NYC MARATHON!!!!

Yesterday was the NYC Marathon. So. Much. Fun!!! As I mentioned before, I was interested in volunteering for a race. Settling on the NYC marathon happened when I found out some famous people, Apolo Ohno, Jennie Finch, and other reality tv stars, would be running. (I only ended up seeing Apolo Ohno as he went flying by me, and a couple of reality stars, but thats ok). I received an email saying to arrive around 8:30 and to stay until around 4. I was excited for the whole thing and to see what people look like when they hit mile 25.

Paul and I woke up around 6 am to get ready to go. By 6:30 we were at Dunkin Donuts and then were off to the train station. Finally we got into the city (trains, subway, walking etc.) and made our way over to mile 25. We showed up earlier than scheduled but jumped right in to help out. Moving gatorades, mixing gatorade, and setting up cups. Paul and I took one table near the front to set everything up.

Tada! Finished product. There is something like 450 cups staked, and filled with gatorade. We then had to move all that gatorade cups around so that the G logo is in front. I started out the morning pouring, refilling, and stacking the cups.

The wheelchair racers started coming around 10 am, quickly followed by the first females and the first males. Paul was pretty excited because the first male (pictured below) took his cup of gatorade. He didn't take anyone else's after this at our stop, so basically his last bit of fuel before the finish came from Paul.

To say Paul was excited is an understatement. He also got loads of applause from all the other volunteers. Not that he needed the ego boost or anything... Haha

Around noon, when most of the runners started coming, one of the girls in front of the table told me she was too tired and hungry and needed me to take her space. I filled in for her and started handing out the cups. From that point on there was really no stopping in the flow of runners. Slowly all the other volunteers  started leaving. By 4pm Paul and I were the only volunteers left at our table. This was technically the time to leave but I found it really hard to. Watching all these people that have been working their ass's off all morning to get to this point, I couldn't just leave. Plus, this would be around the time I would probably come in if I ran the marathon. These were my people, no way I could leave!

Finally around 5, when Paul and I were both about to fall over from being so sore, and just about all the volunteers had left, we decided to leave. The number of runners coming in had significantly dwindled, and while I still felt bad, I knew I couldn't stay all night.

I had an amazing time out there seeing some of the runners and learned so much! First of all, way more work goes into every race than I ever imagined. Also saying things to volunteers like "thank you!" or "thanks for coming out, we really appreciate you volunteering" can absolutely make someones day. I like to think I thank everyone when they hand me water, but I will be sure to now for all of my races. I would say the day was a huge success, even though I was exhausted at the end of it! Huge congrats to all the racers, you guys were amazing and even though about 99% of you are strangers ( I did actually see 2 people I knew!) I am very proud of you all for what you accomplished!

Weekend Fun!

Tomorrow, Paul and I will spend the day volunteering at the NYC Marathon! I've never been to the NYC marathon before (only the Boston one) so I am excited to go in general. I had wanted to volunteer at a race this year and figured what better race to help out at than this one. We selected mile 25 to hand out water and gatorade at. I had wanted a stop after mile 13, mostly because I've seen what happens to runners up to mile 13, I never know what they look like after that.

Paul had said he wanted to make some signs to hold up, so the past few days we've been looking for some. We found a couple that we thought we might copy...

In the end we realized no signs would work. It isn't exactly easy to hold up a funny sign while also holding out water to runners. 

Even without the funny signs I can't wait for the race. There are a few famous people running (a couple of reality tv show stars, as well as Apolo Ohno, Jennie Finch, and Mario Lopez) so I'm excited to see them too! 

Happy Marathon Weekend! See you at the Finish! 

How the Rock 'N Roll DC came to be

So you may or may not be curious about how this new race came to be. It first started when Paul told me he signed up for the Rock 'N Roll DC, via his blog post. I knew he was interested in doing it, but was still shocked when I found out he had officially signed up for it. We decided a trip to DC would be our Christmas presents to each other. We did this last year in Vegas, hopefully this trip will not also cost us both thousands of dollars. Paul has never been to DC, and I am always up for a trip. So it was set, he would run the marathon and I would cheer on the sidelines. 

The marathon wouldn't of been my first race of Paul's I was standing on the sidelines for. A few weeks ago there was a half marathon that I had originally planned on doing in Newport, RI. This was my first half marathon that I ran 2 years ago. I had originally planned it as a redemption run, but I realized with my lack of training it wasn't going to happen. I decided to not go through with the race and instead go watch. 

Amazing view!

It was a gorgeous weekend in Rhode Island!

I was so jealous of the amazing weather Paul had for the race and the medal he received! 

Way cooler than the medal I got for this race! 

Overall, I'm a huge fan of the Amica Half Marathon and Marathon. It was sad having to sit on the side for this race, and know I will be back next year for my actual redemption race. 

After that race Paul had signed up for a Rock 'n Roll 10k in Brooklyn. Of course it was another gorgeous day, with another awesome course, and a fantastic medal! A race I will also be doing next year! 

I hadn't realized until after these two races just how much I disliked standing on the sidelines. It was a lot of fun to see the other side of the race, but I was jealous the entire time of all the racers. After watching the 10k I knew I wouldn't be happy sitting through the entire 26.2 miles watching the race. While I don't want to run a marathon, cause come on now I'm no where near ready for that, I would enjoy doing the half.

So that is how the Rock 'n Roll USA in DC came to be. I'm excited, scared, and some more excited for it. I know it's tough to train for a race in the spring, mostly because you have to train for it in the winter, but I think I have a good plan for it. Training plan to come! Happy Friday everyone, finally the weekend :)

Holy Crap it’s November!

How did November 1 already come and go? Also, how did a snow storm come and go? Craziness! Now that you are all nicely up to date on my past races, let me talk about my current running (or non-running) life. 

Travel season is finishing up…finally. I have about a week left of travel and this time next week my travel season will be DONE. Yay! Don’t get me wrong, travel season was fun, but having no time to run and eating crap 24/7 is not what I need in my life right now. I decided the best way for me to get back into my usual way of running life was to sign myself up for a race. I of course decided starting small would be better and have selected a Jingle Bell 5k Run! I’ve done a Jingle Bell Run before in Connecticut during college that was entertaining (if you take out the first half of it being directly up hill). So December 3 will be my entry back into the race world! 

My job is actually going to start to benefit my training schedule which I’m really excited about. Two days a week I have to stay late to call potential applicants, which means I don’t need to be at work till noon.  A perfect way for me to get two runs in a week before I go to work! This leaves me to figure out either two other runs during the week before or after work, or run on Saturday and Sunday. I more than likely will lean towards the running on Saturday and Sunday and my two late work days a week, cause really who wants to wake up early to run during the week or run after work. Long story short, this will all start next week after travel season ends and should absolutely help my intense training plan. 

Now an intense training plan is not really required for a 5k. However, it is required for a half-marathon. If you’re sensing a big announcement coming on you would be correct. I am officially running the Rock 'n Roll USA Half Marathon in DC on March 17, 2012! Yay! Lots more to come tomorrow on how this all came to be and my plans for this race.

Happy Thursday! Almost the weekend! :) 

Tri, Tri again...

I had slightly high hopes for my second triathlon. I figured it couldn't really be worse than the first one. Sadly, I was incorrect.

This time around I got a wetsuit because the race was at the end of September. I figured this would help with the colder water and Paul said it might help with my anxiety when I first got in the water.

Wetsuit up!

Basically we drove all around Long Island until we found a place that sold wetsuits. This was the first one I tried on and it's teal down the side, aka I love it. It helped get me a little more excited about the whole thing, which was nice since I was mostly just nervous before. As I mentioned recently, I had basically been consumed with work and had very little time to run, bike, or swim. The wetsuit made me feel just that little bit better about the whole thing.

Race morning came and Paul and I drove over to the site. Tons of volunteers were out helping which was nice to see. We got everything set up, put on our wetsuits, and went into the water. I will admit, I first got in the water to swim around and was nervous. Nobody was splashing around me yet, but I still couldn't see and hated that. I relaxed a little and was ready to go. To be honest, I don't remember which wave I was but i was definitely somewhere in the middle. I did my usual, find someone that looks slower than me and line up next to them, routine and started to walk with my group into the water. About a half a second before I got into the water my heart was pounding so intensely I thought I either was about to have a heart attack or was going to pass out, or both. I managed to stick with a pack of women this time around me who were my pace, and randomly yelling words of encouragement to each other. While I still was not thrilled with my lack of seeing in front of me, or the intense amounts of salt I tasted in my moth, I did enjoy this swim more than my first tri. I also was a whole 10 minutes faster on this swim, and again didn't drown! It's the little things in life. :)

Me coming out of the water!

Then it was time for the bike. I knew the course, it was also a lot shorter than the last tri's bike course. About 5 miles shorter. I was excited to get going and was happy with how much faster I was so far this time around. 

Transition 1...The only transition for me for this day haha

I went out on the bike and was going along well. It was a nice course and I was moving pretty fast. I figured if I could be faster on this bike ride, I would be so excited going into the run that I may be faster. Things were all going well until around mile 5. 

This was the towns first time doing this triathlon, and many people driving around in the town apparently felt uninformed and displeased with the amount of roads closed off for it. The bike course wasn't completely closed to cars and I could hear a car coming up behind me. I knew they weren't happy about the race and also knew that some times cars like to see just how close they can get to the bikers without running them over as a fun game. I decided moving over further to the side of the road would be a good idea. I moved over and didn't notice the pothole that had been in front of me. My back tire hit it, causing my tire to pop, and me to lose my balance. Yes, you are correct. This resulted in me falling off the bike, which hit the chain off the bike. The whole thing was a disaster. Some very nice bikers in the race stopped to make sure I was fine but didn't have anything for me to change my tire. I also was not aware of how to change my back tire. I know, I was very unprepared for this whole thing. A cop went by me at one point and told me "Listen, I'll be honest, you have over 5 miles left to go. You can walk it and then run 3 miles, or you can put your bike on my car and I'll drive you to the finish." I liked his logic, was totally over the race, and did not want to walk 5 miles to then run 3. So yes I quit. You can all start your lectures about how quitting is the worst thing to do. I know.

The other down side to this was I had to wait for the last biker to finish before the cop could leave that area and drive me back up. Unfortunately, Paul's parents were also there, and were waiting at the finish for me along with Paul (who had finished already). They then began to get nervous seeing the race crew bringing in the cones, signaling all bikers were in and out on the run. I'm pretty sure they thought I was dead. If you're keeping count, this is now two triathlons we're people thought I may have died during the race. The cop drove me to almost the race area and then I walked my bike a couple hundred feet past the finish and went and met up with everyone. 

Basically, the race was miserable. I was not happy, not prepared, and not a finisher. That was about the worst it could get. Paul on the other hand, did a great job and had a new PR. As usual, he kicked my ass. So that is the story of my second triathlon (also probably my last one for a little while), and my last race of the fall. My big lesson was to be more prepared before I decide to just up and do a triathlon with very little training, and also get everything I need to change a bike tire!

On an embarrassing side note..a week later I got an email from the race company that basically said "Dear Athlete, We noticed that you did not finish the event and want to make sure that you're okay. Please email us and let us know." FAIL!