Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon

This was my first half Marathon & my first point to point race. The race started at Mount Vernon and ran on the GW Parkway, over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, and finished at National Harbor in Maryland. After training all summer & battling the nasty heat, I actually felt like I was ready. My longest run was the weekend prior and it was 10 miles.

On Saturday my Dad and I went to the expo to pick up my race packet. It contained my bib, a nice tech shirt & some other paperwork (coupons etc..). The only reason my Dad went with me was because I told him how great the expo's were. Well that wasn't the case with this one. Note: the last expo I went to was the Rock n Roll in Virginia Beach & it was huge with lots of vendors so I naturally assumed they were all about the same - oops. Needless to say this expo was very, very small in comparison & had just a handful of vendors. We were in and out of there in 15 minutes.

 

Race morning I got up at ass crack of dawn (4:30am) & got ready. I had my usual pre run meal toasted bagel, peanut butter & sliced banana. I met up with my running buddy J in Springfield & we rode together to the race. The plan was to park at National Harbor & then take a shuttle bus to the start at Mount Vernon. We arrived shortly before 6am & had to park a few floors up in the parking garage. Getting on the shuttle bus & arriving at Mount Vernon was a smooth process. Kudos to the organizers great planning. At Mount Vernon, we had plenty of time. We saw one of Jamie's friends and decided to take a picture before waiting in line for the potty.

Mount Vernon pre race picture

You can't tell by the picture but it was drizzly & lightly raining. We were hoping it would stay that way but it didn't. After we took care of business at the port-a-potties we lined up in the corral & waited for the start. At 7:20 they sang the National Anthem, that was my cue to get my watch ready in time for it to find a satellite.

The gun goes off at 7:30 and we are running.
The first few miles I did not even notice anything, I was too busy trying to stay in the "zone". Once we passed mile 5 we saw a lot people standing on top of a bridge holding signs & cheering for us. The rain also started to pick up & I was burning up so I had to take off my vest. I wasn't sure if I should keep it or toss it. I tried tying it around my waist but it wouldn't stay tied so I ended up carrying it for the rest of the race.    

The lovely bridge is at mile 9 and my pace slowed down a bit, I had to put my vest back on because it got real cold & I remember getting hit in the face with semi frozen rain & battling the crazy wind. I also remember hearing lots of cars honking at us as we were running across the bridge. That was somewhat motivating ~ no crowd support but vehicle support (I'll take it) ~ yay for honking cars !



a shot of me carrying my vest, wont be doing that again

 

Coming off of the bridge was nice & downhill but not for long because at mile 11 there was this evil hill & it SUCKED!! My calves were hating me. Once you get to the top of the hill you end up running a short distance over some gravel. For me, running on that was harder than the evil hill. The was a mix of gravel & large rocks and it was uneven. Thank goodness it wasn't far because once your done then you round the corner and it's pretty much a straight line to the finish area.

 

 I crossed the finish line and felt like crying. I was so proud of myself, how far I had come and to be able to accomplish my goal was pure awesome!

Best.Feeling.Ever.

until next time .....:D

Rock n Roll VA Beach Half Marathon

My brother n law "T" & I signed up to run this as a relay team. We flipped a coin and lucky me I ended up with the longest leg 7.9 miles. This was my first race that was not a 5k so I was excited & nervous all at the same time. I knew I could run most all of it because I did a lot of training over the summer in preparation for my first half marathon the next month. I was hoping that the plantar fasciitis that I had been dealing with for a few weeks would not flare up & ruin my run.

On Friday evening, the hubs and I made the drive down to Virginia Beach. Luckily his sister lives there, so not having to pay for a hotel was nice.

Saturday afternoon everyone wanted to go to the expo, so we all packed into his sisters minivan and we went over to the Virginia Beach Convention Center. We collected our packet which included a drawstring bag, bib & Dtag timer, a New Balance tech shirt & a wooden drumstick which would be our relay baton. The expo was nice & big with lots of vendors and free samples. We had fun at the picture booth, we put on these funky wig's and had our picture taken.

I got up at 5am Sunday morning. I made a cup of coffee & had a toasted bagel with peanut butter & a sliced banana on top. We were out the door by 5:45. We got to the start location next to the convention center and it was totally congested, luckily I did not drive otherwise we would have been driving in circles looking for parking. T lives in the area and knew to go to the library to park. It had plenty of parking spaces and it was only a couple blocks away.
We walked to the start & found our corrals and wished each other good luck.

I was surprised at how crowded the corral was with 45 min remaining until the start. It seemed like as soon as I got situated in the corral, the gun went off & we were running.

The first 3-4 miles were great. We started at the convention center and ran toward the oceanfront & down Atlantic Avenue. There were a lot of people lined on both sides of the street cheering & it seemed like a band was playing every 1/2 mile. Ok maybe not that frequent but it sure seemed that way. It was very energetic & I was enjoying the run while maintaining a decent pace. When I got halfway up the Rudee Inlet bridge, that is when the rest of my race seemed to be a struggle. The mental battle began once I saw other runners walking up the bridge. I fought more with my self mentally than physically. I knew my body could have kept the pace but my mind wanted to give up. Did I mention that it was insanely muggy & air temp was 77° with 85% humidity??


starting up the Rudee Inlet Bridge

I got to mile 6 and had use the port a john, I ignored the first 2 opportunities & couldn't take it any longer so I had to stop. It took quite a bit of time wrestling with my clothes but eventually I got out and back on the course to resume my run. The last 2 miles seemed LONG. We were running though Camp Pendleton and it was rather boring. We had lovely views of barracks & trailers with no crowd support or bands. At least it was shady & not in the direct sun. With only 2 miles left I just stuck to a slower pace. I finally got to mile 8 & handed off the guitar stick to T & off he went.

 

love the guy in green- his expression had me laughing

 

 

At the relay transition area they had a medical tent & another table where volunteers were handing out Gatorade, fruit & Powerbar's. We (relay runners) were directed to a line of busses that would drive us to the finish line to meet up with our other teammate.

We were dropped off at the oceanfront near the finish line & the finish area was somewhat ridiculous. A few of us tried to get in the finish area on the boardwalk but were told we were not allowed. We tried to explain that we were on a relay team but they still wouldn't let us in. Trying to find T was crazy! I ended up walking toward the beer tent. I enjoyed my free beer on the beach & after a few minutes I got a text from T that he had finished. We finally met up and headed home.

 

 

 

 

Warrior Dash

On Sunday Hubby and I ran our first mud obstacle race.

A few months prior I signed up for this race online & after registering I remember sitting at my desk wondering what the heck did I just pay for? Am I crazy? I think it was something that I always wanted to scratch off my list of challenge races to do, plus hubby agreed to do it with me and there was no backing out. A couple weeks leading up to race day I was very nervous and scared that I would not be able to do the obstacles.

On race morning my we (Dad, son, hubby & I) drove to Budds Creek, MD. We found the bag check & the packet pick-up tent. In our packet was an official race shirt, bib & a coupon for a free beer. Dad & our little guy got situated & found a spot close to the finish line so they could watch & take pictures.

We met up with some other friends of mine who were also running the course. Dad was so awesome and took a group picture of us at the start line. Before you know it we were doing the count down & the horn went off. The first mile was trail running and super muddy.

The first obstacle we came to was the over and under walls. These were pretty easy, you just hoisted yourself over the wall and crawled under the next wall. I do not remember the next order of obstacles but we climbed over a cargo net, crawled under barbed wire, did a 45 degree rope wall climb & a vertical wall climb. I was unable to do the vertical wall climb, I tried 3 times and got about halfway up and just did not have the arm strength to do the rest of the way. That one was hard!  The next obstacle after that one was the slip n slide. It reminded me of the slip n slide my brother and I had as little kids, except this was a monster one. I remember running up a big dirt hill and getting in line to go down & end up in a muddy pool. It was nuts! I had gravel all over myself.  After running & tackling a few more obstacles we finished by running down a hill toward 2 rows of fire that we had to jump over and then doing a belly crawl through some mud underneath barbed wire.

Once out of the mud we were given our medals & they had bananas on tables for us to eat.

 

Overall I had a good time. Not sure if I would do one again, I really like road races but it's always fun to mix it up some.

 

Until next time............:D