At least it didn't rain

While the race on Saturday did not go at all smoothly, I had decided early on that I was just going to run it for fun and that my only goals were to finish, and to take notes for my half marathon in February. I was able to accomplish both goals.

Eye on the prize.

Not only did the race experience not really go as planned, neither did my feelings on race morning. I woke up nauseous, which wasn't improved at all by the long drive in the backseat of a minivan to the race. I was in such a rush to get in the car after my alarm didn't go off, that I accidentally left the bagel that Kara had so awesomely smothered in peanut butter for me, on her counter. When we stopped at a Wawa to meet the rest of our group and to get some other breakfast items, all I could stomach was a soda AND I had forgotten my wallet, so Kara had to front me the money. I'm such a horrible person when I'm rushed.

Upon arriving at the race (and thanking the good lord that I was finally on solid ground for a while), I grabbed a banana, with hopes that I would soon be able to eat it without wanting to barf. All I could stomach was half of it, so that's all I was being fueled by for 9 miles. Oh and I also had..umm..."cha cha cha" issues. Kara and Kari had suggested that I grab Gatorade at the water stations, which was my plan, until the water stations were all empty when I got to them.


To break it down:


Mile 1.5: I dropped my gloves and, accidentally, my hat. This is also where I lost the rest of my "team"

Kara, I did not Photoshop this one. You're welcome.

Mile 3: My legs were not cooperating and I had to switch to run/walk intervals. A lady came up behind me and yelled, "Go sexy bitch. You can do this!" Unfortunately she was running way faster than me or I would have tried to stick with her for a while for the motivation.

Mile 6ish: Cramps in both my sides and hips. I actually stopped to stretch a couple of times. By this point I knew my time was going to be crap anyway.


Mile 7: I was ready to drop out. I was so incredibly close to not finishing. I think "pissed off" is a good way to describe it.


Mile 8: I finally pushed through the wall and was feeling great. I never thought this would happen. By the time I got to the mile 9 marker, I took off.


I ended up with a 1:39 time (10:41 pace. horrible!), but I know for a fact that I can do better than that. Next time around I plan on actually eating before the race and hopefully feeling a lot better. Oh, and also running a much better race with a much faster course (The terrain for my half in February is basically entirely flat :).


Unfortunately, due to circumstances out of our control, Kara and I weren't able to get our chocolate after the race. Seriously...WORST. RACE. EVER.

I hear lots of these were given out. I'm in mourning.

One good thing to come out of this race: meeting "in real life" three awesome people that I already considered friends. (Kara and I had previously met in college. We go way back).

Oh, and my mom and I went to a local running store on Sunday to see if they had "15k" car magnets. The lady behind the counter said, "I'm sorry, we don't, but boy do you deserve it after yesterday!" Umm...yes, we do deserve it, and so I created one.

I found the website Stickylife.com and went to town. After I created it, using their online template, I couldn't help but order a few. After I receive them, it sounds like I may need to order more due to the positive response. I think it'll be an awesome new addition to my back bumper :)


I promise tomorrow's post will be about the epic "blogger sleepover" Friday night. Be prepared to be very jealous.

Hot Chocolate 15k summed up in all its stinking awful glory

Let me start off by saying that, after this race, this group was started on Facebook. Everything you've heard is true. We aren't making this stuff up. This race was awful on so many levels. Thank goodness I had company in my misery (Kara, Kari, Alyssa, and Amanda), because if I were racing alone, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have even made it to the start line.

Before I get into the "what they did wrong" portion of this post, I'll start off with the "what they did right"s. Don't worry, the list is short. (By "they", I'm referring to Ram Racing).

(screenshots below taken from the Facebook Page Epic Fail - Hot Chocolate 5k/15k. I don't know any of those people personally).

What they did RIGHT at the DC Hot Chocolate 15k race

• Port-o-potties. They had organized rows of them and the two times we visited, we literally waited 20 seconds at most. Around mile 7 of the race I overheard someone say, "The port-o-potties was about the only thing they did right!"
  
  

  

  My new best friends.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Heated tent. I hesitate to call this something they did right, because I'm pretty sure it was heated for the volunteers who were selling shirts and things. Since it was below freezing outside and there were 20,000+ runners, we flocked to that thing like a fly to a pile of fresh poop. It was a great way to practice getting close to all the people we'd be elbowing and tripping over in the hours to come.
  
• ...and umm....that's it! I told ya it was short.

What they did WRONG at the DC Hot Chocolate 15k race (where do I even begin?!)
(disclaimer: this is my first big race, and my first race longer than a 5k, so I feel that I am completely unbiased in my opinions here, other than the opinions of the people I ran with, who confirmed that this is, in fact, not what a race is supposed to be like).

• Late starts. There was a 5k and a 15k option for this race. The 5k was supposed to start at 7:30am and the 15k was supposed to start at 8am. Upon our arrival, over an hour before the 15k was supposed to start, the announcer was already reporting that the 5k would be "delayed 10 minutes at most". Let's just say when all is said and done, we got to the start line of the 15k 1.25 hours late.
  
  

  

  Eric Cole, I do not know you, but I think we'd be besties.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Parking. It cost $10 per car for a parking pass, ON TOP of the already ridiculous race registration fee (I'll get to that in a minute). We received an incessant amount of emails leading up to the race about how important it was to carpool and to inform them how we'd be getting to the race because they were so on top of parking they were practically making love to it and parking this and parking that and OH MY GOD THE PARKING. And then we pulled into the parking lot when we arrived and no one was even checking parking passes. Womp womp womp.
  
• The cost. $45 to run a 5k and $65 to run a 15k. Self explanatory why this is on this list and not the other, especially taking into consideration all of the other things on this list.
  
• Unsafe running conditions. I'm pretty sure Ram Racing's goal of this race was to steal our money and then see how many of us they could take out either as casualties of exhaust fumes, tripping on orange traffic cones and breaking our faces, or getting splattered on big rigs' front bumpers. The first five miles of the race was on a lane of a major highway...one lane. AND it was an out and back. I'll let you have a minute to let that marinate.
  
  
  

  

  Imagine this, but with a few dump trucks honking and spewing out fumes
  mixed in for good measure.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Dude dressed as Ronald McDonald. Was it really necessary to scare the shit out of us right at the start line? That was just wrong!
  
  

  

  The things nightmares are made of.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• "National Harbor" was a lie. Like I said above, more than half the race was spent running on a highway, and then we looped around and ran more out-and-backs around back roads around buildings. We literally were near the harbor for all of a mile (and that's a very generous guestimation).
  
  

  

  It's pretty, right? Yeah, we wouldn't know.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

•  Holy hills! The downhills were nice, but the sick feeling I got running down them, knowing I'd be running back up them again wasn't worth it. I'm all for a mix of terrain, but they just had to throw in that extra punch to the gut, putting the finish line at the top of a hill.

I'm so glad to know that this isn't the norm for big races or I would never sign
up for one again.

There are so many more points that I didn't even touch on, but as they come to me, I'll include them in my next post about how my personal run went...carsick and having eaten nothing beforehand. It's a winner. You'll totally want to stay tuned.


The word of the day for this race experience seemed to be clusterfuck. For those who are unsure of what this word means, my favorite definition, courtesy of UrbanDictionary.com:

A combination of things going extremely wrong in a short period of time within the same general activity -- caused by stupidity and/or ineptitude.

The greatness of "home"

I woke up to to the most amazingly wonderful smell on the planet. A smell that could ruin my race tomorrow.

I'm taunting you!

My mom and stepdad are amazingly awesome and left some regular (read: full caffeine) coffee for me, however, I had to resist. It's still sitting over there, in the pot, staring at me. But instead, I boiled some water and put in a decaf instant coffee bag. Yeah, not nearly the same. I sense a Starbucks run in my near future.

However, as I was opening the cabinet to get a mug, I saw something that made me forget about that evil coffee pot for a few seconds.

1...2...3.....awwwwwww.

Like I said, amazingly awesome :)

Last night my mom and I made lasagna. She told me earlier in the week, "Do you want anything specific for dinner on Thursday? I remember something about carb loading from when you were on the swim team". And then she told me we were making lasagna and while it was in the oven we decorated the Christmas tree. I'm so glad I traveled up a day early!

My mom told me last night that he coworkers were impressed that I'm running nine miles tomorrow. I didn't have the heart to tell her about Kara and Alyssa running 50 and 55-miles races.

Another awesome thing? They got a treadmill a few months ago and they HAVEN'T USED IT! Not once! I'll let that sink in a while.
......................

Yeah...I'm pretty sure I'll be on it Sunday morning. Happy early birthday to me!


What are YOU excited about for the weekend?

Are your parents totally awesome, too?

The adventure begins

I spent the first part of the first day of my birth month driving to Virginia. Twenty nine years and 353 days ago, I was born (that is, if I'm doing my math correctly. I've got "road brain"). That's 10,938 days, or 262,512 hours (not taking into consideration leap year days). If I don't think of it that way, then 30 years seems like a lot. But i'm not actually thirty yet, so why are we even discussing this?! Geez.

Ok, back to the drive. Is it just me, or is this seeming more and more like a necessity?

I find it humorous that the license plate is from Canada.

When I drive, I'm not a dawdler. I like to just get there. People driving slow in the fast lane? My nemesis. I just completely scared the crap out of Kari, who will be riding with me for a couple of hours tomorrow to Kara's house. (Don't worry, Kari, I haven't killed anyone yet :). Today was the drive to my mom's and then tomorrow will be my drive to Vienna, VA to pick up Kari, and then we are heading to Kara's in Maryland so we're closer to the race location in DC. (Don't worry, it really does make sense).

Kara has promised us pizza for dinner tomorrow before our race on Saturday morning....along with pillow fighting and puffy painting. What? Isn't that everyone's pre-race ritual? Because it's soon to be mine for all races (Alyssa, get ready for Myrtle Beach)!

One more thing about driving that hurts my brain...grammatical errors on signs. Anyone else? My two "favorites" are

I assume there is no magical force that will be reducing my speed for me somewhere in the future. For the LOVE either remove the last "d" on "reduced" or make it "reduced speed limit ahead". Before I find you and kick you.

How about "Speed limit detected by aircraft"?

Unless this is their actual intention:

I'd love to see it in action.


What's your least favorite part about car travel?