Marathon Recap!

 This post is long overdue. I began writing it during my commute the Tuesday I returned to work (March 20), however I often get sidetracked. I had originally saved it as a draft in my phone but somehow it got lost so I started again, however it took me like two months to finish. It has been a crazy couple months and I finally got over my laziness. So I will start by apologizing for the delay and the super lengthy post. I hope I do a good job a recapturing all the activities; I will try my best to keep it concise! Hope you enjoy!


And We are Off to see DC!
Friday morning I got up bright and early and headed to pick up Darryl, from there we headed to Vanessa's where we were all to meet. I was on time for one of the few times in my life. i have a bad habit of being late and everyone knows it. Johanna and Katie arrived a tad late, so we headed on the road around 8:30 I believe. I set the ground rules, we stop once and once only to gas up, potty, and if anyone wanted to grab something. We had a pretty smooth drive down except for the extra potty stop we had to make due to Vanessa's efforts to stay hydrated. But let me say after our unscheduled stop, Vanessa was no longer allowed to drink. Anyway we had a lot of just talking on the way down to DC. Once we arrived we went to the armory to pick up our numbers. The expo was pretty amazing. There were lots of vendors, gels for sale bu the best part was the Brooks Run Happy® Cavalcade of Curiosities. Brooks is a running shoe company for those of you unfamiliar with the brand. I only found out the brand when I was researching running sneakers. Brooks had games to play with prizes and offered a gait analysis which Vanessa Katie and myself took advantage of. Given I had on flats I had to run barefoot on the treadmill which I think made me run a little strange, yet to my surprise I had a neutral gait.

I have been wanting a pair of Brooks and I think they will be my next sneaker to purchase. I think its time for new ones. ( Ill discuss this subject later.) By the end of the expo I think we were all hungry and a little cranky, which made choosing a place to eat quite a task. We ended up at a local bar/restaurant. I wasn't to pleased with the menu given the race was the next day and I wanted to fuel properly. I settled on a turkey burger. It was pretty good. after our quick lunch, we headed to the hotel which was about 20 minutes away in Alexandria Virginia. It was kind of cool going through Maryland, DC and Virginia within like 10 minutes. 

Once we arrived at the hotel we scoped out both rooms in order to choose the better of the two and give the guys the second best haha ( sorry boys). So after we brought all our luggage to the first room, we realized the second one was better and voted to move. What a task to move about 5 doors down. Once we made it in the room we got situated picked who slept where and laid out all our clothes for the next day. We then had some secret mission to accomplish which I cannot disclose, lets just say we explored Virginia a little, and stopped for some frozen yogurt. 

As Van, Darryl, and myself enjoyed our fro-yo Katie had a confession. She hates frozen yogurt and she hates dessert. What? Our group loves dessert. I can't count the number of desserts we have shared over the years. I have known Kathryn since kindergarten, and now she breaks the news. Well I suppose we should appreciate that she values our friendship so much that she just pretended to enjoy it with us haha. After dessert it was back to the hotel, and toured the amenities, I was sad that the 24 hr coffee was unavailable :( and prayed it would be there in the morning. We found the gym and Upon our playing on the bosu ball the guys arrived. After they settled in, they were really hungry, but it was too late for venturing. So they ordered in. We hung out for a bit and then Katie and Johanna headed off to bed. While Darryl, Eric, Vanessa, Joe, Justin and I hung out for a bit. When the food arrived us girls were hungry too. So we had a little just to hold us over to the morning but it wasn't very good. We finally headed upstairs around midnight or so to shower and get ready for the big Day.


I think its time to put the training to the test!

Early to rise, I popped out of bed around 5:45 am or so, put on my running clothes and ran down stairs to grab some much needed coffee, and hot water in order to make my oatmeal.  I know my body very well by now and for peak performance I should consume coffee approx. one hour before heading out for a run. The girls woke up and we got ready and ate our pre-marathon breakfast! I had oatmeal with a half a banana and peanut butter. I absolutely love oatmeal and know it works for me on long runs. Darryl n Johanna woke up to snap some pics, but went back to sleep. They were meeting with the guys around 9 to grab breakfast and meet Katie after her half and wait by mile 22 for me and van to come by. We decided to take the metro to the race to avoid parking, and craziness. But I was fooled. We had asked the concierge how to get to the stadium but I'm not sure he knew. So we walked in what we hoped was the way to the metro and luckily found it and figured out how to buy DC's  equivalent to our metro card. We felt better when we found lots of runners and decided to follow them to our destination. Vanessa and I looked around and realized almost everyone was running the half (you can tell by the bib color), we were suddenly even more nervous and it didn't get any better when the train came and it was too crowded to get on. And then 20 min passed and still no train. There were technical difficulties grrrr. Finally a train arrived and everyone pile in, these people were not your city commuters and were not as useful of space. We arrived at the stadium but had to wait on a massive line for our last potty break before we started. They were already calling corrals o my. The porter potty's were pretty gross and the goal was just not to breathe. We made friends with the girls in front of us, and talked about running. Then to the right of us was a tall, built man with a belly shirt, and we just didn't understand why he had on a belly shirt haha. Then as we discussed our fear of the marathon, our catch phrase was made based on a prior conversation between Vanessa and I, it goes like this:


Vanessa: I am so scared, I just want to finish.
Me: just think do you really want to go home and have to tell everyone u didn't finish!


So when you want t o stop just think do I want to tell everyone I quit! I wont lie at the tough points of the race, I just thought do I want to tell people I didn't make my time goals! 


We were laughing about that phrase all weekend. 


After our potty stop we went to look for our corrals I was so nervous since they were calling corral 15 or so and I was in 10. We were all in different corrals when I started to see the numbers I split from the girls and made it to 10 before the start line. They could have started with me too but we didn't know and they got randomly corralled.

Before I knew it we had crossed the start line and were off to explore DC on foot!

Wow, I couldn't believe game time had finally arrived. But let me say what a race! Let's just say this was overall probably my favorite race not that I have done too too many, but this one rocked (guess why they call it rock and roll series). The moral was wonderful, crowd support was right on, bands along the way kept momentum, course was beautiful and inspiring. I absolutely loved it. Now to the details of my run. Somehow off the bat I had technical difficulties. How in the world does something always seem to happen to my headphones during races. Well I was only between mile 1 or 2 when my right earphone went out. Lucky for me I was prepared. I had an extra pair of headphones in my butt pocket. Only problem is there were so many things squished in a little pocket it was quite a task to get out the headphones while still moving lol. After avoiding that fiasco, the race definitely went uphill both figuratively and literally lol. For the first half of the race I tried to maintain a steady pace that was fast but not too uncomfortable. I wanted to keep speed without burning out. I felt great the first half. I think i found a perfect pace and was going fast enough to move but still took in the beauty of running and the race itself! I made sure to turn my music off or take out my ear buds to listen to each band, and at each underpass tunnel I shut the music off to just breathe and refocus. I think it was about mile 6 when I had my first energy gel, and I went for the chocolate one! One of my favorite parts was the tunnel with the DJ it just revamped you. Around mile 10 or 11 I found a girl who was a perfect pacer for me. But she left me at the split :(. Getting past mile 13 is where the challenge arises. 


And let me say the band at mile 13 almost put me to sleep while running! Once I past the half point my goal was not have to stop to potty lol. I was adamant to not stop and waste time going to the bathroom. I passed the 13.1 and thought to myself ok half way there. But its never comforting when half way still means you have 13.1 miles left. As I continued on I managed to breeze through miles 15, 16, and 17. The scenery and course were delightful. And we passed a boat house and some body of water. I remember getting a little tired and taking an energy gel but it was still manageable. By 18 I was telling myself just make it to 20. Just as we were approaching the bridge which I believe was mile 19 I saw the 4hr pace group ahead of me and I said no way I know I'm way ahead of finishing in 4hrs. So I pushed a little harder. The grates on the bridge felt like a massage on your feet. My quads were now hurting too and I saw a hill up ahead ugh (On Thurs they felt sore even tho I didn't do anything, I think something was wrong with them). By this point many people were walking but I knew walking would be the end for me. I made it up the hill and was anticipating seeing my friends. They were suppose to meet me at mile 22. My quads were on fire and  saw that there was a wrap around ahead little did I know the wrap around took you through a whole park before the water station. My friends were no where to be found, I knew this would happen. 


After mile 20, I kept telling myself you have done 23 keep going, u have done this before. Ill tell a secret and sorry if any guys read this. At this point I passed several men and I have to say that gives me drive. I stretched my legs when I got to the water station n pushed on. I passed 23, 24, and 25. There was pain with each step I ran. I heard so many people say their legs felt like lead. They didn't feel heavy, just painful! I started running with some man who also seemed to be using me to keep pace and make it to the end. And with a little over a half mile left I saw my friends coming toward me. Katie, Darryl and Johanna jumped in with me. Joe kept going to find Vanessa. Katie and Darryl stopped running, as Katie was tired from her half. Johanna ran with me till she got close to the finish line n they made her get out! 

Katie Sue all Done! So proud!

Love the Support!

Here We come!

We're Here!

Bye Now! Off to the finish!

Justin decided to run after me with the camera and take video, while Eric waved and held signs made for us. So thanks to my wonderful boyfriend there is a short clip of Eric and his marathon and DC experience and a snippet of mine at the end of this post! I have to say he did a good job! So be sure to go to the end and check it out! 


After I crossed the finish line, I drank some water, ate a Hershey kiss, and ran for the potty lol. Those energy don't seem to do good things for my tummy lol. As I finished Switch foot was playing! Pretty cool. Pretty cool. I went through the food that was set up but everything turned me the wrong way. I grabbed two bars (a snickers marathon bar and another which you see Eric eating in the video), found Johanna and we headed back toward the guys. 

Switchfoot

Walking back all done!

Gotta Love him, he hugs me when I'm sweaty :) hehe

We stopped to say hello and then continued on to catch up to Darryl, Katie and Joe to find Vanessa! Soon enough at about mile 23 we found Vanessa. I was so happy to see her in good spirits as she ran/walked the rest of the course. We picked people to run to and then would walk! Every step I ran my quads burned, that's when I decided I truly worked. I don't think I could have run any longer. Soon we passed the boys again, 

Vanessa on a mission to finish! Almost there!

and then Vanessa was off to the finish line! We did it! Woo hoo!

Group Pic!

Im done, phewww!

The results

Pace      8:20

Chip Time    03:38:26

Clock Time   04:04:16

Overall: 412 out of 3154

Division: 18 out of 247

Gender: 77 out of 1422

5 Km     25:24

10 Km    50:38

Relay      46:06

20 Mile     2:43:38

Next adventure was making it back to the hotel. Joe drove to the race so we decided we should all try to fit in the car, mind you it was a 15 min drive to Virginia. So here was the strategic positioning in order for everyone to fit. Joe was driving, Justin was in the passenger seat since he is too big to sit in the back, Eric, van, and Katie sat in the back with Darryl on Eric's lap and Johanna on Katie's, and where was I yes in the front seat with Justin. o my I think me and Darryl kept cringing on the highway as we flew past cars. Let me tell you I was so nervous to get pulled over. and let me remind you we did not smell pleasant. We headed back to the hotel to shower and rest up before heading to dinner. We attempted to go to Joe's crab shack but since it was packed we ended up at a local place called fishnet. It was quite tasty. I had salmon tacos along with a salad. I remember it was yummy and had an interesting salad I think it was cucumbers, tomatoes onions and i think maybe dried cranberries or something. Justin ordered fries along with his Salmon sandwich, and the fries were delicious. I definitely ate half his order after all that running. We almost got a second order, but I decided against it in hopes of dessert. We wanted to head to DC and do a night tour of the monuments, but it was too late when we called. Now we had to find dessert. Johanna found serendipity, and even though we have one in the city we decided to try it out. We followed the guys in my car and i think we drove for an hour it took forever, and we were getting testy. Vanessa was not a happy camper when we arrived to see a crowd. Haha. So we drove around, given we weren't in the best physical shape as Vanessa had really bad knee pain and my quads felt broken, we didn't get out to walk. We were going to head to the grocery store to pick up some yum yums  when Joe spotted a Hershey's ice cream parlor. We stopped off and got some ice cream. I was pleased but wished we had something delicious. We headed back to the hotel. After talking an hanging out a little Johanna and Katie headed to bed, while Vanessa, Darryl and myself headed to hang out with the guys. We watched some comedian. After awhile Darryl, Eric, van and Joe went downstairs me and Justin were going to go down but before we can make it down i fell asleep. So soon the girls came back and collected me and we headed off t bed. 

Dinner after the marathon!

Yum Yum Yum!

Bye bye DC, Hello Baltimore


We woke up Sunday prepared to pack and leave for our trip home. We planned to make a pit stop on the way. Where were we headed? Baltimore Aquarium and a local brunch spot. We began our drive and all was well for awhile till we got quite hungry. Darryl whipped out the remaining apples and cookie butter. Oh, how I love cookie butter. Finally we arrived in Baltimore woo hoo. 

Baltimore!

We saw the Baltimore Orioles baseball stadium, Camden Yards. Why is that important may you ask. Well the orioles have not always had a great track record. However Katie has remained a dedicated fan, even through the taunts she may receive. Any way when we arrived for Brunch the wait was over an hour so we went exploring for a new find, we were starving ad couldn't wait. Luckily, we found one of our favorite chains. Me and Darryl always turn there when in doubt, THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY! We love the cheesecake factory, because no matter which one you go to the food always tastes deliciously the same. Me, Darryl, and Vanessa all decided to be bad and ordered the Monte Cristo. 

It was quite yummy, it was both salty and sweet. It was sweet french toast with bacon egg and cheese inside. I ate half for lunch and had the rest later in the ride home. 


Before heading home the boys were adamant about going to the aquarium this  is all thy wanted to do. Katie and Johanna decided to skip the aquarium and went on a dragon peddle boat and then headed to Barnes & Noble.


Darryl, Eric, Vanessa, Joe, Justin and myself headed to the aquarium. It was a great aquarium there were lots of fish, sharks and other interesting creatures. Me and Vanessa were having a hard time walking down steps and were going super slow. My quads literally felt broken. There were so many cool things to see, but we tried to go pretty quickly so we could head home. There were sharks, fish, eels, very cool jelly fish, sea urchin and much more.

Sea Urchin... SOOOO FRIEKEN COOL!

Darryl and Eric :)

Our DC trip was a blast! Our Baltimore Pit stop was an adventure and now it all was coming to an end. We hopped in the car to head back. We had a couple more adventures at sketchy gas stations and such on our way home, and let me say I was not pleased lol. As we entered NJ, us girls decided to play a game. We each took turns playing songs from our past and sang them out. We had Brittney spears, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, TLC, Usher, and many many more! We really wished we thought of this game earlier. We arrived home safely, and all departed our separate ways. I truly had a great time, and we are all amped for the next vacation even though we have not seemed to be able to get things together yet. I love the friendships we share, and how we each connect with each other on a different level. i am truly blessed to have such great friends and to have known them my whole life! Love you girls! And please lets get it together for our next trip :)


So here is the video I promised which recapped our race and weekend experience, Enjoy!