Chickie's and Pete's Boardwalk 5k Race Recap

This past weekend hubby and I headed to Atlantic City for the inaugural Chickie's and Pete's Boardwalk 5k. Honestly, it was really an excuse to spend the weekend in Atlantic City. LOL!

We headed down on Friday for packet pick-up. For months they stated no day-of packet pick-up so since we live 4 hours away {without rush hour/shore traffic} we decided to take the day and head down early hoping to miss all the above. We arrived about 12:30 p.m. and made it to packet pick-up about 1:00 p.m. which was held on the second floor of Chickie's and Pete's restaurant. It was very organized and you went from station to station to pick up each of your items - bib number {which we already had via email}; plastic bag to hold items; bib and cup; ID check for the beer garden; and t-shirt. It went very smoothly. We then decided to grab lunch there as we were hungry. Lunch was yummy and because we were running the 5k, one of the perks were free Crab Fries - their specialty.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early, around 6:30 a.m. to get ready. Our hotel was booked through Groupon and was a bit further away than we thought. Not a big deal, we just needed about 30 minutes to walk to the start line. We arrived on-time...with enough time to get a photo!

It was a beautiful morning! I can't even explain how gorgeous! The temperatures were in the 60s and there was a nice, cool breeze. How do you get that in August??? I can't believe how lucky we were. I had been nervous about this race honestly all because of temperature. I hate running in the heat. So lucky!

We saw the Crab Fry Guy, but he was so popular we couldn't get a photo with him. He did pose for me though.

Knowing we weren't going to win any awards for speed, we lined up towards the back. This was hubby's first post-surgery 5k! No matter what our time was, it would be a win!

The race had a wave start and we didn't start off for about 8 minutes. It was fine. As long as there were crab fries and beer when we arrived back! The course was an out and back along the boardwalk which we knew. That is not my favorite type of course, but eh. It's only 3.1 miles. The only problem I have with the AC races is they do not close off the boardwalk for them, which means people out for a stroll, other runners, bicyclists, etc. are all out there trying to do their thing while you're trying to run a race. They had one water stop which was set up in the middle of the boardwalk so you had a chance at water on the way out and the way back. That was good.

We knew we were at the end of the racers, not the last people, but right up there. On the way back though, I decided to pick people off and try to speed up a bit. I believe on the return we picked off six groups of racers. Sadly, one group we passed turned around and passed us just before the finish line. LOL! But, that's ok. I felt better about myself after that. I at least could catch up with people who had passed me.

We finished the race in 45:27 {2 seconds slower than my slowest 5k}, but we finished! We did my half mile run/1 minute walk, which is way more running than hubby has been doing with his C25k plan, but he did great! He ran all six intervals!! We grabbed a bottle of water, then got in line for our free small crab fries. I'll be honest, the stomach did some flips about the idea of crab fries at nine in the morning, but hubby was excited. We stood in line and picked our free fries. Ate my first fry and it was the best post-race food evah. LOL!

Once we finished our fries, we hit the beer garden on the beach. We received one free beer with our registration, so we grabbed our light lager and enjoyed the gorgeous weather!

Once we finished our lager, we headed back to the hotel. The boardwalk was lovely at this hour.

Did you race this weekend? How did you do?







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Race Day

Running the inaugural Chickie and Pete's Boardwalk 5k in Atlantic City this morning with hubby. It's his first post-surgery race! Woot! Run strong Brian!


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Atlantic City Half Marathon Recap - Sunday

Race day! We had a wake-up call set for 5:45 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. We got both. But, I didn't want to get up. LOL! I eventually got  up about 6:10 a.m. and started getting ready. And I was ready way earlier than I thought. Oops! I was all ready to go and it was 30 minutes before I wanted to leave the hotel. Strange...

We headed out of the hotel about 7:15 a.m. I figured getting to the start about 7:30 a.m. would work. As we walked down the hall we passed a fellow runner going away from the elevator. She walked down the 12 sets of stairs to the lobby. Wow. More power to you! It was the elevator for me. :-) When we got in the elevator there were three additional runners going down. We were asked how we were getting to the start line. Thought it was a bit funny, but said we were walking. Two of the three laughed. Apparently their friend wanted to take a taxi or one of the rolling chairs to the start. Oops. Sorry!

It was a cool morning, but not freezing. I've read it was in the 50s. I would have preferred a bit chillier, but that's just me. We got to the start and did the pre-race photo.

The start was at the Courtyard at Bally's to my left. Shortly after the photo I took off my sweatshirt and made my way to the corral. I walked in from the front, which was a mistake. It was hard to get to the back this way. They asked us to line up by corral, but there were no corral markers so... I made my way to the back since I knew I didn't want to block the faster runners.

Runner's are friendly! I had a nice conversation with a gentleman running his 2nd half marathon. We shared our stories about running and our hopes for the day. He also does the run/walk method so we chatted about that. He was a nice guy to chat with before the gun went off.

I crossed the start line about 2:30 after the gun. I thought it would take much longer, so that wasn't too bad. I ran a little bit before seeing hubby on a bench looking for me. LOL! I saw him first and he got a couple shots.

We left the boardwalk at Martin Luther King Blvd and off we were away from the ocean.  Garmin went off at my first half mile at 5:55. Whaaa?!?! This is not good. Then it went off at the first mile - 11:59. Crap! This was WAY too fast for my lack of training. And it showed later...

I ran past the 1 mile water station. Who needs water that early? I was waiting for the 2.5 mile water station. It being more in tune with the way I hydrate in training. From the 1 mile water station we headed towards the highway...and an uphill entrance ramp. It was crazy! The positive was it was short. I walked it. I knew my training was not what it should be and I wasn't about to kill myself on the hills. Hit the top and made a right down a nice downhill into a tunnel. There was a slight incline, but not bad. It wasn't until we got out of the tunnel did we see the incline. Walked again. And got caught walking by the course photographer. Doh!

The highway we were running along took you out towards the Borgota and Harrah's. Shortly after this incline we leveled off again and there was a radio station blaring music. Which was nice, sorta. It was the only music on the half course. We ran around them and we passed the three mile mark. At the 3.1 mile mark there was a clock and apparently a reader to mark the official time. Mine wasn't too bad - 41:12. With the amount of walking I did up the inclines, I was ok with it. Just passed that we went up again, another on ramp. This brought us to the Borgota. We ran around the back of that and up another incline. From the Borgota we headed to Harrah's, which was fun since hubby and I have spent several of our wedding anniversaries there at the pool. Lots of traffic jams around there I can tell you!

Now I get a little fuzzy because I'm not familiar with the areas we went into next. We had several miles to go before heading back to the boardwalk and this is what I remember:

* There was a marker at mile 5 (I mention this because markers weren't at every mile that I saw)
* Somewhere just before 6.55 miles there was a funeral home. I had to laugh.
* At the 6.55 marker there was another tent where they read your bib for split times. Mine was 1:24:12. Blargh.
* The houses in the Water Basin were beautiful! And there is a statue of Neptune out there!
* I think I saw Donna out there, but wasn't 100% sure.
* There was a woman saying we were halfway there. No lady, we're not.
* Water stations did not seem to be accurate based on the map.

I was pretty excited to see the turn for the boardwalk. I knew when we got there 8 miles were in the books and only 5.1 more to go. I was struggling by this point, but I thought I could do it.  I walked up the ramp to the boardwalk between Revel and Showboat and made the right onto the boardwalk, immediately seeing hubby on a bench looking for me. Yea! He got a few shots here.

And now it was just 5.1 more miles to the finish. I knew I would have to pass the finish line and then turn around further down the boardwalk before coming back. That was a mental block to get past. As I'm running along I realized the race officials did not close off any of the boardwalk for runners. This means until you reached the finish line you were weaving between tourists, having to pass them or get stuck behind them if you couldn't pass. Then, once you passed the finish line, you had to weave among the tourists and the runners on their way back! I can tell you, at one point I seriously considered just turning around before the official turn around point and finishing. Yea, I know it would be cheating, but it was so frustrating having to weave among so many people.

But, while I thought it I didn't do it. I did almost get run over by a cop on a motorcycle as he turned his bike around and then stopped about 10 feet in front of me. I was a bit ticked. And now more honesty. Around 9.5 miles I started power walking. I couldn't run. My feet hurt (along the bottoms), my right hamstring was bothering me randomly, as well as my left knee. I was feeling a bit defeated and I started walking. And I started passing people. LOL! I was power walking faster than I was running. How disconcerting. But whatever gets you to the finish line, right?

I finally made the turn around and kept moving knowing it was just about 2 miles back. I had to guess this of course because at this point the mile markers were for the marathoners...who the first ones were starting to pass me. Slightly upsetting. But I ran/walked back to the finish. I got close to Caesar's and saw a photographer and decided to run it in from there on out. Which worked in my favor because the photo does show me running. Now because there were no lanes set aside we had been running on the left side of the boardwalk. To cross the finish you had to be on the right. So, in the middle of very large crowds (plus) you had to cross from one side of the boardwalk to the other (con). Ugh.

I crossed over and looked for hubby. I got about 5 feet into the finishers lane and saw him.  Yea! I knew the finish was soooooo close. Just a few more feet.

FINALLY! I crossed the finish line and I could stop. I was handed my AMAZING medal by the gentleman in the blue and white shirt in the above photo. The two in the red shirts were photographers. I passed through the shoot and grabbed a water. I walked into the finisher's area where there was all sorts of goodies - Rita's water ice, bananas, oranges, pretzels, and a few other items. I then headed over for my free beer. :-) I found hubby and we sat on the boardwalk and listened to the winners.

After I finished my beer, we headed back to the Continental for a Champaign-O-Rama. Yum!  Then off to breakfast at a little place we found last time we were in AC that served breakfast all day. Had a delicious banana walnut french toast and potatoes. So good!

After breakfast we stopped and checked out the boardwalk kitties. There is an organization that makes sure these little guys are fed and cared for throughout the year. We happened to walk by just as they were feeding the kitties.

Then it was back to the hotel for naps. So tired...

Last long run before AC

The last long run before the race. It was today. I got up and got ready. The temps were gorgeous! By the time I got to the parking lot it was 43 degrees. I had a light long sleeve jacket on, but by mile 2 it was off. Beautiful weather!

I headed from Manchester into Mount Wolf because it is the only route I know besides the Rail Trail that will give the mileage I was looking for - 8-9 miles. I wasn't sure which it would be, so I gave myself the range.

I had a nice run if not slower than my training runs for Shamrock in March. I ran the hills and wandered around Mount Wolf. I like running there because there are always people out doing stuff - walking the dog, mowing the grass, decorating for the holidays, doing repairs. Always lots of things to watch as you run by.

Had a nice visit with two adorable chocolate labs while out and about. They were sweet. Headed back towards Manchester shortly after saying hello and felt ok. I'll be honest, I walked about half of Maple Street. It's just so darn hilly! I know I can run it, I've done it before, but I just didn't feel like it today.

Got 8 miles in total and felt fine afterwards. Had I been better at mileage I could have gone 9, but I just didn't have the heart to run past my car. It was calling to me. LOL!

So, that's it. Last long run before next Sunday's 13.1 miles. Going to aim for two 30 minute runs this week and hit the gym twice. Should be good. I won't PR AC, but I'll cross that finish line!

10 Days Out

Weather.com now has weather for up for October 21st, the day of the Atlantic City Half Marathon. Right now the temps show a high of 60 with a low of 49 with 0% chance of rain. I'll take it. But, if the weather gods wish to make it a bit cooler, I won't complain...

Training begins this week

It's that time again.  The beginning of half marathon training.  This year our long race for the fall will be the Atlantic City Half Marathon. Yea!  I get to run in my home state at the shore.  How cool is that?  I'm actually pretty excited about this race.  I love AC, we're going to stay at a casino we haven't stayed at before, we get to run along the beach (again), and the medal is pretty darn cool!

So, in preparation of the half, I've written down my July/August training schedule.  I had been putting it in my day calendar, but I only have so much space in my little planner, so I grabbed our old white board calendars that we haven't used since 2010.  I wrote out my plan and hubby's.  I've designated myself his training coach.  Heehee!  So, for the next 5 weeks I know what I'm supposed to do each day - weights, core, cross-training, and running.  We do have a trip scheduled in there that I have to work around, which means those days will be exercise on the fly.  I want to get some workouts in, but we're with two others and I don't want to hold us up.

Anyone else do this?  Write out your workouts when in training?  Or do you just have a mental idea of what you need to do and go with it?

5 Miles

Hubby and I took advantage of a Living Social deal this past weekend.  We spent a couple days in Atlantic City at Resorts Casino.  I'll have more photos and stories, but for now, this morning I got my butt up and ran 5 miles on the boardwalk.  I ran from Resorts in Atlantic City to the Ventnor, NJ sign (which is the next town over).  Not bad for having no desire to run when I woke up.  None.  Zip.  Zilch. Nada.  I took the above photo before I headed out.  I am proud to say I did not get run over by any of the rickshaws.