This weekend, I ran the Frederick Half Marathon in Frederick, MD.  This race was part of a dual bonus bling challenge.  Run Iron Girl and Fredrick and get the Titanium Girl medal.  Run Frederick and Baltimore (in the fall) and get the Maryland Double medal.

Clearly, I couldn’t say no.  Actually, I was already registered for both Iron Girl and Frederick when Titanium Girl was announced, so it was a medal for nothing!  Except for being crazy and being willing to run two halfs within 7 days.

But onto the race itself.  Having just run a race the week before, I definitely had something to compare it to.  And I would say that Frederick was a much better race.  Corrigan Sports puts on incredible races, so I’m not surprised.

The course was awesome.  Not flat by any means, but the course support was incredible.  Lots of water stops and lots and lots of community support.  It was great to see that sort of support after the editorial in the Frederick newspaper earlier that week trashing the runners for “blocking” people from attending church.  There were tons of people out cheering and lots of kids handing out candy, water and fruit.  It was great to see.  (If only someone had been out there with a hose spraying the runners…)

Kim and I ran together after losing Jen early on (speedy girl) and losing, then catching, then losing Monica, and we just took it easy with a 1:1 pace.  She had been on her feet the day before and I was recovering from a killer cold (note – running a half marathon does not speed recovery) so we just went out to have fun.  We chatted most of the way and finished in a surprising 3:03.  Not bad for a race when we weren’t “trying.”

Expo was tiny, as is to be expected, but the race premium is awesome.  Instead of the standard t-shirt, the premium for this race changes every year and this year it was a zip up jacket!  It’s thick sweatshirt material, embroidered with the race logo and absolutely awesome.  I’m slowly getting to the point where I can outfit myself entirely in race gear.

I will definitely be back for this race.  Iron Girl remains questionable (partly due to the course, which is just too hilly to be enjoyable), but the crowd support at Frederick just makes this race incredible.

Okay, so the hills weren’t a surprise.  I don’t know that the elevation chart was ever made public, but anyone who knows the area knew it would be a hilly race.  I just didn’t think about how giant some of the hills were going to be.  We didn’t even attempt to run up them, just walked as quickly as possible.

But let’s go back to the beginning.  This was an inaugural race, though a race being put on by a very well organized group.  So I expected some hiccups, but in general, things went pretty smoothly.

Packet pickup was easy, but one frustrating part was that we were told that all packets had to be picked up in person – no one could pick up a packet for someone else.  At the pickup, we all had to have wristbands put on our wrists so that we could prove no one was running with someone else’s bibs.  However, when I showed up, there was someone picking up 14 bibs!  (This may have been a charity deal, I suppose.)  And the lovely pink wristbands?  They were never checked.  Mine didn’t bother me, but I know some people found them very irritating.

Race morning, the parking was plentiful, but the porta-potties were not.   Lines were long and not very organized, though everyone was quite polite.  One complaint I saw was that there was only one potty stop on the course for those who missed the stop at the beginning.  Again, no problem for me, but I can’t imagine having to try to find a place to “go.”  I’m sure this will be fixed next year.

The race itself was nice – pretty course, but hilly.  There were some spots where I felt like we were shoved off to one little side of the road with cars passing by way too close and way too fast.  It would have been nice to have the whole lane in which to run.  It was to the point where we could basically run single file and that was it.  Not ideal in a race situation.

The finish line was tiny, but there was a nice little finisher’s village with food and drink.  The medals are pretty and we got a sterling silver bracelet as well to celebrate this inaugural race.

Will I be back?  I don’t know.  I didn’t dislike the race and can’t really complain about it, but it’s a hilly course during a time of year where there are a lot of races.  This might get skipped next year (unless they do the Titanium Girl bonus bling with Frederick again – that will get me here in a heartbeat).

Caveat – they bill this race as flat.  It is not flat.  There are some sizeable hills.  But they aren’t lying when they call it scenic.  It is an absolutely gorgeous course.  And the course support is amazing.  I have never seen so much food on a race course. There were water and Gatorade stops every two miles and at each stop, there were Powerbars or Gu.  I only picked up a Gu (and pocketed it for a later run), but I was impressed to see that much fuel out there.

The cheering squads were quite impressive.  The volunteers were clearly excited to be out there, and it makes it a lot of fun to run.

Post-race support was also great.  Lots of snack options, and the race premiums?  A shirt AND a really nice gym bag.  Can’t complain there.

This race is definitely slower-runner friendly.  I ran with two wonderful friends and we treated it as a training run (as we have two half marathons in the next 3 weeks), and even stopped for a few minutes when one of the ladies got a nosebleed.  We were near the back of the pack but still had great support.   There were also some walkers in the race, and I think the last group of finishers crossed the finish line around 2:50.  That’s what I call a great race!  A race that supports its winners as well as the people who are just out there to finish.

If it works out, I will definitely be back next year.

AWESOME race.  I was so excited to finally get to Virginia Beach this year.  I was actually registered for this race last year, but deferred because race weekend was the best weekend for me to move from my apartment to my house.  So for an extra $30, I deferred to this year, and I’m so glad I did.

I headed down to the race with Jen, Katie, and Lauren, and once there, we met up with a number of other friends, making this an amazing race weekend.  It’s always fun to race with friends, even if you don’t end up actually running together.

Katie did the Dolphin Challenge, so she ran the 8K on Saturday (as well as the half on Sunday).  So we all headed out to cheer for her.  While there were corrals based on time, I think there were some issues with the corrals, because while many of the corrals started out running, Katie’s was definitely filled with walkers.  Kind of a bummer, but she had a half on her plate for the next day.

We stayed and watched the kids races.  There was a one mile kids race as well as a “final mile.”  Those kids ran 25 miles over the past months and then did the final part of their marathon that morning.  There were so many kids!  Lots of green hair, lots of parents running with their kids, lots of costumes.  It looked like a lot of fun, and it was fun to get to cheer for them.  We got lots of little high fives.

Sunday morning was race morning.  The half started at 7 and the full at 8:30, leaving plenty of time to prevent the slow half marathoners from causing trouble for the fast marathoners.  I was just excited that I would finish the race before the first marathoner.  That typically doesn’t happen for me with combined halfs and fulls!

Once again, there were corralling issues.  There were 7 corrals for the half, and I was in corral 6, which I believe was finish times from 2:30-2:54.  My PR was 2:49:20, and I was hoping to pull off another PR on this very flat course, so I was in the right corral.  Plenty of people were not.  Again, I am a super walker friendly person.  I encourage walkers to participate in races.  It doesn’t matter if you run, walk, or crawl (or cycle, I suppose) across that finish line – we all cover the same distance.  That said, it’s really hard to start out and have walkers in front of you.  It’s just lack of knowledge of race etiquette, I think.  So walkers, remember to be out of the way of faster people who may be behind you.  I saw an opening at the very beginning and I bolted through it.

I made myself a pace band for this race that would get me in at 2:49 and getting me a new PR.  Mile 1, I was well under pace, thanks to having to bolt around walkers.  But then I started to get slower.  I needed to keep a 12:54 pace (I run/walk).  I started with a 1:45/1 pattern, but dropped to a 1:30/1 pattern that felt great.  But I had to push those early miles.  My splits were pretty good.

1 – 12:44
2 – 13:01
3 – 12:52
4 – 13:00
5 – 13:06 (it was here I began to question the PR)
6 – 12:43 (and then I kicked it into gear)
7 – 12:37
8 – 12:43
9 – 12:43
10 – 12:51
11 – 12:41
12 – 12:41
13 – 12:47

And my finish time was officially 2:48:33.  A new PR!  Hooray!

It was a hard fought PR.  My last PR felt easy.  I was well trained and had been doing solid speedwork, but also getting a lot of rest.  I wanted this PR, but I hadn’t been keeping up with my training.  And I felt it.  I fought for every mile.  I deserve the time and I’m proud of it, but two days later, I’m still sore.  But I learned my lesson.  If I train properly, I can whittle away at that time.  I would like to see a 2:45 someday.  With my heart rate issues, I’m never going to be fast, and I don’t know that a 2:30 is ever in the cards.  But I still like seeing improvement.

I saw Monica on the course, and when I finished, Laura was hanging out by the bananas, waiting for us.  I met up with her, willed my legs to not cramp up (I could feel it coming and quickly downed some Gatorade and pretzels), and waited for Katie and Jen to come in.  They looked great at the finish!  After the race, we also met up with Suzanne and Monica and then headed back to cheer Lauren to her full marathon finish.  I know she didn’t have the greatest race, but she looked spectacular!

We headed back, showered, and made it back outside to see Janice and David finish.  Janice spotted me and I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone so excited to see me.  It was great to see them run their way to new PRs.  And they introduced us to our new friend Sandy.

All in all, a great race filled with great friends.  This is why I run.

This was the 40th Anniversary of the race, and the organizers set out to make it awesome.  This race always features a finisher’s item, usually a hat, but for the anniversary, we got hats and sweatshirts.  And, of course, a medal.  That doubles as a bottle opener.  Awesome.

First off, the name “trail” is a misnomer – the race is on a trail, but it’s a paved trail.  No rocks and roots and things to jump over.

This is a small race, held on the B&A Trail.  It’s a half and a full that start together.  For those who remember the crowds during the Annapolis Half, specifically during the part on the B&A Trail, that isn’t a concern here.   This race has a cap of 1000 runners (for the half and full combined).  I believe the Annapolis Half had over 5000 runners.

This race has the feel of a small town race, but the organization of a big race.  The half fee was $50, and for that you get a great premium (this year it was track pants!), a well organized chip-timed race with great water stops, and more post-race food than you can imagine, including hot pizza that just keeps coming.

The race is a tune-up for the Navy Marathon team, so if you’re young, this might not be an award winning course for you.  This year, the Korean Marathon team also showed up (and I loved the sign at the split between the half and the full written in Korean).  The race also has a lot of 50 Staters (people who want to run a full or half in every state) because it’s such a friendly race.  So there were quite a few Marathon Maniacs out on the course.

But don’t let that fool you – this race is also very slow runner friendly.  The full has a 6 hour time limit, but if you’re worried about that, there’s an official start an hour early – you just can’t win any awards with an early start.  Because the half and full finish together, that means the half also has a 6 hour time limit.  Definitely friendly for the slower runners.  And the race organizer is always sure that there is plenty of food left for the slow runners.

We took this race nice and easy, since three of us had run Princess the week before.  We just set out to run a casual 1:1 walk/run pattern and chat the whole way.  The course is flat save for one hill at the turnaround – but the benefit of an out and back means that what goes up must come down.  Even with a stop to chat with some friends who came out to cheer, we finished almost 11 minutes faster than last week – and finished feeling strong.  Not a bad way to race at all!

I highly recommend this race.  The volunteers are amazing, and the water/food stops are always so cheerful.  There are friendly faces all along the course, and the crazy teenagers making up dances always make me laugh.   It can be a chilly time of year, but before the race, you can wait inside the high school cafeteria, so no worries about freezing in a corral.  And there is a medal and hot pizza waiting for you at the finish.  What more could you want?

It didn’t help that my amazing running partner (who wasn’t running this race, since she went Goofy last month) caught a stomach bug that hit just a few hours after we ran together on Monday. (I am sure she loves that I am blogging about it.) So I was exceptionally paranoid. But I made it onto the plane with no trouble, and that was my biggest fear. Ultimately, I never got sick, thank goodness.

The race expo felt very crowded this year, though packet pickup was a breeze. Didn’t do much other shopping due to the crowds.

I had preordered the necklace, sight unseen. Above are the necklaces from both this race and from Tink. About what I expected for $20. I will probably take the charms off and make a running charm bracelet at some point.  There were some people unhappy with the quality, but I have no complaints.

The week was a bit rainy on and off, and I was wondering what race morning would bring.  The forecast indicated that there might be rain in the later part of the day, and it would be cool, with a high only in the 60′s.  Perfect running weather!  I wore my Peacock SparkleSkirt with a blue shirt and pink sleeves, which I planned to take off later in the race (spoiler alert: I didn’t take them off).

Got to the race start with my sister Caitlin and met up with the rest of the ROTE gang getting ready for the race.  The plan was to start out running easy 1:1s with Katie and Caitlin.  We all have a race next weekend, so the point of this race was to go slow and steady and have fun.

And have fun, we did.  The miles absolutely flew by.  While I’m not fast with a 1:1 run/walk pattern, it’s very comfortable, and seems doable for a marathon, if that remains in my future.  I learned something new about the Princess race as well!  The mile markers all have big scenes of the princesses – and they also have Hidden Mickeys!  I had no idea!  So all you Princesses running next year – watch out for the Hidden Mickeys!

One of the great parts about knowing so many Disney runners is that we continually came across our friends as we ran.  It made the miles pass so quickly!

Races are always a bit of a blur for me, so my recaps usually leave something to be desired.  But I always remember the bad parts, and here, there were none.  Sure, there was some crowding.  Disney races can be slow, and if you’re not in an early corral, the chances of having a very fast race are slim.  But you will have fun.  I promise.  I can’t wait to go back.

We cruised into the finish very comfortably, after seeing my parents right near the end, which was awesome.  We got rained on for approximately 30 seconds, also awesome.  And I finished and got my medal and then got my Coast to Coast medal!

It was a lot of fun wearing the C2C medal around the parks and getting all sorts of questions about it and about Tink.

After the race, the rains really started, so we rushed back to the hotel for breakfast and showers.  Then it was off to the park for some fun!

As always, I loved this race.  runDisney puts on great races, and I’m so glad to have been part of this one.  One more runDisney race for me this year – the inaugural Tower of Terror Ten Miler!  Can’t wait!

I have to admit, I was a little worried about this race.  Not about my training – in fact, I was excited to have a January race to force me to train during the holidays.  I was worried about the fact that it was an inaugural race.  I love runDisney.  I love Disney in general.  But I was nervous.  The inaugural Wine & Dine Half had a number of issues (that runDisney quickly corrected for the second year of the race – thank you runDisney!) and this past fall, the corrals for the Disneyland Half Marathon were a bit of a disaster.  A small issue to be sure, but if that’s what happens at an established race, what was going to happen at a new race?

Being a women’s race, they had plenty of merchandise, though the Dooney & Burke purses apparently flew off the shelves.  Not a concern to me – I didn’t want one.  But a bummer for others, I suppose.  Something else new they did for this race (and for Princess as well) is that they offered a commemorative necklace for purchase at the time of registration.  It was around $20, I believe, and I ordered one sight unseen because I figured I would rather waste $20 than later regret not spending the money.  The necklace is very simple – silver chain with two silver charms.  The circular charm is stamped with the logo of the race, and the other charm features Tink’s wings.  It’s pretty and I think the charms would be very pretty if put onto a running charm bracelet.

Now, onto the race itself.  This race was absolutely amazing from start to finish.  The corrals were incredibly well organized, with giant lighted letters at the back of the corrals and signs clearly pointing you where to go.  Definitely an improvement over the Disneyland Half.

I ran this race with Jenny, and we went with a 1:1 run/walk pattern because she’s still recovering from her AWESOME finish at the Walt Disney World Marathon a few weeks ago and because we were both a little tired from all the walking we did around the parks.  It’s a new pattern to me, and I think I liked it – it’s hard to say when dealing with legs that are already tired.

The announcers did a great job of keeping us entertained in the corrals, and they had a number of interviews, including the adorable Megyn Price and Sean Astin, who was talking about his #run3rd campaign – run first for yourself, second for your family, and third for someone important to you, someone struggling with something or who needs the extra thoughts.  It was very cool to see another celebrity runner out there to just have fun.

One notable figure missing from this event – Tinker Bell herself!  Of course, she was on the screen in animated form, but never seen elsewhere.  Kind of surprising, but I guess it would have been hard to have her featured.

I loved this race course.  It was so much better than the Disneyland Half.  We started out in Disneyland (you can’t beat running down Main Street towards the Castle), ran through Downtown Disney, spent some time on the streets of Anaheim, then back to California Adventure.  runDisney did a great job of having characters on the course in Disneyland (the Lost Boys on the Carousel were precious!) and the crowds in Downtown Disney were fabulous.  So many people cheering!  And then, I can’t not mention the Red Hat Society ladies.  Their group stretched for what felt like a quarter of a mile!  It was incredible!  Jenny and I were both in awe of how many of them were there.

I liked running through the streets of Anaheim.  There were people out on their front porches waving at the runners and probably wondering why there were so many cross-dressing men running through the streets.  It was much more fun than boring industrial Anaheim.

The finish area of the race was crowded, but not too terribly bad.  Clearly, everyone wanted finisher’s pics, which always holds up the line.

And the medal.  How can I forget the medal?  It’s absolutely gorgeous and Tink spins!  I found myself playing with it the rest of the day.  The only bad thing about Disney medals is the fact that they are SO HEAVY to wear the rest of the day.  I know, I know, first world problems.

I’m probably not going to be able to pull off running this race next year as they intend to move it to MLK weekend, making it back to back with Marathon weekend, which I would like to participate in next year.  But if you’re considering it, I highly recommend it.  It’s an awesome event.

Last weekend, I ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon with a bunch of my ROTE friends.  My mom and my sister ran too, their first race ever.  How exciting!  You may remember that I tried to run this race last year and caught a stomach bug the night before the race and was unable to run.  So this was my redemption year.

First off, the weather was ridiculous.  Not hot, just very very humid.  The air was super thick.  That made for a rough race.  Unfortunately, Kim, my running partner, had some travel issues and didn’t make it down for the race, so I was debating who I wanted to run with.  I started off with Steve, Katie, and Kelly, then Kelly and I broke off, ran into Laura, and then Kelly broke off and I stuck with Laura.

It was such fun running with someone!  It meant we could take pictures.

And pictures were taken!  We didn’t want to wait in the line for the crazy photos, but we still had fun.

Oh, and see that skirt?  My mom made it for me!  Awesome, isn’t it?

Well, after months of training in the cold Maryland weather, the heat finally got to us.  Poor Laura looked like she was going to collapse.  So we slowed down significantly.  Definitely my worst half marathon time.  But we finished, we got medals, finished the first half of the Coast to Coast challenge, took some great pictures, and that’s what matters.  It was a great time.  I can’t wait for next year’s race!

And it was.  But not in a bad way.

I signed up for this race after I realized how close I was to achieving Half Fanatic status.  I just needed one more race sometime in November to make it.  And then I found this little race only 2.5 hours away.  Sounded perfect!

This was an inaugural race in a tiny town, but it was being run by a national race company, so I figured the support would be good and that it would be a well-run race. And I was pleased.  Colleen picked up my packet from the expo, so I can’t say much about that (and if it was even a real expo at all).  Nice tech t-shirt though.  Can’t complain about that.  Chip timing too.  Very important.

On race morning, we showed up, and because of traffic, they started the race a little bit late.  It was frustrating, since it was COLD, but nice for all those stuck in traffic.  There weren’t corrals – just start where you think you should start and get running.  Very quickly, I realized I was going to be in the back of this particular race.  I knew it was small, probably around 1000 people or so, but it welcomed walkers and had a 4 hour time limit, so I hoped I wasn’t going to be completely last.  I forced myself to not worry about my placement and just run smart.  I knew that pushing too hard would lead to disaster and I just needed to finish to get HF status.

I have to admit, in my head, I knew that my PR was 13:15 minute miles.  So if I could just keep things a bit faster than that, I’d have an easy new PR.  Considering my PR was based on a Disney race with photo stops (and a bathroom break) it was definitely feasible, but this course was HILLY.  So I wasn’t sure.

I set out with my 2:1 run/walk pattern and just kept on running.  Slow, but not too slow.  The course was gorgeous.  Farmhouses and wonderful Mennonite families out watching the race (not cheering, just watching, occasionally returning a wave).  The water stops were manned by Mennonite children, which was beyond adorable.  I found myself running among the same group of people, and we had a good time.  We were near the back, so they were letting cars pass, some more politely than others.  And of course, there were horses and buggys.  At one point, we almost got run over by a milk truck trying to pull in to a driveway.   That was a fun moment. But we all survived.

By mile 11, I knew that I had a PR.  I just had to keep moving and it was mine.  So I kept moving, even with all the crazy hills.  Actually, I think my run/walk pattern really helped with the hills.  Giant hill?  Just alter the plan so I’m walking up them and running down.  Easy as pie.  Except for that slightly gravelly hill.  But it was still doable.  And I came around the last turn and finished strong.  I felt great when I finished.  Not exhausted, not nauseous, not sore, just happy.  It was an awesome feeling.  The PR was mine, and HF was mine.  A great day all in all.

I really think I might run this race again next year.  Sure, I was probably one of the last 50 finishers, but it was such a gorgeous course that it was worth it.  I’m also a bit of a solo runner, so I didn’t mind being fairly alone.  I also had my music, which was nice, though weird when I ran past the Mennonite families while listening to Lady Gaga.  But then something slow and classical would come on as I ran past the wide open fields and it was beautiful.

This was my first race with the ROTE contingent! Unfortunately, I didn’t meet up with them til afterwards.

As the title indicates, this 10K is part of the Marine Corps Marathon weekend, and with that comes a lot of perks. The expo was possibly the best expo I’ve been to in a long time – and from what I hear, it was smaller than last year! Great goody bags with lots of fun samples, and amazing vendors. I got to talk to the KT Tape people (who have amazing customer service) and I finally bought the running necklace that I’ve been searching for. The one thing I didn’t find was a long-sleeved red technical shirt. They have them for men, but all the womens’ shirts were in “girly” colors. Not that I’m complaining about girly colors, but I really wanted red.

This race was on Halloween, which meant that there were a lot of people in costume.  I am a little embarrassed to say that I was beaten by a guy in a crab costume running sideways.  Yeah.

Strangely enough, this was my first 10K.  I’m not sure how I missed this distance before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Sure, I had run 10Ks in training, but never as a race.  I wasn’t sure how to pace myself.  It wasn’t as long as a 10 miler, but definitely required more stamina than a 5K.  Either way, first race, so it’s a PR, right?

Finished in 1:20:25!  I struggled with letting my HR get too high, because it was “only” a 10K, so I shouldn’t have needed the walk breaks, right?  Well, I paid for that later.  I was absolutely wrecked by the end of the day.  Of course, that could have been due to what I did the rest of the day.

I met up with a number of ROTErs and we made our way to around the 22 mile mark of the marathon, where we met up with even more ROTErs.  And we cheered.  And we cheered and we cheered and we cheered.  We cheered on our friends and we cheered on strangers.  We cheered until the last person passed us.  And man, what fun that was.  I think that might have been the best part of the day.