Warrior Dash Maryland

What better way to celebrate National Running Day by sharing a race recap for a race I didn't run! Okay, I could wax on poetically about what running means to me and how important it is for my sanity, but this year while running has still be extremely important to me my greatest joys have been watching the hubs tackle his newest addiction.

Yes, I've helped create an addict - a running addict.

Sure enough, I got pregnant and the hubs became addicted to running. The love/hate affair began last summer when he casually mentioned he'd like to run a half marathon and now he's at the point where he's trying to run a race a month. It's fantastic! He's not overly competitive with his times, but rather signing up for a 10k here and there "keeps him honest."

His May race was a bit different and he "ran" Warrior Dash with his brother and a friend. They guys stayed together the entire time, which meant walking up any part of the course that included an incline because my brother-in-law is not a fan of running and especially not a fan of running up hills.

Overall they had a really fun experience, but if you wanted to actually "run" this race you'd be sorely disappointed. It took them almost two hours to complete the 5k distance because there were such long lines at each of the obstacles. They were in the 11:30am wave and from what I heard the wait times got even longer as the day progressed.  We had a friend run in the 9:30am wave and it took him 50 minutes to complete the course, so if you wanted to run more and wait less I'd highly recommend signing up for one of the earliest waves available.

The hubs was also annoyed by the number of selfie-sticks and group photos out on the course. He got the feeling that so many of the participants were "running for Facebook photos" and that caused even more backups along the way. I say that with a massive grain of salt because it is a struggle to get the hubs to stop for a photo even pre- or post-race! The man is just not a fan of being in photos.

The way this particular course was laid out wasn't very spectator friendly. While the dudes ran, us ladies were able to see the start of the race and then the last 3 obstacles. We sat around for 90 minutes and had no idea where the guys were or even what anyone else was doing because the course was closed to spectators. That was a tad bit annoying because I would have liked to have seen more of the course.

The post race beer line moved quickly and the rinse off shower line wasn't terrible. I'm happy the guys were able to rinse off at least before making their way back to our car! We brought chairs, a cooler filled with beer, and snacks to tailgate afterwards and so many people walked by our tailgate and proclaimed, "why didn't we do this?!?!?"  Definitely tailgate, but just make sure you have a designated driver.

Also, bring sunscreen!

Any other obstacle racers out there? What has been your take on these things? I've yet to do one, but I'm thinking a post-baby fun run sounds like a good time.

Richmond Marathon Recap

Just a quick recap of marathon #5.  To sum up: it wasn't my day. My hip felt off from the moment the rain soaked race started. By mile 3 when the rain subsided I had managed to convince myself that my hip didn't hurt at all (LIAR!!!!).  On a steep downhill at the end of mile 8 it just gave out. There was actually a quick stab of pain where it felt like lighting  ran through my veins. I had every intention of dropping out of the race and taking my first DNF except I couldn't figure out the logistics. I couldn't figure out how the hubs would come get me, how I would stay warm, and then I realized I still had to make my way to the finish festival because I checked a bag.  I tried to look for a medical tent and to be completely honest I couldn't find one the rest of the course. 

Race Takeaways: wasn't my day. Back to the drawing board. 

Race Logistics: Look this was a smaller race. I think there are roughly five thousand marathon participants, eight thousand half marathoners, and four thousand 8k runners. The start times are staggered and the marathon goes off last at 8am. That staggered start made everything really easy. The hubs and I stayed at a hotel 3 miles from the start line and it took us less than 10 minutes to drive to downtown. The hubs dropped me off at 7:05am and I walked a few blocks over to bag check. I was able to check my bag, get through the port-a-potty line, and down a bottle of water before the half marathon went off at 7:30am. This was the quickest port-a-potty line I've ever been at in a race. 

Race Tip: Find the port-a-potties farthest from the start line. They generally have the shortest line! Unless they are the first port-a-potty spot from a major line of transportation, then go to the second farthest ones. 

Security was nothing like any of the other marathons I've been to this year. NYC took wands to people just to enter certain sections of Central Park, all bags were searched, and all runners had to pass through security checkpoints. Baltimore had security checkpoints and all bags had to be examined. Richmond required that all checked bags be in the clear bags handed out at the expo. That was the extent of the security.  There were plenty of police present at the start line and at the finish expo. 

Post-Race Festival: I got there later than expected and I'm sure things were more crowded during peak finish times, but I received my fleece blanket (nice touch!), medal, bottle of water, and a slice of pizza within 3 minutes of finishing.  The signs made it appear that bag check would be farther away, but it took two minutes to find my UPS truck and get my bag.  There was plenty of pizza left when I got there and that makes me think anyone who wanted pizza could get pizza. The beer line was quick and efficient as well! 

Crowd Support: This race has the tagline, "America's Friendliest Marathon" and that set the bar pretty high. To me, nothing has come close to the crowd support during the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon. I get the weather was absolutely pristine that day and that definitely helped and it was a bigger race so it isn't far to use that as a comparison. However, there were lots of "dead" spots during the Richmond marathon. I wasn't expecting NYC-like crowds, but there were just so many areas that had zero crowd support that I was a bit bummed. Yet, when there were crowds they were absolutely amazing. There must have been hundreds of signs posted along the way that were encouraging and funny as heck. Some of my favorite crowds were along Main Street in The Fan district. One of the bars had a sign, "you cheer, we drink!" in which they encouraged runners to cheer as they ran by so the guys at the bar would do shots. Highly entertaining. The hubs and I made sure to bar hop later that night in that district just to pay it back to some of the bars.

There was a massive wall right after mile 20. I've heard about it from other runners who have done Richmond and every year the wall is decorated to say, "the wall." It's a really nice feeling to run through the wall during a marathon. Totally mental, but a really nice touch. There was lots of beer, candy, soda, and other treats to pick up along the course from plenty of nice folks. 

Course: This baby is hillier than the elevation map leads you to believe! I know that's said of every marathon, but there are a lot of stretches where there felt like it was just small enough of an incline that you're like, "I'm running up a hill, right?" Mile 15 is this massive long, concrete bridge and it's just one long gradual incline. There are some serious downhills on this course and they are STEEP. I might be in the minority of runners here, but I absolutely hate downhills. Those suckers hurt. The finish line is one massive downhill and by that point I didn't care, but every one of those hard steps at the end hurt. 

Overall: Look, I didn't have my day. I finished in 50 minutes longer than I wanted to and that part hurt.  I'm not going to let that ruin my outlook on Richmond because the hubs and I had a great weekend, minus the three hours of pain during a marathon. Our objective was to have a drinking weekend without the pups. Mission Accomplished! He had a great time drinking on Friday night while I was the designated driver. Thanks to Urban Spoon I was able to find amazing gluten free bison meatloaf at McCormack's Whiskey Grill & Smokehouse and the hubs enjoyed a bison sandwich and whiskey. Saturday night we went bar hopping (well, I hobbled), ate small plates at a few different pubs, had the best bar pizza ever at 31 Monkeys, and tried a host of local Richmond brews (Hardywood, Center of the Universe, and Legends were among the best). The night ended with good karma and walking out of the last bar to find not one, but two cabs waiting on the corner. 

A great weekend indeed. 

My marathon medal will keep me straight over the winter. I'm signing up for my next marathon that is going to require I train during the colder months and I'll gladly take it because as soon as my hip gets better I'm going to be chasing that sub four hour time. 

Bourbon Chase 2013 Recap

Team Stay Vertical at Jim Beam

The start line at Jim Beam.

Two Heidi's (yes, you read that right) rocking our "Stay Vertical: It's just a 200 mile bar crawl" temporary tattoos. 

Oscar finishing the first leg strong. 

More temporary tattoos! 

Van 2 finished with their first legs in Danville. 

It's only slightly cold when you're not running and instead cheering for people in the middle of the night! 

Breaking out the hammock to catch a few hours of zzzs in a park. 

Of course there would be shots of bourbon involved! 

The finish line in Lexington! 200 miles DONE! 

Race medals from all five years. 

Official Maker's Mark Bourbon Chase items. 

Stay Vertical: It's Just a 200-Mile Bar Crawl 

Last weekend I ran in the Bourbon Chase relay with my best friend and her crazy running friends. It was a 200 mile relay that started at Jim Beam and then ran through the distilleries of Heaven Hills, Maker's Mark, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, Woodford Reserve before ending in Lexington, KY.   I had no idea what to expect going in because I had never done a relay event like this before! 

I knew I had three legs to run and two of them gave me some serious concerns. My second leg was projected to start around 1:30am. I haven't run in the middle of the night in quite some time. Plus, I was tremendously worried about getting lost and wandering off in the middle of Kentucky by myself.  My third leg involved running over the Kentucky River and anyone who knows me knows I am NOT A FAN of bridges. Especially bridges that come with directions of, "please yield to vehicle traffic if a vehicle will not yield of you."  Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?!

Conclusion: The race was amazing. I was in Van 1 and the weather was drastically different for all three legs. Leg #1 was hot and in the middle of the afternoon.  Leg #2 was chilly in the middle of the night (I went with capris, a long sleeve, short sleeve, night time gear, and a hat). Leg #3 was the hilliest leg for me, included descending and climbing a gorge, a massive scary bridge, and pouring rain. 

Yes, this was an exhausting relay because I think I only managed a few hours of interrupted sleep over the course of the entire 200 miles. There was a moment in the middle of the night where everyone in our van was so exhausted that things started to get a tad bit testy. One of my teammates has done a few relays like this in the past and he calmly stated, "guys, there is going to be a time when we're too tired to be polite. Things will get misstated and misheard. Just give everyone a pass."  His timing was impeccable. He broke the sleep deprived tension and we were good to go. 

The running wasn't the most challenging part of this relay. Well, I'm sure it was for the more competitive teams but our team wasn't being overly competitive. Everyone ran hard, but we're just not the overly speedy type! The challenging part was the sleep deprivation. I thought, "oh I can sleep when other people in my van are running." Nope! When you're van is "active" it's always moving: picking up the last running, driving to the next location, cheering along the way, driving to the next location, cheering, dropping off the next runner." Lather, rinse, repeat! There wasn't even time to stop for food along the way because you can't just tell someone to get in the car after they've ran. They needed time to stretch because they were going to have to run again in a few hours. Once your van is done and the other van starts its legs you've got to get food, calm down, and then try to get an hour or two of sleep. 

But then you want to go and cheer for your other's vans runners and you realize that you can catch up on sleep later in life! 

Bourbon Chase was amazing. Yes, the roads were not closed to vehicle traffic, but who in their right mind would think they would be during a 200 mile road race! However, every single intersection had multiple signs pointing runners in the correct direction. Larger intersections had police escorts to stop traffic and let runners pass through. I never once had to stop at an intersection because even at the smaller ones vehicles would see a runner coming and they would stop traffic and let you pass. 

Plus, running along open roads in Kentucky meant for beautiful scenery, lots of cheering from other vans shuffling their own runners, and cheering from local residents. Oh, and a lot of horse farms. I'm going to post more photos next week of just some of the scenery because it was jaw dropping. Well done Kentucky, well done.