RI Run For The Fallen Race Recap

 

On Saturday, Tara and I (as well as some teammates) participated in the RI Run for the Fallen. Since Tara was going to do this with me, walking, I decided it would be a great race to ruck. It worked out really well because of my foot anyway. We were also able to pause at each marker and pay our respects, as well as to the Gold Star family members who were present.

The event schedule was that the Gold Star families would arrive by 8:30, opening ceremony at 9:00 and race start at 9:30. We were able to pick up our bibs starting at 7:30, so we left the house around 6:45 for the roughly hour long drive to Colt State Park in Bristol, RI. On a side note, this was my first trip to this park and it was amazing. Beautiful, waterfront views and amazing trails. It’s really a shame it’s so far away or I would definitely run there more often.

This race was a free event, in its first year, and they just simply asked for donations instead of race fees. I signed up myself and Tara through Active under Team RWB RI at a teammate’s request. When we got there, we went to team check-in and they didn’t have us, but gave us bibs and just made a note of the team on a sheet of paper. Later, I thought we should ask if maybe they had us under individuals instead, but they didn’t. With our bibs, we also received a small bag with some flyers and a travel size deodorant in it. Tshirts were available for purchase, but unfortunately they didn’t have any in our sizes when we thought to buy one afterwards.

As we were waiting in line my friend Al snuck up on us and gave us a quick squeeze before we headed back to the car to drop off the bags and grab my ruck. We then went over to the memorial they had set up for all of the fallen soldiers from the state of RI since the war began. They had two bagpipers playing music behind the memorial and it was very moving. Each memorial had a picture of the soldier, his hero date and how he died.

 

 

We hung out by the water a bit and chatted with our friends until the opening ceremony began.

 

 

Everybody lined up near the memorial and they had a pledge of allegiance said by a girl scout troop, presenting of the colors and the National Anthem. They then had a chaplain lead a prayer, there was a poem read by a Gold Star family member, followed by 4 men who read the name of each fallen soldier with a bell ring after each name. That might not be the right order of things, but you get the gist of it. Lots of tears were shed throughout the morning.Shortly after they were done, we all lined up to start.

 

 

It was a beautiful day, albeit a bit warm in the direct sunlight. Along the route were more memorial markers. Family members of each soldier were stationed near their respective markers and it was sad to see that probably half of the markers didn’t have anyone there. At each marker we passed, we put a hand on the marker with a quick “thank you” to let them know we appreciated their sacrifice. If family members were present, we shook their hands and said whatever we could think of, knowing nothing we said could heal their hurt. There was one couple in particular that broke my heart. They were an older couple, so not sure if they were parents or grandparents of the soldier, but the woman was just pouring out tears and her husband looked like he was just barely holding it together. They got hugs, not handshakes. I just wanted to squeeze the pain out of her.

It was a very emotional day, but they had excellent execution for a first time race. The only small complaint I would have, and really just a note for the next time, is to have more water if possible. It was very warm and they were already out of water at the first stop and almost out at the second one. I think we got the last bottle of water to split. Maybe a suggestion would be to ask people to donate cases of water, or maybe suggest people bring their own? One other minor thing would be to have arrows for the course. It was pretty easy to follow along due to the markers, but there was one point where we made a large, unnecessary loop because we were just following the traffic. After the race, we found out they estimated it around 3.7 miles instead of 3.1. Tara and I figured this out as we were leaving and came across that area (next to a rotary) and we didn’t know when we passed that point of why there were hero markers on both sides of the road. We were supposed to come up one side of the road and down the other after going around the rotary, but everyone was following the sidewalk instead of the road, and the sidewalk veered off to the right. That also explained why that section had no markers for a while. If these are the only complaints after your first year, you’re doing great.

 

If you look at this map of the course, in the top right corner, you can see we were just supposed to go straight until the rotary and turn around. That’s not how people were going.

 

I took advantage of a chiropractic tent to have them check out my foot, so that was pretty nice. They were having catered food after the race, but the line was so long we didn’t stick around. I needed to get home and try to nap (which never happened) before the NEFC event (recap coming soon) that night. This is definitely a race we will do again in the future.

 

 

 

 

Face The Music Friday #53

Saturday – Rest/anniversary party

Sunday – Rest/birthday party

Monday – 30 min yoga

Tuesday – 30 min elliptical w/ ruck

Wednesday – 30 min yoga

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Rest/errands

 

You will notice a lot of rest this week and I’m not a big fan. I want to run. I want to run now. Boo hoo, waaaah.

OK, pity party over, let’s talk about the week.

We had a great time on Saturday at my aunt and uncle’s surprise 30th anniversary dinner that my cousin put together. She did a really great job getting it all set up, inviting lots of people (most of whom I didn’t know) and keeping it all a secret. It was up in MA, where they live, near where I grew up at a restaurant called The Fours. It’s a sports themed place with awesome food. I had my steak and cheese egg rolls I’ve craved since the first time we ever went there with them over a year ago. They’re that good. They also had a cake made with a picture drawn on it of them at their wedding. It came out really good! Every time we have a gathering, the cake is always from Veronica’s Sweetcakes because my cousin’s best friend’s family owns the bakery. They’re amazing!!

Sunday was the birthday party for the twin boys that Tara nannies. It was held at a place called Teamworks. They have indoor soccer, bouncy houses, arcade games, etc so it was a madhouse. It was also VERY muggy on Sunday so we were sweating just standing around inside for 5 minutes. We hung out for just over an hour but I couldn’t stand on my foot anymore so we took off and came home to watch a VERY scary Patriots game that I had DVR’d while we were gone.

So. The foot. Let’s talk about it, shall we? It was feeling better throughout the week last week. By the weekend, I could almost walk without a limp. I decided if I was taking it easy, now would be the perfect time to start back up doing yoga, so I threw that in a couple of days this week. My foot felt pretty good by Tuesday, so I said I’d try a more weight bearing activity like the elliptical (so not completely pounding on it) and if I was going to do that I might as well throw my ruck on for training. I think I’ve been paying for that decision ever since. My foot started hurting more again – not enough to limp, but enough to bother me all day. Back to the drawing board I guess.

In other news, I have a HUGE challenge coming in November that I will share more about in it’s own post soon. For now, I have the RI Run For The Fallen in the morning (which I will be rucking and Tara walking with me) and then I will head home, shower, try to maybe take a nap and then meet my team for the New England Fitness Challenge Saturday night into Sunday. I’m not competing but will be the team manager and just cheer them on and do what I can throughout the night to keep them moving.

This week I don’t have a particular reason for picking this song, but I just really like it. Tara had me making her some playlists last weekend and I came across it again in the process. It’s great on a run. Have a great weekend everybody!

 

A Silent Film – Harbour Lights

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Wear My Sunglasses At Night

 

You’re welcome for getting that song stuck in your head.

I recently made a purchase on Amazon as an extra safety measure for running when it’s dark, which is quickly approaching. I thought it might be a good idea to share what I use when I am running for safety, whether it’s dark or not.

Road ID app / Road ID bracelet

I ordered a Road ID bracelet a long time ago because it just made sense. I have a bee sting allergy and by wearing this bracelet, I’m able to let people know. It also has emergency contact information on it. They are completely customizable and very affordable. They also offer things you can put on your shoes and ankles, as well as other items.

 

This is the band I have – from the Road ID website

 

When I purchased the bracelet, they had also just come out with the Road ID app. At first, it was a little wonky at times, but now they seem to have worked out their kinks. What it does is provide a lock screen that you can also put your emergency info on, so a stranger can look at this without having to know the code to your phone. You also can send an “e-crumb” to up to 3 people (text or email) to let them know you’re running (or cycling, etc). This “crumb” allows them to follow your progress in real time so they know where you are at all times. There is also an alert feature that if you stop moving for 5 minutes, it triggers an alarm on your phone. Unless you turn this alarm off within 60 seconds, it will then notify whoever is following your crumb that you are no longer moving.

 

 

Reflective clothing / vest

I have several very neon shirts and even some calf sleeves with reflective strips on them. I’m also looking to get a reflective vest to wear over my not so reflective shirts. I would love some recommendations on your favorite, if you use one. The only one I’ve found and tried on so far seemed bulky (made by Fuel Belt I think).

Headlamp or other lights

I scored a great deal on a Petzl Tikkina 2 headlamp at REI at one of their garage sales earlier this year for less than $10. It’s a great head lamp and I can’t wait to actually use it. It’s very comfortable and has two different brightness settings. It doesn’t feel super heavy on my head either.

 

 

Cell phone

I’m sure most people probably do this, but I know some people who like to run “naked” and don’t carry anything with them. I like to have it in case of emergency, but also because it runs my apps, so I always have it with me.

Pepper Spray

This was the recent purchase I made on Amazon. We don’t live in the greatest part of town and sometimes running in certain areas can be a little sketchy. I decided to look into it and found one called “The Runner”. It’s a smallish container that has a Velcro strap so that you don’t have to keep a tight grip on it the whole time you’re running – it will stay safely wrapped around your hand and ready to go at a moment’s notice. I have yet to run after dark yet this year, but I know I’ll feel better having it on me. I sincerely hope I never have to use it though!

 

 

So, blogger friends – tell me what I missed! What do you use to stay safe while running alone?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Face The Music Friday #52

Saturday – volunteered for Unleashed 4 hours at BoldrDash

Sunday – Surftown Half Marathon

 

 

Wait. Something is missing. There are more days to the week. Oh wait – I didn’t do a damn thing! Let me tell you all about the nothingness that was the rest of my week.

Sunday I did the half (yay me!). I had the normal soreness and could barely move the rest of the day. The following day – still pretty sore, but could move a bit better in general. However, I had this random pain on the outside of my foot. Not soreness, just pain. It happened every time I put weight on it (to stand or walk). If I’m sitting or laying down, it doesn’t even bother me in the least most of the time.

I had my chiro appointment scheduled well in advance for Monday after work. I told her about the foot pain so she had me take my shoe off to take a look. She took some little machine that vibrated and ran it along the outside of my foot and asked me if it caused any pain, which it didn’t. She told me that’s good because if it had caused pain it could be a stress fracture. She worked the hell out of that foot and calf/shin and said I should rest it.

 

My pain is basically the lower X

 

Tuesday, the pain was worse. I thought maybe it was because it was the second day, and I’m always a “hurts more on the second day” person after something strenuous. Then Wednesday came – and it still hurt really bad. I sent her an email to ask her if that was normal and she said she’d send me for an Xray to double check for the fracture anyway. I wasn’t going to be able to do it until at least Friday because I would have had to drive to Providence to get the Rx and then back to get the actual Xray so it wouldn’t have worked out. I decided to call my regular doc’s office and get an appt Wednesday afternoon because the imaging center is one floor below them so I could get it done in one shot.

The doc took a look at my foot and wiggled it every which way and nothing caused pain except just standing on it. She said it could be a bad strain or tendinitis. Lots of rest and icing were recommended (which I’ve been doing like it’s my job). The Xray confirmed also no fracture so that was good. I let the chiro know as well and she said peroneal tendinitis – lots of rest! So now of course I’ve been Googling the hell out of it to see how I can heal it faster. Luckily, should be OK within a couple of weeks from what I’ve heard/read.

 

 

Bad news is – I’ve got lots of things and stuffs going on! I’m supposed to do the CVS Downtown 5K on Sunday. I have the RI Run For The Fallen the following weekend, plus I’m going as support for my team at the NEFC overnight challenge that night into Sunday morning. Then GORUCK is in a few weeks.

I think everything will be play it by ear. My most important thing is the GORUCK. I didn’t pay for CVS because my company paid for this particular registration and I haven’t yet registered for the one after it. If I have to skip those, I can – I just don’t want to. You athletes know how it goes.

Enough blah blah blah. This week’s song is flashing back a few years. I love Rise Against so of course when their lead singer teams up with the Flobots, magic happens.

Have a great weekend everybody!

 

Flobots w/ Tim McIlrath – White Flag Warrior

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surftown Half Marathon Recap

The short recap: I did it! I ran my first half marathon and finished with (a tiny amount of) time to spare!

Want more details? Well, read on!

Sunday started super early with my normal race routine. I usually wake up about an hour before I want to be up and out of bed (in this case, 2:30am) and chug a glass of water. I go back to sleep for another hour until my second alarm goes off. Who really gets up at 3:30am? I’m insane. The weather forecast was looking absolutely beautiful and it definitely did not disappoint.

 

 

It was chilly at the start. We got there just after 6am and right before the sunrise. It was just as beautiful as last year. It’s hard to beat a sunrise on the beach, no matter how cold. For the race, I was wearing my Unleashed Team t-shirt and compression shorts and calf sleeves. My legs were fine, but I was glad I brought a hoodie to wear prior to the start. I kept it on as long as I possibly could and gave it to Tara right before I went to the start and that worked out perfectly. Once I took it off I was freezing, but warmed up quickly when we started running.

 

 

Now, the day didn’t start out as I’d hoped. I woke up with a super tight right hamstring (which is not the bad one!). I tried rolling it out before we left the house, but it did nothing more than hurt me instead of feeling better. I decided I’d hit up the free massage tent the race was offering before the start to see if they could loosen me up. It helped a bit, but not in the way I hoped, so I just figured I’d hope for the best.

 

 

My friend Amy from Unleashed was also running this race. She got there a bit late, but it was right after I got my massage. I wanted to hit the portapotty one more time, so Julie and Tara told me she had gotten there and gotten in line. I found her and waited with her and tried to warm up a bit, then we thought they were starting the race! Turns out we had about 5 minutes, but basically by the time the line finished, I had come out of the stall and they WERE started! I saw tons of people running by. I quickly tried to get my stuff sorted, phone on and ready to set off Runkeeper and got my Garmin looking for a satellite while I hurried over to the start. We managed to get right in at the end (which is where I would have been anyway). I was able to start my Garmin right at the line, but we were running directly into the sun and I was having trouble seeing my phone screen, so I spent the first 1/10^th of a mile or so fighting with it – hence why I never saw Tara and Julie (or heard them since I had turned my headphones on).

 

 

At the last minute (meaning race day), I made the decision to change my intervals on Runkeeper. The whole time I trained, I did 4 min run/2 min walk. Doing it this way, I was sometimes well under the 13:30 pace cut-off I would need to finish on time, but then others not so much. I decided I would need to run longer than I was (which I would do during training, but not consistently). I ended up setting the intervals for 6 min run/2 min walk and if I could do more towards the beginning, I would.

After the fiasco getting my phone set up, I just told myself to calm down and find a good rhythm. I tend to get caught up in the speed of a race start, but the good thing was that all the speedy people were long gone by the time I got over to the start line. This left the people who were mostly around my pace anyway, so that was a good thing about getting to the line late. I saw these two women in front of me who looked like flags (red tshirt, blue tutu with white stars), so I decided I would try to keep them in front of me as long as possible. After a few miles though, I ended up passing them and then stayed in front of them. I lost them for the remainder of the race by mile 3 or 4 and never saw them again. Then there was red shirt man. We slingshotted each other almost the entire race and he told me towards the end that he kept me in front of him as his lead to follow. He ended up beating me though, because towards the end I made two pits stops to pee. I was glad I’d built up some spare time!

 

 

I was able to maintain my 6/2 for probably 8 or 9 miles. It was around this point I started to hit a wall, and hit it hard. We were away from the gorgeous beach views on pretty well-traveled roads and there was no pack to look at ahead or anything. It was very mental from that point on. My pit stops came around 11.5 and maybe 12.5 miles? Or a little sooner? I’m not sure, but towards the end. Oddly enough, I almost didn’t fuel at all and still felt strong for the most part. I had brought a sleeve of Shot Bloks with me, but never even opened them. They were offering Gu on the course, but I don’t like gels. The only thing I ingested along the way was water and two small half-full cups of Gatorade. I was surprised, but I had fueled well before the race (banana, bagel with peanut butter, coffee) so I figured I just had good stores built up!

 

 

Like I said, I built up a nice little cushion for myself and it was very much needed towards the end. Between the pits stops and not being able to maintain a run for very long, I was getting very nervous about beating the 3 hour course limit. Once I passed 12 and looked at my watch, I figured I had it in the bag (I think it showed 20 minutes?), however I walked way more than I planned. I just couldn’t find enough oomph to switch back to the run and when I did, it was for very short bursts. When I rounded that last corner, I told myself I was going to walk to a hotel sign I could see in the distance, and then said I NEEDED to run to the finish because I was cutting it very close.

Shortly after the sign, I picked it up and then I noticed my friend Amy running towards me to run me in. I can’t even tell you what a welcome sight she was. And then I saw Julie and Tara off to the side who had been waiting with her. I got a high five from Julie on the way by and managed to pick up the pace the tiniest little bit to get across that finish line. I also got my first ever shout out at a race! The guy at the end said something about me finishing and “for the Unleashed Team” which I thought was fun to throw in there. So cool to hear!

 

 

I grabbed a water from the people at the end of the finisher chute, proudly took my medal and put it over my head. I couldn’t wait to get out of there to find Tara and my friends and get some hugs! It felt so good to be done! My body was very angry so I just kept moving to get to the beach and go stand in the cold water. It felt so awesome after that!

 

 

After my quick trip in the water, we said our goodbyes to Amy and I shuffled my way over to look for food. The bananas didn’t look great, I didn’t like the bars they had and the only other option was clam chowder (yuck!). I got a clam chowder and gave it to Julie and then we went to check out the merch tent. I got a cute bumper sticker and a finisher tshirt for $5 on clearance! It doesn’t have the year on it, but that’s OK. It was only $5, so you can’t really complain. I was hopeful to get another massage, but they were already broken down and done for the day so that was a huge bummer. After we made our purchase, we headed over to the car so I could stretch before driving home, where I would promptly foam roll and lay in my recliner for the remainder of the day watching the Patriots and our DVR (hey, I earned it!).

 

Course map from race website

My Garmin data

 

Overall, I thought it was a great race. They DEFINITELY made an improvement over last year that I noticed. Each time they have this race, it falls during Fall Fest and there is a carnival set up in one of the beach parking lots. Last year, it was in the lot closest to the start, so we had to park farther down the beach and walk up. The registration was also set up in a parking lot across the street from that. This year, they had the volunteer lot where the registration was last year, plus the carnival was farther down the beach. This meant the parking was right next to the registration area and all the tents and portapotties were all in the one lot. One complaint though – they still need more portapotties. It was set up MUCH better than last year (in clear groupings with signs showing where to form lines), however there just aren’t enough. This is why there were still long lines again right before the start this year and I missed the actual start of the race.

I think the improvements were great this year, but the volunteers were even more awesome. They were all cheering us on and stayed there until the very end and that’s very much appreciated! There were even still multiple photographers still on the course as us back-of-the-packers came in for the finish. I tried to smile through the pain to get some good race photos, so we’ll see what I get!

I’m really proud of myself for not only finishing, but actually meeting my goal of being an “official” finisher by beating the 3 hour time limit. My official time from race website: 2:59:10! I also didn’t finish last, which is a nice bonus.

Thanks for all the well wishes and support along the way! It’s meant the world to me.

 

 

 

 

Face The Music Friday #51

Saturday – Rucked the 5K

Sunday – Watched the Patriots standing with my ruck on for 2/3 of the game, walked around during commercials as well as push-ups and vacuuming. Yes, this was highly amusing to watch.

Monday – 4 miles

Tuesday – Rest (mowed lawn)

Wednesday – 3 miles

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Rest

 

A nice easy week leading up to my first half marathon on Sunday. That race pretty much snuck right up on me! The Surftown Half will be my biggest goal for myself this year. I’m so incredibly nervous about finishing in the allotted 3 hours. I really, really want to be an “official” finisher. Their website says they’ll wait at the finish until everyone is done to do medals, but only people under the time limit will be listed as “official”. At least that’s what I took away from it….   So that’s my biggest fear right now. I believe I can cover the distance, it’s just how fast I can do it.

 

 

In other news, I’ve had a pretty big week and can’t believe I haven’t written about this until now. I was published in a magazine! RI Fit put a call out to “fitness enthusiasts” and asked people to fill out a survey about themselves and provide a picture. One of the owners of Unleashed had mentioned it on Facebook so I said why the heck not. This was a little while back, but then Sunday night they tagged me on Facebook about the new issue. At first, I was sort of like, huh? But then I remembered filling the survey out and quickly flipped through to find myself! Woo hoo! Check me out here on page 43.

Back in July, I had registered for the Beat The Blerch virtual race. Well, they finally shipped all the swag and I got it last night! Totally worth the $45. Look at all these goodies! And I have another Blerch tech shirt, which is really the best part. How cute is the cake on the sleeve? I mean, seriously.

 

 

Tomorrow I’ll be manning the Unleashed tent at the fall BoldrDash OCR.  Julie will be coming down to watch me run on Sunday, so I’ll hang out at the tent until around noonish and then head home to chill for the rest of the day. I’ll probably have to make jewelry, or cut things for them since I’m not very creative. It’s that time of the year! All the fall craft shows are coming, especially the big kahuna: the Scituate Art Festival. Shameless plug time – if you want to get in an order for a loved one for Christmas, check out her website!

I’m obsessed with this week’s song selection. I’ve heard it here or there on the radio in the car, but every time I do I’m just like YES!!! So anyway – here is the lyric version. The regular video might bother some? I don’t know. If you really want to see it, just go to YouTube.

Have a great weekend and wish me luck on Sunday!!!

 

Hozier – Take Me To Church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Run Wild 5K Race Recap

Yesterday was going to be a fun 5K that I was doing with my friends. My best friend’s FIRST 5K I might add. In my opinion, it was one of the most disappointing I’ve ever done. Although, one would argue I didn’t even do it, but we’ll get to that.

The race was the Run Wild 5K, held at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, MA. It was a nighttime race, held after the zoo closed after regular hours. The weather was not very nice to us – low 90s, humidity around 80% and a severe thunderstorm/flash flood/possible tornado warnings. Grrrrreat. We actually lucked out that it never rained on us, but at certain points we were hoping it would, just to cool us down. It was a scorcher!

 

 

The first thing I didn’t enjoy about this race was the lack of communication. I had told everyone about this race and thought it would be a fun one for us to all walk together. We all love animals and who wouldn’t want to run a race through a zoo! Typically, as a race gets closer you get emails telling you all the particulars that you’ll need to know. I waited all week, but we didn’t receive our first actual race communication until almost 7pm the night before the race – only to tell us that they would email us our bib #’s in the morning.

Now, when I registered Tara and myself, the confirmations clearly stated each of our names in the confirmation emails for our respective registration. It was very obvious I registered two people. By the time we got the emails with our bibs the following morning (sent at almost noon – when packet pick-up was set to start), I received two emails again, but each one only had Tara’s name and bib #. It made me a bit concerned, but when we got there and picked up, they had both our names and two different bibs so I figured we were good to go.

We had gotten there extremely early. In this heat, it turned out not to be such a great idea, but we thought we were going to beat the traffic we had seen on our way up from RI. Turns out I was thinking we’d be going a different way than we did. I think we probably got there right around 3:00 or just after. We thought we’d spend that time going around looking at the animals, since our bibs got us free admission to the zoo.

 

 

We ended up finding some shaded seating and sat there for an hour or more until the race started. We didn’t even need to move to break a sweat. Since the four of us were going to walk (I’m the only runner), I decided I would ruck the course to get some training in where I can. Once everybody started lining up, we stood up to get ready to head to the back of the line. Turns out where it said “start” was on the wrong side of the line, so they told everybody we needed to move so the entire pack had to move to the other side of the start line and turn around to face the “finish” portion of the banner. Very confusing! Once we did that, the MC said a few words about the cancer charity we raised money for and then we were off. No National Anthem or anything.

It was very clear from the start that we were what seemed like the only walkers in the group. It turned out there was one couple walking ahead of us, but they gained a quick lead and only gained more from there, so basically we were walking by ourselves, other than the turnaround where the leaders passed us. We were immediately concerned with the lack of signage and whether or not there would be people to direct us where to go since we couldn’t see anyone ahead of us. The course, as it turns out, was only in the zoo for maybe the length of a football field, if that*. After that, we were out in the general public, running through a parking lot, into the woods on some trail, back through a football stadium where we looped around 3/4 of the track and back again. Very strange. I have to say, the volunteers we did pass were fantastic! They were all very encouraging and made sure we always knew where we were going. Once we got into the trail portion in the woods, there was much better signage about turns we needed to take and we also felt safer because there was a guy patrolling on a mountain bike that passed us 2 or 3 times. The volunteers were one, maybe the only, positive about this race.

After we finally made it back to the zoo, almost an hour later, we were really just hoping they would still have the finish line up. We realized that the photographer had already taken off, so we wouldn’t get a finisher photo. Now, for me, it’s not a big deal because I’ve done this tons of times, but we’ve never done anything as a group and Julie had never done one at all so I really wanted her to have one. It was highly disappointing, but I shouldn’t say I was surprised. This same photographer didn’t even snap a photo of us at the start because by the time we got to the front he was already turning his camera upside down and climbing down off of whatever little thing he had been perched on to take the start photos.

We were so done with the whole thing that by the time we finished, we really just wanted some water. They were having a big after party with all sorts of craft beers they had talked about, but didn’t mention anything else they would have. We saw people eating food, but didn’t know where to get it. The only thing we saw was a tent for Naked Juice (which only Tara took part in), or a couple of things of bottled water you pumped into a cup. I guess they had pizza and maybe something else*, but we never saw it and were just too hot to hang around.

*As of the time of me writing this Sunday night, we’ve realized a couple more things. When we finished the race and I stopped my Garmin and Runkeeper, and Julie stopped her Runkeeper, we realized we were around 1/4 mile short – it was around 2.77 miles. I didn’t think anything of it and didn’t really care because we weren’t technically racing. As I looked at the “details” link from the email (that I see also gives more detail on the food situation), it shows the course does a whole loop around the back when you come back IN to the zoo – but no one was there to direct us to that point. This would mean also that maybe the finish line wasn’t backwards? Who knows. We never saw these details because we didn’t see the email until we’d already left the house and really only needed our bib #’s to get in. Had we gotten it sooner and had more time to check out all the links, maybe I wouldn’t be so annoyed.

In addition, we’ve never received an email re: results, but I did find a link on the zoo race page for results. Upon viewing the results, I’M NOT EVEN IN THE LIST OF FINISHERS!! So what I thought was just an emailing glitch? Not so much.

Even through the misery of the weather and the lackluster race direction, I still think we had a fun time together. We always do. I just wish that Julie could have had the kind of experience I have when I run a race, versus the “walker” experience or those that finish at the back of the pack. I was actually surprised at the lack of walkers in this race. Oh well – lesson learned! Next time we’ll pick a better one, but we’ll always have fun.

 

 

 

Face The Music Friday #50

Saturday – 7 miles

Sunday – 3 mile ruck

Monday – Rest (kind of)

Tuesday – 3 miles

Wednesday – Rest

Thursday – 3 miles

Friday – Rest

 

Ohhh this week! It’s been interesting. Training runs done, that’s all I can really ask for.

I did my long run this weekend on Saturday to get it out of the way for a planned ruck with friends on Sunday. Originally, we thought Julie and Dan were coming down to hang out Friday night/Saturday, but they changed their mind. This freed me up to make that change with the run. I got home from it around 1pm and then found out they were coming down after all and just staying Saturday night instead. Woo hoo! We had a fun time! We watched the premiere Doctor Who episode again since Dan hadn’t seen it yet, checked out a new restaurant for dinner and had our first scorpion bowl (well, for me and Tara anyway) and then played Pictionary outside on the deck in the dark. It wasn’t as hard as it sounds because we have a patio umbrella light, plus candles. Very fun day!

 

Check out that carrot flower!

 

Sunday we just kind of lazed around with them and they took off around 10:30. We had plans to meet with friends for a hike at 4pm so we just kind of hung out until then. We picked one of them up around 3:30 and met the other one there, at Parker Woodland. I packed my full ruck (4 bricks, 100 oz water bladder) for training, as did the other women. Parker Woodland is the first place Tara and I had started hiking last year so it was nice to go back. It’s a nice little hike, but lots of rolling hills made rucking interesting. Afterwards, we booked it home, split up so we could get showered and changed and we all went to see Guardians of the Galaxy (finally!!!!). I loved the movie and had a great time, but one woman fell asleep and Tara said she didn’t like it. Oh well!

 

 

I had wanted Monday to be a relaxing day since it was the end of a busy long weekend, but nooooo. We ended up taking down the pool finally (it takes a few days to drain) and putting that away. I also re-caulked the shower/tub. Let’s not forget that summer decided to show up finally and it was near 90 with about 1000% humidity Sunday and Monday (and during this week). That wasn’t a great choice for doing manual labor.

I had a pretty nasty run Tuesday night. I headed out for 3 miles (can I get a woo hoo for tapering?!) and about 3/4 mile in I noticed my left thigh felt like it was chafing. Well, when I ran at 5pm it was still like 86* and ridiculous humidity so just thought maybe it finally caught up with me. I always wear compression shorts to avoid the chub rub, but you never know. I spent the next 2.25 miles fiddling with my shorts legs to see if I could situate them just right. By the time I got home I was in agony and knew I was going to have a mark of some sort. Turns out, the seam had finally given out (they were nowhere near new shorts) and there was a hole a little bigger than a quarter. So essentially, my left thigh had been rubbing the seam of my right thigh almost the whole run. I’ll spare you the picture, but I’ve got a mark about 6 inches long that is just pure, raw skin. I immediately went on Amazon and ordered a new pair that I had before my 3 miles last night, so all was right with the world again. Didn’t even notice the chafing while I had them on!

One more thing I just HAVE to talk about is Chik-fil-a. They opened their first store in RI and it just so happens to be about 5-10 minutes from my house, between home and work. I heard on Wednesday that people were already lining up for the grand opening on Thursday, so I took a detour on my way home to see these chuckleheads. I guess the first 100 people in line would all get 1 meal free per week for a year, so they were camping out. It was ridiculous. So here is a picture of their tent city.

 

 

This weekend I’ll be doing my first 5K with all 3 of my compadres – Tara, Julie and Dan. I’m really excited to do a race with them, even though we’ll likely be walking it. But hey, the race is in a zoo, so wouldn’t you want to walk anyway???

For this week’s song, I chose one that I’ve always found beautiful when I’ve heard it on Spotify, but never really paid much attention to it. I watched The Great Gatsby remake over the weekend and it made it even more haunting.

Lana Del Ray – Young And Beautiful