Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday! This week is a photo of me running the 2011 Princess Half Marathon. It was my very first half marathon ever! I picked this photo because this coming weekend is the Princess Half Marathon in Disney, so it seemed appropriate.

Would you believe hubby was on the monorail going to the first stop we agreed to meet at and he saw me on the road!I'm dead center in blue with black pants to the bottom of the road. I was shocked it timed itself out that way.

Since the 2011 Disney Princess Half Marathon I've run six more half marathons - Philadelphia Half Marathon {2011}, Shamrock Half Marathon {2012, 2013}, Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon {2013}, and The Love Run {2014}. This year I'm already scheduled for three halves - Shamrock Half Marathon, The Love Run, and The Wild Half.

What was your first race?

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Good luck charm?

While I was sitting on the spin bike on Monday, the instructor was encouraging us to go faster and push ourselves. The one thing that made me think while trying to bike as fast as I could was, "this is your workout." He had a point.

So, as I let my legs do their thing, I started thinking about what I could do to keep that thought forefront in my mind. It's easy sometimes to allow yourself to forget what you're training for, why you go to a class, why you want to eat better, why you shower so often. I decided that everyday until my next half marathon (The Love Run March 30, 2014), I am going to wear my two inspirational rings.

The first pictures are of the first inspirational ring I ever bought: To thine own self be true. Thanks Shakespeare! I bought this ring while I was training for my very first 5k in 2009. For the next year and a half I would wear it to every race I ran. Then I couldn't find it for a race and it's been iffy if I remember to wear it. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I will be wearing it now!

More recently I bought a ring that recognizes my 13.1 accomplishment. I wore it constantly, then stopped. I bought it because I do have a few necklaces that say 13.1, but wearing a necklace to work doesn't always work for me, so I thought a ring would. I liked the idea of reminding myself that I have run 13.1, that I am capable of it.

 

Originally I wanted to wear them both at the same time as a constant reminder of my goals. Then I realized they fit the same finger and that won't be possible. But, I can wear them in tandem, some days Shakespeare, some days 13.1. But they will be a constant reminder of what I want to accomplish - run my next half marathon strong!

Do you have a piece of jewelry or clothing that helps remind you of your goals?

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Training begins!

Alright people! Love Run half marathon training has officially begun! My plan started with a 2 mile run yesterday. I knew it wouldn't be a great run since I haven't run in ages and last week I had a cold/flu light. I also knew 2 miles wasn't that far and I could do it pretty easily even if I haven't run.

I put on my new jacket that hubby gave me for Christmas. It's awesome!

Then it was off to my normal running route! I knew all I really needed was a one mile out, then turn around. It's easy to get behind that. LOL! I parked the car, headed up to the school I start at, and headed off. I run on sidewalks because I honestly don't trust people who drive. I suppose they could hit me on the sidewalk too, but I figure it's a bit harder to do.

I ran really slow. Way slower than I used to run. I say used to because since June I have been an extreme runner slacker. I admit it. I own it. I've been battling internal struggles and it didn't cause me to run. I knew this run wouldn't be fast, but I went anyway.

And I was right. I was slow. As slow as when I first started running 5 years ago. Eh. Whatever. I have faith that based on past running I'll speed up. Anyway... I got my two miles in. Two 15 minute and 10 second miles. LOL! Oh yes. Speed demon!

But, you know what? Who cares? I ran my two miles then came home and did my stretches. My plan also called for hitting the gym for a spin class, but due to last week's illness I decided this week is a run only week. No classes so as to ease into the program. Classes will happen next week.

Anyone else running the Love Run this March? Have you started official training? If not the Love Run, are you training for a big spring race? Which one?
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Nervous

Last week hubby went to the doctor with the flu. He was given five meds and sent on his merry way. He was really sick too. It was just awful.

Saturday night, my throat felt a little scratchy. Then Sunday, it felt a little worse and I started coughing. By Monday morning when I woke up, my throat was killing me, I was coughing consistently, and my nose was a bit drippy. My Twitter friends gave me lots of suggestions for home remedies and I tried them all day Sunday. I took two aspirin for the throat pain, then headed into jury duty with a bunch of zinc throat lozanges.

Here we are on Wednesday and my throat is still a bit sore (fine yesterday, woke up today in pain so took another aspirin), coughing WAY more than ever, and still a bit of a drippy nose. It has not been a fun week and I've had jury duty everyday. In my county, jury duty lasts a week.

What am I nervous about? I start training for The Love Run half marathon on Monday! I have it all scheduled out and it's pretty aggressive. Typical week:

Monday: x mile run (starts at 2 and moves up to 5 by the end); core; spin class
Tuesday: 30 min TRX class; 30 minute easy bike
Wednesday: 30 min treadmill run; PiYo Strength
Thursday: Res
Friday: Core/Stretches
Saturday: Long run (length depends on week, first week 4 miles)
Sunday: Core/Stretches

I feel like crap and can't go more than 5-10 minutes without coughing. How am I going to start this aggressive training plan on MONDAY????? Seriously, if you have any ideas, I am totally open to them. I'm scared if I don't start this coming week I'll be completely screwed. I know, I know. A few days won't kill me overall, especially in the first week, but I need to start training off on the right foot. Help!


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Half Marathon #7 Scheduled

The past few months have been pretty bad in terms of running. I haven't been out on the streets much, even when I had a race. But, I ran the KidsPeace Trick-or-Trot 5k Saturday and had fun. It was the first time I've run in awhile where I had fun.

And since I had fun, I signed up for The Love Run! I've been looking at this race for a few months and wanted to sign up. Hubby isn't running Shamrock again, so I didn't want to make us drive back to Virginia Beach for me. The Love Run is in Philly and since I had to skip the Philadelphia Half Marathon in November, this gives me the chance to run in Philly in March in a first time race.

I'm really excited! And I'm in need of a good race, so I know I need to:

lose weight

strengthen my core

add flexibility

gain stamina

build muscle

I started using My Fitness Pal to keep track of my food and exercise. The past two days have gone well. I've tracked both in the program and it's interesting seeing the stat of "if you ate like this everyday you would be x pounds in 5 weeks." I like that, Right now it's saying I'll be about 10 pounds lighter. I'll take that.

So, I'm committing to all the above to run a strong and happy The Love Run Half Marathon. I want to finish that race (hopefully with a PR) like I did at the end of the Shamrock Half Marathon in March 2012. I had a 25 minute PR, but more than that I felt like I could run for another 2-3 miles. I felt good. I felt exhilarated. I was happy. I want that again (and the 25 minute PR wouldn't be turned down!). 

I've got five full months to get myself in tip top shape. I can do it. I'm looking forward to it.

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Zooma Annapolis Race Recap

Super long post. You may want to read in spurts.

Well, it's done. Yesterday was Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon day. It was not the experience I anticipated. Why? Oh...let me tell you.

Hubby and I left the house about 12:20 p.m., which was a little later than we anticipated, but not too bad. On our way down though, there was a truck in the lane next to us that caught on fire. We had NO idea how to tell the person. We were on a highway, how do you get someone's attention going 75 mph? Several people tried too, but couldn't. Eventually, the truck pulled over and all three people got out. There was a pretty high fireball, but it didn't explode. It was scary. I don't think my heart beat calmed down til we hit Annapolis.

We got to the hotel for packet pick-up about 2:20 p.m. We pulled into the Lowes, which I have stayed at before and parked. We were charged $5 to park in their lot, which wasn't great, but I'm sure a public lot would have been much more. We headed in and got in line for bib/swag. The lines took forever because people we picking up for others...not just one other, but multiple people. I saw someone walk out with 7 bags. Ugh. I got mine, which included my shirt, bag, and bib. I wondered why I didn't get the yoga mat and water bottle they promised. This upset me a bit.

I then wandered the expo and picked up a few things. I grabbed a Zooma 3/4 zip jacket and a purple shirt that I had seen before and wanted. Pricey. But, what isn't at an expo?

I also grabbed a shirt, card, and flower at Fellow Flowers, a great inspirational company that I've been told has been up a year and doing amazingly well! Their stuff was very reasonable. I also wore the flower in my hair the next morning. I liked the people at the booth and they had some really nice stuff.

After the expo, we wandered a bit to find a bite to eat. We hadn't eaten since breakfast and wanted something. Stopped at Fado's and had a yummy cider and this:

A yummy cheese dip with boxy chips! They were amazing! When the waitress saw we had more cheese, but no chips? She brought us out a whole new plate of chips! Yum!

We headed back to the Lowe's to get our car so we could check into our hotel. It was uneventful trip, other than Garmin getting us lost (what's new? Garmin doesn't like us.). Check in was quick. We got into the room, I laid out my gear for Saturday morning, and we watched A Knight's Tale for a bit.

Loved this shirt!

We got ourselves cleaned up and changed, then headed back to the Lowe's for the Honest Tea Mocktail Party. I'll be honest, I was disappointed here. They asked for you to RSVP to the event, which I thought that was because there would be drinks (Honest Tea), snacks, etc. they had to account for numbers. When we got there, the Honest Tea people had changed their table around so to make drinks mixing their different products, but that was it. No snacks. No separate room. No checking RSVP. I'm not saying they should have turned people away if they didn't RSVP, but what was the point of doing so in the first place? We had one drink and left. There was nothing making this worth our time of driving back down town. Complete waste of time.

We tried to get a table at a place down the street for dinner, but without reservations it was an hour wait. No. Thanks. I've got 13.1 miles to run in the morning. Gotta get to bed at some point. So, we went back to the Lowe's and got a table at West. We waited about 20 minutes for an inside table. Grabbed a drink at the bar and watched the O's. When we were seated, our table faced the TV's. Hubby was happy. :)

Dinner was tasty. We started by sharing a pizza. The waiter said it was just barely big enough as an appetizer for two, more like a personal pizza for one. Ummmm....no? It was much larger than we anticipated, so we added a shared mac 'n cheese and we each had a salad.

Cell phone pic, sorry for the blurriness

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Since everything was laid out, didn't have much to do. Put the ole jammies on, got our wake-up call, and hit the sack. That 5:00 a.m. wake up call would come pretty quick!

And it did! LOL! I'm not a morning person, so anything before 8:00 - 8:30 a.m. is early to me (no, I don't not have children). Got up and got ready. It was quick since everything was laid out and ready. Yea! We were ready to leave almost on time. There were lots of racers in our hotel. We saw all sorts of people heading to their cars, which made it easy to find Navy Stadium. LOL! Follow all the cars. 

We arrived on time, parked our car (really close to start/finish. Yea!), then headed to the port-a-potties. Figured night as well. Then did some stretching before the race.

Pre-race with Navy Stadium in the back

Hubby being creative with the camera and sun flare

The start was a little confusing. I didn't know which direction to go to get in line. There were no corrals or times. Hubby and I both went in because there was room on the side for spectators to sit. We chatted, then hubby decided to go outside against the fencing to watch. 

Here's where I'll be honest. As soon as I saw the weather was going to be in the low-to-mid 70s at the start, I'd been freaking out. I don't do well in the heat. I hate running in it. I hate doing lots of things in it. I even worried about that when I signed up initially that it could be really hot come race day. And as I stood there waiting for the race to start, I struggled not to cry. Which I had trying to hold back for the past 24 hours. I just knew this was not going to be a good race. I knew I would struggle. I knew that it would be miserable.

And we're off! We ran through the big Zooma inflatable start/finish and meandered through the Navy Stadium parking lot before heading into the streets of Annapolis.

Had a little difficulty at the start when my Nano didn't want to work. Honestly, had I not gotten it to work, I would quit right there. I was already doubting what the hell I was doing. But, it finally started playing and kept going. Maybe a mistake?

There were lots of little hills throughout the first part of the race around the stadium. Not too bad, but there. When we came back to Taylor Street, I saw hubby! He came to the one side of the street to cheer me on. We were just over a mile into the race.

It really was good to see him. I was disappointed on the other three sides of the stadium where people lined up to cheer. It surprised me how upset I was getting not seeing him. But, there he was. He saw me first and called my name. Then took some pics. From here, I was one my own...along with all the other racers of course. ;-)

We headed from here into downtown Annapolis. We crossed a pretty stone bridge into the city and around the pretty architecture of the city. It really is a gorgeous city! There were lots of hills here and basically that's all Annapolis is...hills. I'm not kidding. We went around town, down through downtown (I say this because it was a steep downhill), then past the Naval Academy. Slightly disappointed we didn't run through it, but what can you do?

Lots of hills and to this point, I'm running pretty strong. I'm running the hills and I'm thinking this isn't too bad. My times are keeping with that I need for a PR, even running a little ahead of schedule. I was ok with this, figuring the hills later in the race would slow me down and this will be my cushion. Had I known that there was so little flatness to the course...

We came through the city to the Navy Bridge and oh my good Lord. You want me to run that??? Twice??

It's hard to tell from this photo, but it's steep and it's not pleasant doing it twice. As we get to the top of this portion of the race, the 10k peeps get to turn back. Lucky bastards runners. At this point, I honestly considered making the turn and just doing the 10k rather than the half, but that would have been one pricey 10k, so I kept going. Over the bridge and into some weird race course. We ran along a highway for a bit, then turned onto a side road. It was disheartening because you never really knew what was going on. It just seemed to go on forever. And constant hills, very little flat ground to let you catch your breath.

When I got to the turn around point, there were three ladies there to cheer you on. They were amazing! They cheered, high-fived, and generally made you happy to have reached them. I have to give it to Annapolis, they had some great volunteers at this race. Many had the Black Girls Run shirts on and man, I want to join them! They were awesome! Cheering each other on when they saw each other on the course, keeping a positive attitude, volunteering, being fantastic to those who were running by. They embodied the running community to me yesterday. I seriously wonder if they'd take this white girl?

After turning around normally, it makes me happy because I know I have less to run than I ran. This time it didn't matter. I saw the 9 mile sign and texted hubby "Coming up to mile nine. Walking. Can't run." I wanted him to know since I had so hoped to finish under 3 hours. At this point, I knew it wasn't going to happen. I knew I was going to be lucky to finish below 3:10:00. Oh what a joke.

From that point forward I walked. There was an occasional downhill that I jogged, but the quads were unhappy and didn't want me to use them at all. They wanted me to sit down on the side of the road and never move again. Mentally, I can't say I wasn't with them on that. I walked. I tried estimating my finish time and came to about 3:05:00. That wouldn't be horrible, just 3 minutes slower than Shamrock in March and 4 minutes faster than AC from October. Ok.

On my way back over the hill, a poor girl was on the side sitting when the medical personal golf cart came up to her. I came up and asked if she was ok. Apparently she had just thrown up. Medical staff were giving her cold water. I'm not sure what happened from there, but I was a little scared. This girl was fit, she was thin and looked healthy. If she got sick, what about me? I was already nervous because I wasn't sweating the way I was early on. I was thinking I might be a bit overheated with heat dehydration. I contemplated stopping at a police officer and asking for medical personnel. I didn't. Mistake? Maybe.

As I'm on my way back to the stadium, there is a side street with people walking up it with bibs on. There is no course marshal or anything and the two people in front of me crossed the street and kept going. I asked the traffic person who said the race actually continues down the side street. Wha??? Good Lord. So, I turn left and I am the only person I see going my way. I have no idea where I'm going, but I keep plodding long. And this is where I felt completely lost. There were NO course directors out there. I finally caught up to someone so I could follow them, but wow. There was no one helping us back of the packers figure out what to do. This part of the race was just randomness for miles. There was a water station on both sides of the street, which was nice, but other than that, this part sucked! Hit the turn around from this part and started back. On my way, the gentleman who was my "guide" was on the sidewalk getting sick with two medics. Poor man.

I kept going. As I walked, I told those behind me where to go. I know I felt lost as I walked with no one ahead of me, so I tried helping those behind me. I got back to the main street and make a left towards the stadium. Up a hill (surprised?), make a left to a bit of a downhill (which I ran), then make one more right and wow...the stadium. The finish was close! So close that I actually said that. And the woman next to me asked what? I told her, "See that gray building? That's the stadium. We're almost done." She yelled out in surprised and thanked me. Apparently, she was feeling it too. She got ahead of me, lucky girl! But, I kept going. I got to the stadium, allowed an ambulance out of the stadium, and walked to just under a tenth of a mile, then started running to the finish.

And thank the good Lord, I am finished! I honestly didn't think it would ever happen. Yes, that clock said 3:23:17. It's not 100% accurate because that's gun time, but...

I crossed the line and waited for hubby to come around. A nice woman I saw on the course, spritzed me with water. When hubby arrived, we headed to water/food. On the way, I picked up my yoga mat, water bottle, and necklace. There would be no medal for me this day. We walked through the entire expo area and could not find water. Nothing. I stayed under a nice awning while hubby went back seeking water. Apparently, it was at the finish line in a black bucket that wasn't marked and no one there to give it to you. Thanks Zooma for caring about the back of the packers in 84 degree temps. I took my sneakers off and put on my brand new Nike cushioned flip flops. Love them!

I felt like crap, so I wanted out. No wine. No food. No expo. Though, the expo was basically the same people from the night before. I didn't see anything different. We walked to the car and the best thing ever was the air conditioning. I finally started feeling better. Hubby said we got late check-out at the hotel, thank God! I was able to head back to shower rather than just pack. A shower never felt so nice...minus out the chafing...in a not so pleasant place.

Changed and we headed to Pusser's for lunch. It was really the one thing I wanted to do. We had to wait for a table (not surprised!), so we sat on the deck enjoying a celebratory drink.

Painkiller

The reason I like this place is for the view. The food is good. The drinks are good. But the view? Amazing!

I had a yummy salad and sweet potato fries. Not typical post-race food (of which I got nothing from Zooma itself), but I was still overheated and wanted nothing hot. The salad was great and the sweet potato fries were sweet. Perfect! We hung around there until about 3:00 p.m., then headed home. It had been a long day.

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Can't blog...running...

This morning I'm running in the beautiful town of Annapolis in the Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon. It's going to be a warm morning, but I am going to do the very best I can. I'll be back to let you know how it goes. If you want to be in the know, follow me on Twitter. I've got updates going on there!


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One month

One month from today, I'll be running the Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon! Eep! I haven't been as successful with my goals so far for the race, but I'm feeling ok about things. I haven't lost the amount of weight I wanted to and at this point I won't. I can still lose some, but not be where I wanted to be by race day. I've been working on lifting more and trying to incorporate more core. I got back problems people. Need that core solid!

I haven't been getting in my weekday runs as much as I should. I haven't kept up with all my hill repeats. I haven't always gone to the gym at night.

The positive is I still have a month to change things around. I have 8 miles this weekend. I'm looking into TRX classes at my gym next week (they are doing demos to determine interest). Hubby and I are still working on lifting and core. I start a new program tomorrow called Creative Change Bootcamp, which I'm hoping to delve into my food issues.

So, one month til Z day! I'm still chasing that PR. I'm still chasing a strong run. Here's to a fantastic May!


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Shamrock Half Marathon Race Recap

Alrighty, time for the main event! The Shamrock Half Marathon! I ran this race for the first time in 2011 and PRed by 25 minutes. Insane, I know! Who does that??? I was really looking forward to running it again and had a goal of running it in 2:50:00. Sadly, my training was not what it should be and my goal was to be sub-3:00:00.

Sunday morning I got up and immediately went to the window of our hotel room to see if it was raining. The forecast said it might and I was not prepared for a race that was cold and wet! Hubby said the race organizers posted the rain had stopped, so I relaxed a little. I knew I wasn't as prepared for a cold race as I would have liked to be, but no rain did make it less stressful!

I got ready and we were out the door by 6:30 a.m. to head to the start. There were 10 corrals this year! 10! That's a lot of people! And it was neat walking out of our room and seeing all the people walking to the start. We arrived near the start line and decided to walk a bit further up as last year I had to fight my way from the back to my corral. Well, this year when we walked down the side street to where I thought I should line up, I had to walk backwards...several blocks! Ugh. So many people...

I got in my corral and hubby headed to the start to cheer me on as I passed. I put myself right up front. I didn't want to be any further back than I had to be. And I waited. I didn't have a watch on, so I didn't know what time it was, but people around me started getting antsy. Apparently, it was past 7:00 a.m. and there had been no starter gun. Being so far back we really couldn't hear any of the announcements. We did her the National Anthem signer, but that was all. So, we waited. Freezing. The temperatures were in the low 40s, but the wind chill was insane! So cold!

We finally get started about 10 minutes later than we should have, which means our corral went off about 7:20 a.m. We hit the road, I saw hubby on my right, waved, and got going. The course I knew. Which turned out to be a good thing. I liked the familiarity of the course, knowing what to expect. I had my music and there were lots of people around. I found a rhythm and I went with it.

I have no photos from the race. I had actually meant to take my camera with me, but the memory card filled up on Saturday afternoon at the aquarium. Sorry!

The race went along fine. I knew I wasn't running as fast as last year, which is ok. The road out to the military base was fine. Fun little jokes on the side of the road, pretty scenery, and a nice, flat course. What I remember most about those miles is just being content running. Sounds odd, but those miles were good miles. I was somewhat warm and felt good.

I mention feeling warm because as we turned onto the base at about mile 6 that feeling of warmth went out the window. The trees on the road leading to the base blocked the wind. The base? No trees or blocking. We were just about a block from the ocean/beach and the wind was nasty! The entire time I was running on the base, my hands were so cold they hurt. That is the only thing I really regret not having with me on the run was a pair of gloves. I wore a long-sleeve pull-over that I packed last minute (thank heavens!), but gloves would have been a God send! These miles were miserable only in the sense that my hands hurt. I felt fine other than that. There were lots of people out cheering for us, which for some reason I think was more than last year. There were some lovely military personnel who came out to give high fives and I felt bad because I knew if I high fived, my hands would break. I waved and said thank you.

Once off the base, my hands started to feel a bit normal again. Not much, but they didn't hurt as badly. Just off the base my back started hurting. Ugh. That's the first time in three races that happened. I've managed to get myself in good enough condition since Philly that my back has held up fine. This race, nope. Soreness. From about mile8 on out, I had to stop several times to stretch out my back. Frustrating.

The rest of the miles were good. I knew I wasn't going to PR. I could tell from the times Garmin had that this race was going to be one of my better ones, but it wouldn't touch last year's Shamrock Half Marathon time. I turned onto the boardwalk and wow. The wind nailed me! I felt like I was pushing against a locked door. Two of the Livestrong volunteers ran along side me to the boardwalk. I'm sure in their minds that was helpful as they yelled encouraging things. To me, not so much. I run solo and to be singled out like that? Didn't like it. I'm a jerk, I know.

I hit the boardwalk and ran. I had hoped to pick up speed and nail the end, but nope. I didn't have it in me. That's ok. As I passed hubby just past Neptune, he said I looked good. I think he lied.

I felt like I just wanted the race to be over. LOL! And from this spot on the course to the finish line it wasn't far. I crossed the line at 3:01:09. 11 minutes slower than last year. Blargh. I came up to the medal volunteers and the lovely lady actually placed my medal around my neck. Thank you! I went through the corral picking up my water, Gatoraid, hat, pretzel, granola bar, banana, Shamrock cookie, FLEECE BLANKET, and finally a bag to put it all in! I stopped for the photo in front of the backdrop and the nice photographer helped me get all my stuff into the bag. I got my photo taken and it was off to find hubby to celebrate!

Here are some photos of us enjoying the after-party:

So, while I didn't get the PR I was hoping for, overall it went alright. A bit cold, but in the end I ran those 13.1 miles. I made it back to the beach. I had a good time with the hubby. I am a Dolphin Challenger again!

Did you race this weekend? How did it go?

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Zooma Annapolis

I did it. I decided to pull the trigger on the Zooma Annapolis half marathon. The package was just too good to pass up, plus I wanted another half marathon this year. I realized I'm not a good summer runner, so unless I can find a half that's in a reasonably close distance in November I had to pick a spring race. Here's some of the reasons I signed up for Zooma.

You get a training package...in the mail...before the race.

I won't be able to take advantage of the Muscle Milk (sorry Zooma!) because of my weird milk allergy. I volunteered to let hubby have that for his training. Don't want to waste it!

Then, at packet pick-up you get your bib, as well as...

ZOOMA Signature Swag Bag, including a cute tech tee, yoga mat, reusable bag, and stainless steel water bottle (over $50 value)

Not bad! After the race, there is a great party with a necklace, wine, massage, shopping, and live music. How awesome is that? I am slightly disappointed there is no actual "medal," but the rest of the items are sure pretty spiffy. 

Though I'm a little scared. It has a 3.5 hour time limit and they say tons of hills (bridges). This does not bode well for me. I'm already thinking of how I want to tackle the training for this race. I'm almost wondering if I should focus more on hill training and speed work than really long runs. Zooma Annapolis will be my sixth half marathon and I'm thinking I have the ability to run it if I don't run many 10+ milers. Maybe, running a few less long runs and focusing on the hills and trying to speed up will help me not get swept in this 3.5 hour course.

What do you think? Would running fewer 10+ mile runs, but running more hills help me? Have you run this race? Any advice?

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Atlantic City Half Marathon Recap - Saturday

Race weekend finally came! Saturday morning we got up and finished packing. We then got Higgy and Pooka together with all their stuff to take to the sitter. Yes, they need to be boarded when we go away now. They both have hyperthyroidism and need meds, and Higgy needs a blue liver pill to keep his thyroid from destroying it.

Hubby packed the car and we grabbed the cats. It had rained Friday night, pretty badly too around here and the steps were wet. I put my foot on a step and slipped. I remember feeling my foot go out from under me and then nothing until I looked to my right. There I saw my sweet Higgy in his carrier looking at me through the air slots asking me, "what just happened Mommy?" He seemed ok, a little confused, but ok. I on the other hand. Oh heavens did the back of my right leg hurt. I hit it on one of the steps when I landed. Oh, and my right ankle. That hurt too.

I headed inside to change pants because the leaves and dirt on the step rubbed off on my pant leg. Lovely. When I changed pants I saw a nice raw rug burn type injury on the back of my right thigh. Wow. That was not intentional. I forgot to check my ankle in my rush to get to the car. Yea. It was somewhat painful.

We got the cats to the sitter and headed off to AC. What struck me most were the trees on the way down. Peak color season! Gorgeous! I love the Mid-Atlantic in the fall.

We arrived in AC and checked into our hotel. We chose Showboat based on proximity to the start line (1.2 miles) and the price. The price was one of the best of the race hotels or any other hotel as I checked Orbitz to find the best deal. I'll be honest, we thought Showboat would be kinda a dump. We hadn't stayed their before, but it always seemed as if no one we knew stayed there. But, it was so bright and colorful. The check-in staff were very friendly. I was happy we picked Showboat.

We dumped our stuff in the room and headed to Bally's where the Expo was. One of the security guards told us how to get to the 6th floor and off we went! We walked in and things were clearly marked. I walked to the check in table to get my bib. I was 1605.

Then she turned away. I had to ask where to go next. They had everyone get their chips checked to make sure they worked. Nice touch. The lady at that station then directed me to women's t-shirt table for my shirt and bag.

I grabbed my bag and shirt (long sleeve, very nice!), then headed over to the event merchandise table. Since the event shirt was long sleeve I wanted a short sleeve shirt to wear in the summer. When I asked about it, I was told they had no short sleeve shirts in medium. Actually, they had no women's shirts in medium at all. Also, no large's. Ummmm...huh? I know we got to the expo about 4:00 p.m. on the second day (it was open until 8:00 p.m.), but still. Statistically more women run half marathons than men and the half is bigger than the marathon. I was pissed.

We then went into the Expo itself and it was small. Way smaller than I anticipated. We wandered through rather quickly as it seemed vendors who were scheduled to be there had packed up. I was hoping to see BeeCause Charms, but they were not there even though the race people said they would be there. I don't know what happened there, but I was disappointed.

After the Expo, we headed over to the Continental, which is one of our favorite restaurants. We enjoyed a yummy drink before heading to dinner.

Yum!

We hit up Gallagher's Burger Bar at Resorts and had a yummy burger. I know everyone goes the pasta route before a race, but I'll be honest. I hadn't been good about getting in protein this past week. I figured between the beer I had at dinner, the roll, and the fries I would be covered on the carbs front. We had a great server and the meal was delicious! I would recommend this place. If we hadn't been there for the race I would have hung at the bar too. 

And because it's night before the race, I wanted dessert. The dessert menu at Gallagher's didn't impress me so we wandered off. We got back to Showboat and decided to stop at Crossroads at the House of Blues. We read the menu outside and they had a Key Lime Pie. Sold! We got a seat and our waitress came over...wearing the 10k medal! Go Donna! She is 58 and this was her second race, her first being the 10k last year. She told us all about her race and said she would be volunteering at the Water Basin the next day. I told her I would look out for her.

After dessert (which was delicious!), we headed back to the room to get settled. I got all my running stuff out. I like pulling it all out so come race morning I don't have to think.

And as a girl, I like doing my nails for the race. I know. But, whatever. I found the perfect nails for the race. Loving the new nail sticker trend!

How can you not love these??? I had several people comment on them. Awesome!

Got all my stuff together and headed to bed. I'm a night owl so going to bed early for these races always causes me problems. I lie there for a while waiting for sleep, then kinda freak out that I won't be able to sleep at all. LOL! I did fall asleep. Eventually...