I had wanted to write a post earlier about my thoughts and feelings about Boston but I could never quite get out the words. I still don’t have the words. The good news is that as I finish up this post, I hear that they caught the remaining suspect. After hours of Boston and Watertown being on complete lockdown, they finally have their suspect and everyone can feel a sense of accomplishment.

Will we ever know why the bombers choose to target the Boston Marathon? Maybe. The next few days or months will tell us. All I’ve got for now is that I’m glad that they caught the culprit and life can return to some semblance of normal.

Boston, and especially those who are still suffering from the explosions, we are thinking of you.

Stay Strong, Boston. Stay Strong. 

Other than the early morning (and I mean EARLY morning) wakeup on Sunday, this was a fun experience. Mile 7.5 of the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler puts you almost to the very top of Haines Point. I have never designed a race course but whoever designed this course and plotted out where the waterstop’s should be should really reconsider the location of this stop. The tip of Haines Point is SUPER windy, and on this particular day was actually quite cold. Additionally, there appeared to be a bottleneck right in front of all the water tables. The road narrows and 10,000 people are being forced to cram into a 1 lane road. Let me tell you, it was chaos.

What made this entire experience worth it? Well, besides the guaranteed entry for next years race and volunteering at the Team in Training water stop with a bunch of my favorite TNT’ers and various other people I know… it was the banana suit.

Everything is always better with a banana suit

Rowing on the Potomac at Sunset

I don’t particularly have a specific theme in mind this month, so therefore this months “theme” is “random” aka “whatever the hell I feel like saying”.

1. I HATE April Fools Day. With. A. Passion. I am the most gullible person in the world and I hate the day because I don’t know whom to believe and I usually get tricked pretty badly. I’m not ready to admit how many times I got tricked today.
2. Did I mention I’m running the Marine Corps Marathon in October?
3. Did I mention that I am SUPER excited about this already and can’t wait to start training?
4. And yes, I have already started working on a training plan.
5. My next race is the Nike Women’s ½ Marathon in DC on April 28^th. This was one of the most expensive race entries ever for a half marathon but at the end of the race I get a Tiffany’s necklace. I don’t know if this is a race I’ll do every year due to the cost but I figured it was worth doing at least once. Eventually I’d like to try to make it out to San Francisco for the Nike Women’s Marathon in October.
6. I have exactly 4 days left at my current job (as I am getting laid off). I do not know exactly what I am doing next. I am scared shitless.
7. Admittedly, I have not been the happiest person in the world lately. I have been stressed, sad, depressed, and countless other emotions other than “happy”. I hinted at it in an earlier post, and I am not going to elaborate now, saying that I have been having a really hard time lately. I am still struggling but hopefully all that I have been working at will help me out soon.
8. I really want to buy a bike but the fact that I’m getting laid off isn’t really helping the fact that a bike costs a lot of money. Soon.
9. My mom just adopted another dog and I am totally in love with him. It has made me really want to get another dog. This is something that will have to wait.
10. I need to start focusing on eating better and focusing on my health. I do not have a great diet. I will go a few days of eating really well and then I will just as easily forget about it and stop eating well. Veggies, ftw!
11. I really hope to start blogging at least twice a week. Who knows what I will blog about, but isn’t that what a “lifestyle” blog is about?

It’s currently about 6am on Easter Sunday and I can’t sleep; however, I could care less.

I don’t really have a formal idea for a blog post today, instead I’m just going to talk about some random things.

1. Even though I wrote about this last week, I am officially registered for the 38^th Marine Corps Marathon. Official registration was sold out in about 2hrs and 31 minutes. I know it’s about 7 months till race day but I am already giddy about starting training and creating my training plan. Of course in 6 months I may regret saying that.

2. Yesterday I helped my mom adopt this cutie. I’m already in love with him and I may try to steal him. I probably shouldn’t have admitted that publicly. Oh well.

3. My favorite thing about Easter is the candy. Bring on the Eater candy. I waistline may hate you later but my taste buds love it.

4. Life is about to get way more difficult in the coming weeks. I am probably not going to talk about it much, but just know that I could probably use some support so if you know me, feel free to reach out.

I hope every who celebrates Easter has a great holiday.

I told others that I would think about doing another one but I wasn’t sure but all along I knew I wanted to do another one because there is no way that it can be worse than my first (although Disney wasn’t bad… I just ran for a really long time).

I’ve always had this desire to run the Marine Corps Marathon. Maybe because the travel logistics are the easiest as I live in the DC area or maybe it’s because I can remember driving in to church in Georgetown as a kid and seeing the runners and marines lining the streets. No matter the reason, I wanted to run MCM.

Last year, the Marine Corps Marathon sold out in a record 2.5 (ish) hours. Whoa. I heard stories about how people had to lock themselves in their offices to not be disturbed to make sure they were able to register… I really had no desire to do that.

So here we are, 3 days before official registration for the race has opened and I am already entered and registered.

On Saturday I ran the Marine Corps 17.75k, which upon completion you received a “Golden Ticket” aka a guaranteed entry into Marine Corps.

This race was not a walk in the park… okay well you ran through a park but there were hills and lots of them. This 11.03-mile run was a mix of running on a high way, trail running, running on gravel and hills. Did I mention the hills? Because there were a ton.

Hills aside, the race was of course managed very well; Would we expect anything less from the marines? The course was not at all spectator friendly as you run through the Prince William County Forest. Every few miles you may see a lone marine or a water stop, but other than that, there were hardly any spectators. This isn’t the race for you if you (1) hate hills or (2) love crowds during races.

So yes, I ran 11 miles of hills to get a guaranteed entry into the 38^th Marine Corps Marathon just so I didn’t have to deal with the Internet crazies on Wednesday. A much harder route but well worth the effort.

For those of you who want to register for the 38^th Marine Corps Marathon, registration opens at noon (12pm) on Wednesday, March 27^th, 2013. Remember, those spaces fill QUICKLY so make sure you’re there at noon!

Are you going to register for the Marine Corps Marathon?

Previously, marathon weekend included a 5k, a half and full marathon and of course the Goofy Challenge which was running both the half and full marathon in one weekend. Many people who participated in the Goofy Challenge would also sign up for the 5k on Friday morning and this combination was dubbed the unofficial “Dopey”. I guess Disney heard this and decided to not only make it official but also give runners even more of a challenge.

In case you wanted some more information, here is the schedule of events:

Schedule of Events

Disney’s Family Fun Run 5K: Jan. 9, 6:30 am–Epcot

Walt Disney World 10K: Jan. 10, 5:30 am–ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex

Walt Disney World Half Marathon: Jan. 11, 5:30 am–Epcot

Walt Disney World Marathon: Jan. 12, 5:30 am–Epcot

ENTRY FEES

Walt Disney World® Marathon
$160 by June 18, 2013
$175 between June 19, 2013 and August 13, 2013
$190 on or after August 14, 2013

Walt Disney World® Half Marathon
$160 by June 18, 2013
$175 between June 19, 2013 and August 13, 2013
$190 on or after August 14, 2013

Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge
$340 by June 18, 2013
$370 between June 19, 2013 and August 13, 2013
$400 on or after August 14, 2013

Walt Disney World® 10K
$95 by June 18, 2013
$110 between June 19, 2013 and August 13, 2013
$125 on or after August 14, 2013

Disney Family Fun Run 5K
$60 per participant

Dopey Challenge
$495 by June 18, 2013
$525 between June 19, 2013 and August 13, 2013
$555 on or after August 14, 2013

The Dopey Challenge is a bit hefty in terms of race fees and it is definitely not a race you can just sign up for and “wing it”. My goal for 2014 was to do the Goofy Challenge so I won’t be participating in the Dopey Challenge but it’ll be interesting to see how many people sign up.

Are you Dopey?

The weather for the weekend called for rain during race time and thankfully it held off until later that evening. THANK GOD or else it would’ve been a really cold, windy, and wet race.

So let’s start from the beginning.

Somehow I managed to convince my friends J and S to be ready to go by 7am on Saturday morning to start our drive down. How I managed to do that is beyond me but apparently I have friends that will feed in to my ocd-ness of being early. First stop upon arrival in Virginia Beach was heading to the expo. And of course I had to get a picture of myself as a leprechaun.

Then it was time to hit the town. If you’ve never been to Virginia Beach you will know that there is probably about a mile or two of beach front beach fun. During the summer and the early fall when it’s warmer, this area is quite hopping but since it’s March, all you saw were runners…. Surprise, surprise. And occasionally you run in to poodles whose owners have given them a haircut that makes them look like a lion (poor dog).

blah blah blah… insert comments about pre-race dinner, etc etc.

Let’s go to race morning.

BRRRR…. Is really all that needs to be said. Not only was it barely above 40 degrees, but it was super windy. I saw more hats fly off of people’s heads than I can count on all my hands and toes. The Shamrock racecourse is known for being extremely flat and fast. The half marathon course has one tiny little hill that I have to admit that I don’t even remember seeing and the full marathon course has an overpass that you run on twice, so really there are no hills. I like no hills. There seemed to be a lack of crowds along the course like I had heard about in previous years but I will attribute that to cold and rain threatening. I have heard form people who have done this race in years past that this year was one of the more quiet and disappointing ones.

One of the other reasons that Shamrock is so awesome? The finish line party. Your race bib gets you 4 free beers and a cup of beef stew. Beer and stew have never tasted so good. I should also mention the swag. Along with your race shirt, once you finish the race you get a finisher hat and some other piece of finisher swag. Oh and your medal as a bottle opener on it. Win.

So my final thoughts on the Shamrock Race weekend: Awesome. While I was a bit disappointed that many of my friends bailed on coming down for the weekend, how cold it was, and how there wasn’t as many people out cheering as I had hoped, I definitely liked this race and will definitely do it again. March is a tough month to run races as the weather is pretty hit or miss and you can have an awesome weather or want to curl up in a ball and cry.

Did you run a race last weekend? How did it go?

What I have been up to is training and running my first marathon.

This post isn’t going to be a full-blown race report, in fact I will likely not even talk about my training or how I felt during the race at all. It was my first marathon and therefore the goal was simply to finish. And trust me, there were many times during the race that I didn’t even think I would be able to do that.

The Walt Disney World Marathon…. SO much fun, but so very, very warm.

Race day started with a 2am wake-up. Yes you read that right… 2am. With a race start time of 5:35am, we had to be on the bus heading to the start by 3am. In the corrals I met up with my friend Tommy and spent the next 18 miles with him. He’s done this race a few times so I trusted his judgment to help me out.

The Walt Disney World Marathon takes you through all of the Disney World Resort Parks starting and ending with Epcot. From the start at Epcot, you head towards the Magic Kingdom. When you get to the park you get to run through all of the majors sections including right through the middle of Cinderella’s Castle. From Magic Kingdom you head towards the Animal Kingdom with a short detour through the Walt Disney World Speedway. After the Animal Kingdom, you spend an un-godly amount of time on a road with no tree coverage heading towards the ESPN Wide World of Sports, which when its 85 degrees out, it can get quite hot. Mile 20 put was right after ESPN and it was from there that you headed back on to the awful uncovered road and towards Hollywood Studios and onto the final 3 miles of the race.

Crossing the finish line was amazing. The feeling of finally being done after running for so long and for accomplishing something I have been training for for so long was simply… awesome. And that doesn’t even begin to cover it. 

So many people helped me out during this race. From my TNT Coaches and teammates to M, J, J, and A back at home. Thanks for all the texts during the race that kept me going and for responding when I texted back saying “ouch”.

So the big question now is, will I do this again?

And my answer: Yes