Brian (my hubby) and I headed to Baltimore on Saturday. It made more sense for us to spend the night than to drive the hour and fifteen minutes to the race Sunday morning. So, we headed down Saturday at 11:15 a.m. and stopped in Timonium for packet pick-up. Which went very well. The bag had lots of great goodies! I got my t-shirt in a nice raspberry color, 4 pony tail holders from Goody, 2 music downloads, a duck key chain, coupons for various running/athletic stores in the Baltimore area, a Botanical Acne Gel from Kiss My Face, face care samples from Dr. Michelle Copeland, nail file, and samples of True Lemon, True Lime, and True Orange. It was a great goody bag! I also did a little shopping. :-)
After about 45 minutes, we headed off to Baltimore. We checked into the hotel, then headed to the Walter's Art Musuem. I highly recommend it. It's free, you can take flash photography, and it's got lots of neat stuff! Since we hadn't eaten since 10:00 a.m., we left the Art Museum about 4:00 p.m. and headed to the Inner Harbor to have dinner at Pizzeria Uno. There aren't any around us and since you should carb load before a race... ;-) We had a couple of beers, vegetable quesadillas (which are FANTASTIC!), and deep dish pizza. So yummy! But, totally full before we finished our dinner. After dinner, we wandered onto a Brazilian ship that was docked in the Inner Harbor. It was very nice, though B thinks we are now signed up for the Brazilian navy! We checked out the free concert going on (STEEL DRUMS!) and really cool Edgar Allen Poe sand designs before heading back to the hotel. We relaxed, then went in search of dessert. :-) We had great desserts - ME: Bread pudding with vanilla ice cream BRIAN: chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. Delish! After dessert, we headed back to the room for the night. B fell asleep quickly, while I watched Independence Day. Turned off the lights at 11:00 p.m.
RACE DAY!
The alarm was set for 6:00 a.m. We wanted to make sure that we got up in time to get on the road by 7:00 a.m. and we still had to check out. So, we got down to the desk, checked out, got the car, and headed to the race. We got there early, which ended up being a good thing. We were able to get a parking space in the close parking lot that was only .2 miles from the start. :-) I wanted that lot since I wasn't sure how I would feel afterwards.
Got to the race area and it was bedlam! There were so many people it was hard at first to know where to go. We found our way to the pavilion and I was able to find where I picked up my chip. Found a quiet spot and put it on. From there, we wandered the Village of race related companies and just chatted as more and more people rolled in. It was just overwhelming the number of people there. It was by far the biggest 5k I've been to (B has been doing 5ks for 2 years)! At about 7:45 a.m. they started telling people to line up. I wasn't ready to line up just yet. I didn't want to just stand around in the street waiting for the gun. By 7 minutes of 8:00 a.m., I said good bye and headed to the line. I put myself in the back because WHO knows long/fast I was going to be! I wasn't going to challenge myself with the front runners. As I headed back someone yelled out "Hey Jersey, where you from?" I smiled. I was wearing my Jersey Girl t-shirt, so I headed over to the two ladies who called over to me. They grew up right where I did, so we chatted about that and various 5ks. They suggested some they have done that are good. They were really nice and I wish I could have found them after the race. Unfortunately, I didn't see either of them, which isn't too surprising when I found out there were 1,845 people who registered.
Then the gun went off. It took awhile to get to the starting line and it was slow going for the first 1/2 mile trying to get around people. It was a walk/run and I was with the walkers. About the 1/2 mile mark, I was able to get past people though as people were starting to thin out. Though I will say, it was disconcerting because I was going so slow, I kept thinking I had to be further than I was. And I say this because as I hit the 1 mile marker, I was shocked. I swore I must be at the 1.5 mile marker at least! And I laughed when they called out the 1 mile time - 16 minutes. LOL! Seriously? I've never run a 16 minute mile in my life! My slowest 1 mile run time was about 13:30. Guess the rough start played a part in that. I kept moving and as I went, the area cleared out and it became much easier to run. Though I will say, when I got close to the turn around area I saw the hill. I did not remember there being an overpass bridge right before the gates of Fort McHenry. My poor little heart fell. LOL! But, since I have been running a couple times a week at Shelley Park and there are some monster hills there, I was able to get through it and run the whole time. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I got through the rest of 2 miles with no problems. Between the 3 mile and 3.1 mile finish, there was this walker. She passed me with a tenth of a mile to go. REALLY??? When I made the turn to head to the finish line I made up my mind - no walker was going to finish before me! I kicked into high gear and PASSED HER! LOL! Evil, huh? I crossed the finish line, they removed my chip, and I was handed a bottle of water and a rose. :-) The rose was just the sweetest touch. Who would have thought that?
After wards, I found Brian and I grabbed a banana and some more water, then headed out. It was a great time and I'm glad I did it.
Thank you for everyone who encouraged me and trusted I could do it. I appreciate your kind words and now feel like I deserve them.
Got to the race area and it was bedlam! There were so many people it was hard at first to know where to go. We found our way to the pavilion and I was able to find where I picked up my chip. Found a quiet spot and put it on. From there, we wandered the Village of race related companies and just chatted as more and more people rolled in. It was just overwhelming the number of people there. It was by far the biggest 5k I've been to (B has been doing 5ks for 2 years)! At about 7:45 a.m. they started telling people to line up. I wasn't ready to line up just yet. I didn't want to just stand around in the street waiting for the gun. By 7 minutes of 8:00 a.m., I said good bye and headed to the line. I put myself in the back because WHO knows long/fast I was going to be! I wasn't going to challenge myself with the front runners. As I headed back someone yelled out "Hey Jersey, where you from?" I smiled. I was wearing my Jersey Girl t-shirt, so I headed over to the two ladies who called over to me. They grew up right where I did, so we chatted about that and various 5ks. They suggested some they have done that are good. They were really nice and I wish I could have found them after the race. Unfortunately, I didn't see either of them, which isn't too surprising when I found out there were 1,845 people who registered.
Then the gun went off. It took awhile to get to the starting line and it was slow going for the first 1/2 mile trying to get around people. It was a walk/run and I was with the walkers. About the 1/2 mile mark, I was able to get past people though as people were starting to thin out. Though I will say, it was disconcerting because I was going so slow, I kept thinking I had to be further than I was. And I say this because as I hit the 1 mile marker, I was shocked. I swore I must be at the 1.5 mile marker at least! And I laughed when they called out the 1 mile time - 16 minutes. LOL! Seriously? I've never run a 16 minute mile in my life! My slowest 1 mile run time was about 13:30. Guess the rough start played a part in that. I kept moving and as I went, the area cleared out and it became much easier to run. Though I will say, when I got close to the turn around area I saw the hill. I did not remember there being an overpass bridge right before the gates of Fort McHenry. My poor little heart fell. LOL! But, since I have been running a couple times a week at Shelley Park and there are some monster hills there, I was able to get through it and run the whole time. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I got through the rest of 2 miles with no problems. Between the 3 mile and 3.1 mile finish, there was this walker. She passed me with a tenth of a mile to go. REALLY??? When I made the turn to head to the finish line I made up my mind - no walker was going to finish before me! I kicked into high gear and PASSED HER! LOL! Evil, huh? I crossed the finish line, they removed my chip, and I was handed a bottle of water and a rose. :-) The rose was just the sweetest touch. Who would have thought that?
After wards, I found Brian and I grabbed a banana and some more water, then headed out. It was a great time and I'm glad I did it.
Thank you for everyone who encouraged me and trusted I could do it. I appreciate your kind words and now feel like I deserve them.
Congratulations! You did awesome and I am very proud of you.
ReplyDeleteNow you've got a couple of months to get ready for the Tunnel Run!