Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Army 10-Miler, Legwarmers concert and Lifehouse

I made it back from D.C.! I'd like to say I made it back unscatched, but I'd be telling a big, fat lie. :-)
Where should I start? From the beginning I suppose...As an OCD, organized freak, I'll do this timeline style for ease of reading.

Thursday, October 21: My friend April and I flew together- we both lived in D.C. for a period of time and were so excited just to be back in the city. It's a great place to live in my opinion, but too expensive for my taste right now. I was lucky enough to live off of per diem when I was there, so I had lots of extra money- and if I lived in D.C. I'd want to live in a nice, little house with a yard. That's just me for ya.

We arrived and had dinner at Lebanese Taverna in Pentagon City, my favorite Lebanese restaurant in Arlington. So good! I love lebanese food, save the dessert. Bulp. I ordered some Lebanese cheesecake. It tasted NOT a thing like American cheesecake. ACK!

Anyway, I was exhausted at this point, so all I wanted to do was go to our hotel and crash. I had a big weekend ahead of me.

Friday, October 22: The day began with some shopping in lovely Georgetown. The weather was chilly on the walk over, but was nice to get some fresh air. April and I met up with our friend Courtney, who I worked with and who still lives in the D.C. area. (Courtney is also the little bobo who signed my ass up to run this race in the first place. Skinny bitch. I say that with 100% love.)

Naturally, our first stop was at my love...my heart and soul: Anthro! I was a little regular at this particular location- so much so that one of the Sales Associates who rang me up this day RECOGNIZED me from a year ago. lol. Yeah.....I'm not obsessed or anything.

 Thank you wind, for blowing up my cardigan, giving me an unatural looking rear-end. HA!


 Urban Outfitters Fun! I need this mug. Seriously.

After a day of shopping, we were exhausted again- so we took a nap and then got dressed in our best 8-s attire for The Legwarmers show@ The Legwarmer's are an AWESOME 80s cover band. I'm pretty sure they mostly do shows in the D.C. and Northeast area. What a blast- from what I remember... :-)

Courtney, April and I. Yes. April is wearing a THONG leotard. I'm trying to do my best Madonna.

Saturday, October 23: Much of today was spent recooperating from the 80s night. We were all still washing off eye makeup.

Courtney and her roomie hosted a spaghetti dinner for some of the runners- we chowed down on spaghetti, bread and drank tons of water to hydrate before the big race the next day. Poor April had a cold when we first got to D.C. and it was getting worse- so she spent much of the evening (and $200) getting meds to clear that funk up.

I contemplated just not running- I was scared, my stomach was churning...I didn't know if I was going to make it. I was exhausted from the week before and the past few days. This was NOT how I envisioned feeling before a race.

Sunday, October 24, RACE DAY: Woke up at 5:00 to leave by 6:00. We hopped on the metro and got to the race site at about 6:45. The metro was PACKED. The dude I was next to certaintly hadn't brushed his teeth that morning because I sure smelled his stank breath.
 Go me.
My first shoe tag. Awwww....
I drank a 20oz bottle of water and used the nasty port-o-potty on-site. About 30 minutes later, I stood in line again to get one last pee in. I was determined NOT to stop to use the bathroom.

At around 7:45 April and I finally made it to our "wave" start and hung out with the several other thousands of people around us. The total runner sin the race were about 22,000! That's a lot! Personally, it was awesome to see so many people supporting the Army with this race, but I was getting claustrophobic....

Once the starting cannons fired, we were still walking like turtles in a herd for about 20 minutes, and finally reached the start line! YAY! Off we were! The first few miles seemed to fly by! I was happy with our time, we were pacing ourselves with my handy dandy Garmin and I felt great! I felt like I was barely even breathing hard.

Of course, we walked, but we were ahead of lots of people still. This made me feel better about everything somehow.

At mile 5 we came to the point in the route where we passed the faster runners- we saw a few friends and waved and I thought, "Hey! We turn around right down the road. We're not too far behind them..." WRONG. Oh, so wrong. lol. They were at mile 7.5. We had just got to 5. Damn.

That's about the time my right knee started to hurt. The blasted knee that always gives me problems. We made it through mile 6 and I could still jog at that point. Come mile 7.5, I was hurting. BAD. It wasn't my sore legs and feet that were the main issue- it was the SHARP pain in my right knee. I could barely jog, so we had to settle for walking.

I was a little dissapointed because we were so close and doing so well! The last 3 miles we walked fast. I say that I was dissapointed, but really I'm proud of myself for finishing. I was hurting. A massage, hot bath and a new knee never sounded so good.

Of course, I pushed myself the last quarter mile to run into the finish line. BAHA! Hobble/jog is more like it! I made it though and it was grand. I felt a few tears wanting to come, but I think more than anything they were tears of pain for my knee.

So in 2 hours 13 minutes, we finished.
Post race- no makeup. EEK!!
Not awesome, but I finished- and I finished ahead of people, which I thought was impossible.

Monday, October 25: Time to fly home! I'll miss you D.C. and I'll be back soon.

OH, and in the D.C. airport, April was checking in her bags and as I stood off to the side waiting, I saw a dude with bright blonde hair- bad dye job- and his counterpart. In my mind I thought, "Wannabe rock stars," but in all honesty I have SUCH a thang for musicians (I've decided I should marry one). I couldn't take my eyes away from these dudes- they looked SO familiar. FINALLY I looked harder and it dawned on me- it was the lead singer, Jason Wade, and the drummer, Ricky Woolstenhulme Jr. from Lifehouse. I'm not a HUGE fan, but still like their music, so I walked right up and shook their hands. I wanted to take a photo, but decided that the lead singer was acting kinda snooty so I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. lol. Drummer dude was REALLY nice, though.
Conclusion: I think I'll keep running races, but I doubt if I'll ever run anything over a half-marathon. It was hard on my body to run so far, and as much as I know running is good for me, it could also be nothing but trouble for my knee as I age- and personally I don't want to just fall apart at the seams.

I'm still sore and walking as though I rode a horse all weekend (haha! Nice mental image I'm sure), but very proud of myself and all the hard work I put into my training the past few months.

18 Comments:

Kathleen said...

Hey, you did AWESOME! Injuries are just a part of running and they happen to the best of us. And part of what makes running so much fun is that not every run is great: we're always chasing after that great run and in the process, you're going to have a few not so great ones! The important thing is that you trained for the race and you did it. Now any new races you do will be so much easier (I remember before my first 10K, I looked at my Garmin and my heart rate was 140 because I was so nervous. I was just standing still - not even running!)

It sounds like you had an awesome weekend in D.C. Husband went to college at Maryland and always talks about going back but we never have. Someday!

And most importantly what did you buy at Anthro? LOL

Genesis said...

oh im so proud of you and I was seriously anticipating this recap. im glad you decided to go after all and not sleep in ;)

Liz B said...

I have been checking your blog a couple times a day to see how you did! Congratulations for finishing! IMO, everyone's first race should be about crossing the finish line. Its really the training and dedication to a goal that are the real challenges. As Miley says, "It's all about the climb!!"

I ran a half marathon on Sunday and I thought about you and sent a little prayer up that day! In a weird way it was neat to know someone else was out there huffing and puffing in a totally different part of the country.

Way to go - you motivate all of us!

SRP said...

yay! I'm so proud of you! Never say never to running more than a half marathon... running hurts, that's why not everyone does it! You should feel realy proud of yourself for sticking with it and making it to the end. Ddi you reward yourself with something nice from anthro?

I lived in DC for a while, I had an internship and I now have lots of really great memories of that time :)

Elizabeth said...

I am so happy/proud of you! How amazing! Not all people can say that they have been able to do this! Awesome! :-)

Ashley said...

Go girl! Proud of you for finishing!

Congrats on having a fun weekend AND super-awesome race!

Kelly said...

Congrats on finishing the race!!!! Sounds like you had a great weekend (minus the race injuries, of course).

I absolutely love the Legwarmers!!! They are such a fun band to go see. Glad you and your friends were able to dress up in awesome 80's outfits :)

Mama K said...

Congrats on finishing!! That's awesome!! Aren't you so glad it's over?!

Veronika said...

yay! you are so inspiring to many of us who read your blog! so proud you finished and you look very cute without makeup on!

Anonymous said...

You go girl! I am in awe that you can even run 2 miles, lol! I'm such a huffer and puffer, I think it's amazing to do any long distance. You look awesome without make up on and looks like you had one hell of a trip!!
xoxo

Random thoughts: 1. nice mental image about the house. 2. Love you and anthro. 3. Love shopping in Georgetown - only done it once, will never for get it. 4. stank brath = ew. 5. MANY CONGRATS on the race - looks like you had a great time, although i'm sorry to hear about your knee- eek. 6. hehe great halloween costumes!

Anonymous said...

That's awesome!! I'm so proud of you for working hard and getting it done!

Dea said...

You did awesome and congrats for going through it and finishing! It's definitely a challenge running for that long but races like that allow you to see how many others are there going through it with you. I've got a half-marathon coming up and it's my first one!!

Kelly said...

Congrats on finishing your first 10-miler!! That is such an accomplishment that not many people can say that they took part in. Love the photos from Anthro-- you look gorgeous, even post race!! :-D

Anonymous said...

I hate that your knee was bothering you so badly, but I'm so glad you were able to finish, and ahead of other people!

Anonymous said...

Great job on finishing! Keep up the running and you will be able to run that distance all the way though and you will LOVE it. Your trip sounds really fun - it makes me want to go back to DC for a visit soon.

Elz said...

Congrats on finishing! A pre-race trip to Antrho was a well deserved treat I'd say. I'm thinking of adding int he P90x on the days I don't run. I've heard it kicks butt.

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