what we ended up doing.

The race took place in Winchester, VA and the drive out there was beautiful.  It really reminded me of my drives back and forth to JMU through the mountains of VA.  Anyway, not many people were out on the roads at six so the drive was quick and painless.  Once we got to Winchester, it was pretty easy to find some parking although we paid $10 for the day.  I have heard of the Apple Blossom Festival from an old roommate in college that was from Winchester but I didn't realize the magnitude of the event.  There were hundreds of chairs lining the streets along the parade route that you had to pay certain groups for the privilege of sitting there in a folding chair.  Whatever, I guess it was worth it because AC Slater was the grand marshall.

The race only had race day packet pickup which had me concerned but the process was actually seamless and enjoyable.  It took me five minutes to stop at one tent for my packet and another tent for my t-shirt.

Did I mention that the official colors for this festival are pink and green?  Seriously, We all stood out like sore thumbs since we were not pink and green clad from head to toe.  Anyway, after I got all my goodies, I walked fifty feet over to the start line.  The race is fairly small so there was no worry about getting in the right corral and there was hardly any congestion once we started. 

My favorite part was getting a
good luck hug and kiss from Julia

The course started off going downhill briefly and then turning uphill for almost the next mile.  There were lots of spectators along the course but I'm pretty confident that a lot of them were just holding their seats for the parade later that day as they weren't very encouraging.  I didn't love the course but I think that's because it was unusually hot and muggy and I felt like I was dying.  One thing I did enjoy was that we looped by the start/finish line three different times so my own personal cheerleaders were able to see me at the beginning, middle and end of the race, which I thought was really nice. 

I walked parts of the 10k because I felt like the heat was killing me and therefore, I only finished in 1:01:51.  This is only an approximation as I forgot to stop my Garmin when I crossed the finish line and they haven't posted the official race results yet.  Come on, it was chip timed.  Shouldn't it be pretty easy just to post those?

After the race, we continued on to the fair and paid enormous amounts of money for food.  I had a pretty delicious smoked turkey sandwich and topped it off with some chocolate covered bacon :) 

After eating, we decided to head out of town and get back home.  Our friend Tim was celebrating his 30th birthday at the House of Bounce and we didn't want to get stuck in Winchester since they were closing all the roads down for the parade. 

Luckily, we made it in time!

What is your favorite carnival food?

I'm turning 30 in a month and loved House of Bounce, do you have any other suggestions on how to celebrate?