Weekly Review

I'm definitely dragging today as we got home from Disney at 1 in the morning and we're right back at work today.  But here's my summary of last week to lighten my spirits a bit by looking back on the weekend :) I knew it was going to be an active weekend so the week was just 2 short runs with some yoga thrown in.

Monday - rest day

Tuesday - Morning run before work

 

Wednesday - rest day since I went to see Mike in a sketch comedy performance after work

 

Thursday - Runners World Yoga Essentials

Friday - mid-day run since I was working from home

 

Saturday - Lots of walking.  I wanted to rest my feet today but that's hard to do in Disney.  I ended up walking a lot at the expo, at Disney Springs, and then walking back to our hotel room (which was much further then we thought).  It ended up being more than 15,000 steps according to my fitbit.  But I was in bed by 8:30pm for the super early wake up for the half marathon.

 

Sunday - Star Wars Dark Side half marathon!  Plus lots of walking afterward, which probably helped with my muscles.  I'll have a full review later.  In short, it was my slowest half marathon ever but I had a great time.

 

So that was my week!  It was a lot of fun but I'm looking forward to having a couple weeks at home before I have to travel again.

Georgetown 10 Miler

Two weekends ago, I ran the Georgetown 10 miler.  This is an interesting race set up because they do the race on both Saturday and Sunday.  So you can sign up for the race either of those days or both days for a total of 20 miles in 2 days.  I chose the 1 day option on Saturday.  It was also the 5th anniversary for the race.

I signed up for the race without having much information on it.  I couldn't find a lot of information online.  I found some general information on the course (an out and back on the C&O Canal Tow Path) and I know from previous runs on that trail that it's crushed gravel and relatively flat.  I also saw that it was a pretty small race (119 people the day I ran according to the results). 

Race day selfie

I pretty much just signed up because the timing was right and I knew I would need an 11-ish mile training run between the RnR DC half and the Star Wars Half at Disney World.  And they had a 3 hour time limit for the 10 miles so I knew I would be ok with a training pace.

 

Pretty scenery for the warm up run as well

There was no packet pick up in advance, only race morning.  The race started at 9 am so that wasn't too bad.  The email sent out from the race a couple days before indicated that there was some street parking and also garages in the area.  I wanted to try for street parking so I went early.  I think I got there around 7:45 or so.  I waited in the car a bit and then did a 1 mile warm up run.

 

After that, I went and picked up my bib.  You only got the bib at the beginning and the shirt was handed out after the race.  There was no line when I got there for bib pick up.  From bib pick up to the race start, there was a steep stair case you had to climb.  I knew it was going to suck climbing back down the stairs after the race.  Once I got to the top, there was a nice little set up with a small tent for bag check and there was a DJ playing music.  There was plenty of room to warm up and it was a pretty relaxed starting area given the small numbers.

View across the river from the start line

And then we were off!  There's nothing much to really say about the race itself.  It was small but it was on a trail that wasn't closed.  It was a beautiful day so there were plenty of people out.  It was crowded at the start but spread out really quickly and since I was in the back, I never felt crowded.

 

Trail with the canal on the left and river on the right

There was a water stop around mile 2.5 and therefore at mile 7.5 on the way back.  By water stop, I mean one guy with some bottles of water or a jug he could use to pour water into your own water bottle.  I somehow missed him on the way out so didn't get a refill of my water bottle until the way back.  This did not go well for me since it heated up pretty quickly that morning, the sun was out in full force, and there was very little shade on the trail.  As you can see from my splits, I definitely faded as the race went on.  I wish it had started earlier then 9am, but April is a tricky month.  It could have been cold and then people would have complained if the race had started too early.

 

So I did not do too well at this race.  I think part of it was the water/heat issue and but the other part is I really just went out way too fast.  I'm not at the fitness level I was at last year and I can't try to race as if I was.  My pace should definitely be in the 13's at the beginning, not the 12's.

 

But I would definitely recommend this race for anyone looking for a small, low-key 10 miler in the Spring in the DC area.  Everyone was really kind and supportive, it was well organized, it's a beautiful trail with river or canal views for much of it.  The time limit was very generous so it was a good option for walkers as well.  There was a fun medal at the end, and a t-shirt (cotton, not tech).  I think it was around $60 so not too expensive either.

 

Weekly Review

We're back from Atlanta!  Had a great trip but the traveling definitely does take a lot of energy.  Here's a summary of the week.

Monday - rest day

Tuesday - rest day plus 30 minute walk with a friend

Wednesday - fit star strength work out

 

Thursday - 40 minutes on the hotel treadmill

 

Friday - yoga class plus some pool time

 

Saturday - 6 miles on hotel treadmill

 

Sunday - rest day

So that's it for last week.  This week is another whirlwind week because I'm running the Disney Work Star Wars Dark Side half marathon on Sunday!  It'll be my last long race until the Fall.  I'll be sticking with 5ks and 10ks for the Summer.  But for this week, the plan is yoga on Monday, a short run Tuesday morning, 40 minutes on the elliptical Thursday, a short run on Friday.  Saturday will be pool time at the hotel and lots of walking at the expo and around Disney.

I'm linking up with HoHoRuns and MissSippiPiddlin for their Weekly Wrap.

 

Weekly Review

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  We had beautiful Spring weather that definitely made the weekend fly by.  The week was so/so with some rain and taking off from working out during the beginning of the week because of the blister on my foot.  But here are the details.

Monday - rest day

Tuesday - rest day

Wednesday - rest day

Thursday - 35 minutes on the elliptical - the blister was still there but had stopped hurting so I gave the elliptical a try.

 

Friday - Strength training with a FitStar routine

 

Saturday - Georgetown 10 miler (full recap to come later this week) plus a beautiful backyard wedding for some friends

 

Sunday - Foam rolling and stretching since I was a bit sore from the 10 miler.  And some walking around the local town center to take advantage of the nice weather.

So that was it for last week! This week is going to be a travel week so I'm going to try to get in some early work outs during the week.  I'm meeting a friend for a run Tuesday.  Wednesday will be strength training.  Thursday will be an early flight but I think I should still be able to get in a run at the hotel gym Thursday afternoon.  Friday will be strength training and Saturday will be another run on the hotel gym.

I'm linking up with HoHoRuns and MissSippiPiddlin for their Weekly Wrap.

 

Friday Five - favorite drinks

Yay for Fridays! It means almost time for the weekend and also means that it's time for the Friday Five 2.0 link up with Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness!  This week's theme is about drinks so I'm going to talk about 5 of my favorites.






 


1.  Tea!  I love tea.  That includes chai lattes as well as loose leaf tea I brew at home myself and tea bags from the grocery store.  It's one of those things that I just always find comforting.

 

I loved this monthly tea box I got as a Christmas gift one year

2.  Margaritas, yum :)  I'm not even sure about why on this one but they always seem festive.

3. Smoothies - Summer's coming up and I'm looking forward to experimenting a bit with smoothies again.  My usual is just frozen fruit, half a banana, and almond milk.  I throw in a handful of spinach if I happen to have some around.

4.  Beer - I've never really been a beer person in the past but I've kind of gotten into tasting different craft beers in the past year or so.  I've found several that I really like.  But I've been horrible about remembering the names.  I've got to start writing down the names of the ones I like so I can find them again!

5. Nuun - since this is a running blog, I'll bring it back to running by saying that I hydrate with nuun while running.  I really like their citrus-y flavors and that it's pretty low in sugar.

 Even Shelby likes nuun!

 I hope everyone has a good weekend ahead of them with some fun drinks thrown in for good measure :)

Volunteering at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

I love volunteering at races!  It's a great way to see a different side of a race and get a bit of the inside scoop.  Last year, I just volunteered at local races put on by Montgomery County Road Runners and I was thinking of doing the same this year.  But I didn't get into the Cherry Blossom 10 miler through the lottery.  So I decided to go ahead and volunteer for the race instead because they have an added perk... volunteering means that I can get into next year's race without having to worry about the lottery! 

Pre-race communication was great.  They sent out multiple emails with very specific instructions.  You would think that all races would do this but I've definitely volunteered at races before where I show up race morning and no one has any idea who volunteers are supposed to talk to.  With this race, the communications were detailed enough that it had specific names of people that we should talk to that morning.  And they sent us a QR code on the phone that was scanned race morning to confirm that we were there which would ensure us our guaranteed entry for next year.  Oh, and they also held a volunteer appreciation event before the race though I wasn't able to go to it.  But still a nice touch.

 

Killed some time by checking out the cherry blossoms before the race

I had signed up for the finish line which had a start time of 7:45.  And the race started at 7:30.  Unfortunately, metro didn't start running until 7am and since I'm near the end of the line, I wasn't sure I'd make it in time if I took metro.  So I drove.  And I left super early because I knew parking would be scarce if I showed up late.  So I actually got there around 6:30.  Street parking was plentiful but it looked to be almost gone by 6:45 so I'm glad I got there early.

 

Easy to find my way around, I thought the race did a great job with signage

After taking my time wandering around, I made my way to the volunteer tent.  Wow, they had a heated tent for volunteers!  Swanky :)  There was also coffee and I think donuts but I had already eaten breakfast so I stayed away from the treat area.  It was still pretty early and they were overwhelmed at bag check (it was 7:30 and they still had a line of people trying to get their bags checked in) so they had me and another early finish line volunteer run over to bag check to help out.  This involved just taking the bags after volunteers had tagged them and putting them back into lines in numerical order.  It was all very efficient and we got everyone through by 7:45 or so.  We then went back to the volunteer tent where they were ready to put the finish line volunteers to work.

 

The finisher chute while waiting for runners to come through

We all walked over to the finish line area as a group and our job was just supposed to be lining up along the sides of the finisher chute and make sure that as runners came through, they kept walking so that there wasn't a back up in the chute.  But there were a ton of finish line volunteers.  And apparently not enough people at medals.  So someone came over and asked me and a couple other people to go over to medals to help out there.

 

There was time for a selfie before things got too busy

Sweet, I love handing out medals!  Except this was more of a security assignment and not handing out medals.  This race is one where runners have the option to pay a lower price and not get a medal.  So it was our job to check out the bibs of everyone heading into the medal area to make sure that only people who had pre-registered for the medal got in.  Most people were fine once it was explained but there were also plenty of people that wanted to complain about not getting a medal.  Well, you should remember that for when you register!  And complaining repeatedly to volunteers who are just doing what they're told is not really going to result in anything changing for you.

But anyway, like I said, most people were fine.  And it was just a trickle as first and not a lot of work.  But then at some point it turned into a horde of people and I was just looking at bibs as fast as I could.  I think I stopped even seeing people's faces and just saw their bibs.  Which is why I was so happy that Jennifer called out my name :)  It was great to meet her briefly in real life and not just through the computer.  I'm sure I looked like a bit of a maniac at that point as things were a bit crazy and I couldn't talk much, but it was nice to at least say hi and hear how her race went.

And that was it for the volunteering.  At one point I looked up from bibs and saw we didn't have a crowd any more.  It trickled down from there and when we were done, the guy in charge of the medals area gave us a nice little pep talk and thank you and we were sent on our way, even a little earlier than we were told we'd be done.  This was a really well organized volunteer event.  I would definitely recommend it.  And I learned that I should register for a medal when I register for the race.  Otherwise, I'm sure I'm going to be one of those people that doesn't remember at the finish and be a little disappointed at not getting a medal after running those 10 miles.

Weekly Review

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  It's back to the grind but I wanted to go ahead and get my weekly review up as well.  It was all short runs for me this week but I did manage to squeeze three of them in.

Monday - rest day

Tuesday - Yoga With Adrienne - yoga for strength training

Wednesday - a short run after work

 

Thursday - 40 minutes at the gym

 

Friday - rest day

Saturday - rest day.  This one was unintentional as I meant to wake up early and go for a 6 mile run.  But it didn't happen and I couldn't leave it too late as we had plans downtown.  We went to see the the Ringling Brothers circus as they've announced they'll be closing soon.

 

Sunday - 3 miles.  I volunteered at the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in the morning.  I'll post more about this later this week :)

 

But after volunteering, I went out in the afternoon to get my run in.  I was so sore from the volunteering and just being on my feet all morning that it ended up being pretty much mostly walking.  I also managed to get a blister on my foot and was almost in tears by the time I got back home after 3 miles.  Oh well, I knew that doing it in the afternoon after volunteering wasn't a good plan.

 

And that was it for last week.  I've got the Georgetown 10 Miler on tap for this Saturday.  It will be an interesting race as I haven't been able to find that much information about it.  It looks like it will be relatively small.