Happy May, friends! The academic year has finally wrapped and the peacefulness that has followed these last few INSANE weeks has been so welcome. I am currently in my very last 5-day work week until August (summer Fridays, baby!!!), and in my last work week before I take a nice lil staycation next week. When WFH started last year I really didn't think I'd ever want to take time off work if I wasn't specifically going anywhere since I'd already be home. However, after this crazy year, I am SO THRILLED to be having a week to myself. It'll also be my birthday next week, so I'm really looking forward to being able to spend the week doing things that make me happy. That's all I want for my birthday!
A few weeks ago, Snowy (or SnObi-Wan Kenobi) and I ran the runDisney Star Wars Rival Run Virtual 10K! (We made a cute lil TikTok during our run!) I dressed up as Princess Leia and we had an absolute blast (pun intended?). I specifically wanted to run this race so I could get my hands on the 10K medal which features Leia herself, and it finally came in the mail last week! I can't wait to hang it up on my wall. I am so psyched to have it be a part of my collection!
runDisney virtual packaging is top-notch
Such a cool medal! It's fairly big as well - about the size of my palm. Not bad for a 10K medal!
I also got my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine a few weeks ago at Gillette Stadium! It was a super easy process and the volunteers there have the clinic running like a well-oiled machine. As I waited the required 15 minutes post-shot, I was able to sit and look out onto the field which was so cool. I haven't been to Gillette in AGES so it was really so nice to return. I'll be back later in May for my second dose, and then hopefully the next time I'm there I'll be attending a game! 🤞
The day after my vaccine I attempted to participate in Dewey's, but I was so tired that it made reading extremely difficult 😂 I shoulda known! Regardless of how much I read during that 24 hour period, I did make it a priority to return to my book instead of watching TV or scrolling TikTok, which I think is a personal win. Here's somewhat of a reading vlog from the last two weekends, including my failed Dewey's attempt:
Now that the academic year is over, I really want to prioritize reading where I can! I'll be participating in Bout of Books 31 next week (TBR to come!) and I'm hoping to do a couple other fun reading projects during the summer months. I'll of course keep y'all posted!
I wanted to close out this lil life update by SPAMMING y'all with Snowy pictures. If you look through my photos on my phone, it's pretty much exclusively running related photos or Snowy photos. At least I'm on brand? 🙃 She's just so cute! I CAN'T HELP IT! (And honestly, can you really complain about a Snowy photo spam session?) Anywho, enjoy this pup's cuteness:
Laying on the floor with Daddy as he plays games
I got Snowy this teddy bear the last time she got her nails trimmed and she LOVES HIM 😍😭
There was an ADORABLE 2-month old Husky at the park yesterday and Snowy LOVED playing with him. 😭😭😭
Idk why she was sitting like this but it was adorably funny 😂
👁️👅👁️
Cute post-run selfies with my girl 💖
Just always bringing the sass
We're also sitting our neighbor's dog Harper while she is away and these two are like two peas. I will say that Snowy does get a bit territorial of her stuff and of Brett and I when Harper is over (only child syndrome!) but they absolutely love playing together. It's so cute to see them interact with one another!
This week we travelled south to Florida for the holidays! We spend a couple days in the car, I run the Dora Double Challenge at the Mount Dora Half Marathon Weekend, and do some final preparations for Christmas!
Happy Vlogidays 2020 {Week 4}
In the final installment of Happy Vlogidays 2020, we celebrate Christmas with my family, head back north, I finish up the #RunMA Challenge, and discuss what I hope my 2021 will look like.
During this week's Happy Vlogidays episode, you see me cook a delicious spread for a (very) mini Christmas party we hosted (literally one other person haha), I run a ton of miles, and we prepare for our road trip south! I hope you enjoy this video. In the next one, we finally embark south for the holidays, so stay tuned!
Hooray for the return of Happy Vlogidays! 🎉 Here is the video from the first week of December, where I participate in Tis the Season-a-Thon (kinda), Brett gives me my Christmas gifts early which I start using right away, I go on a wild goose chase for my phone, I rewatch one of my favorite reality series on Netflix, and I log a bunch of miles for the #RunMA challenge! Hope you all enjoy the first installment of this year's Happy Vlogidays, and are looking forward to more video content this month! 🎅
This post is part of a series about my trip to New Orleans February 7-10, 2020.
Make sure you check out my day 1 & day 2 posts first!
I'm so excited to finally be talking about race day at the Rock n' Roll New Orleans Marathon! The Cheer Squad and I were up bright and early to head down to the starting line. We were out the door by 6:15am and opted to take the trolley downtown. As I've found at other large races, there was definitely a delay in the transportation that morning. When thousands of people are all trying to get to the same location it's only to be expected, so make sure you're planning for travel time to the start the morning of the race!
I believe we got on the trolley by 6:45am or so and were off and walking toward the start by 7. There was a big construction site in the middle of Canal Street during our visit due to the collapse of the Hardrock Hotel, so we had to walk the rest of the way to the start. The start was scheuled for 7:30am so the pressure to get to the start was a little stressful! But we made it in plenty of time. I missed the Maniacs photo by literally 10 seconds which I was kinda bummed about, but honestly I was just excited to be there!
I said my goodbyes to the Cheer Squad and headed into my corral. While I was waiting for the starting gun, I looked down at my watch and realized that even though it had been on the charger all night it was still at 18% battery. 🤦♀️ I rely heavily on my watch to make sure I'm hitting my paces, so because I wasn't quite sure how long my watch's battery would last I decided to load up Strava's record feature on my phone which I had never used. 😂 Naturally I had no idea what I was doing, but I managed to figure out how to get it to tell me my mile splits through my headphones. It would have to do!
I waited in the corral for quite some time. It seemed to be about 30 minutes or so before I finally got to the starting line, but once I did my corral got stopped *right* at the front! For the first time ever, I got to be right at the line when the gun went off which was super cool. I don't think it will be often that I will be able to be one of the first to cross the start when the gun goes off, so I tried to savor the moment!
Knowing that I was running Strava off of my phone, I didn't take a ton (or any) photos during the race. I didn't want my phone to die mid-run because I already knew that my watch was going to! Luckily the Cheer Squad took a few great photos to share with y'all and a ton of video for the vlog which you can find at the end of this post! 😊
It was an absolutely *gorgeous* day for a marathon and I was so thankful for the weather. It was a bit humid but not unbearably so, and running in the warmth for a change was so pleasant. The first few miles of the race was an out-and-back section through a neighborhood. (You can see the course map here.) The streets were full of spectators and a few live bands. I really enjoy out-and-back sections because I love being able to see the other runners on the opposite side of the road from me. I got to see the elites roll by which is always so inspiring, and having both sides of the roads filled with marathoners and half marathoners was so much fun.
The first 7 miles of the race seemed to FLY by. I was doing my best to not get too caught up in the excitement of the race and focus on my fueling plan, and eventually I fell into a good rhythm with my pacing. Unfortunately around mile 6.5 or so I really started to feel the impact of the roads on my feet. I know I was a bit overdue for some new running shoes but I wanted to stick with my trust purple Adrenaline 19's since I've been doing all of my training in them. Sadly I definitely felt the impact of having worn out shoes and have learned my lesson to buy a new pair mid-way through my training cycle next time.
At mile 9 we arrived in the French Quarter and I found the Cheer Squad in Jackson Square around mile 9.75! It is always so unbelievably motivating to see friendly faces mid-way through a marathon and know that they'll be waiting for you at certain points along the course. It gives you something to look forward to throughout long, lonely stretches of the course and also motivates you to work that much harder for the people who are there for you. I always love having my Cheer Squad with me and I'm grateful I have folks who are willing to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn to watch me run a lot of miles. 😂💗
This course has one of my *least* favorite features of any race that has both a half and a full marathon running simultaneously. They bring the full marathon right by the finish line of the half before the runners continue on for another 13 miles. It's always such a mood killer to know that the finish line is that close and yet you still have so far to go! 😂 As usual, as the half marathon veered off to finish, the course became quite a bit more open. However, the field to this race is so large that I never was alone on the course, which was nice!
Once I passed mile 16 and took the turn onto the section along Lake Pontchartrain, the wind SIGNIFICANTLY increased. After doing some research on the wind conditions, it looks like there was 20+ mph wind gusts and they were mostly ALL headwinds! There were certain points where I felt like I was getting blown backwards. It was crazy! Definitely not something I was prepared to experience so it was a challenge to keep myself pushing through. I was also feeling off stomach-wise for most of the day so this additional challenge really made me have to fight even harder mentally to keep pushing as hard as I could.
Around mile 17.5 I pulled over to refill my Camelbak. As y'all know, I like to run with a pack as I drink a ton of water while running. One of my favorite features of this race was the fact that there was a water stop at almost every mile, and each stop featured an ENORMOUS water jug that you could use to fill up your own water supply if you wanted. I was able to take advantage of that which I was super grateful for. Unfortunately my stop reflected on the GPS tracker Erin, Brett, and Cullen were using to see my progress and they were a little worried if I was okay or not. Brett called me right before I passed mile 18 to check in, and hearing his voice gave me a boost of energy. He let me know that they were waiting for me around mile 20.5 which I was so looking forward to!
As promised I saw their three smiling faces midway between miles 20 and 21. Erin ran with me a bit of the way until we met up with the guys where they were camped out. I was still on track for a sub-5 race so I didn't want to linger too long with them but again, it was so good to see them and get good vibes and high fives all around before heading into the last portion of the course. I would see them at the finish!
Unlucky for me, I started getting some serious leg cramping about 5 minutes after I saw them. I started to have to take stretching breaks which I hate having to do mid-race, but I needed some relief from the cramping! The wind + the old shoes + the exhaustion of running that far was really taking its toll on my body, but I kept my race goals in mind and kept pushing hard. I took a pattern of Run → walk → stop and stretch over the next few miles in order to give myself some relief every so often.
Around mile 23 we finally started to get some relief from the wind. I wasn't totally sure that I would be on track for a sub-5 anymore at that point, but I still was fairly sure I could PR. My watch had been dead for about 10 miles and I wasn't sure how accurate Strava was, so I really had no idea where I stood. I just kept myself moving forward at as quick a pace as I was able to. Once I hit mile 25 I just sucked it up and kept myself running. I was close enough to the finish that I just wanted to put my head down and get it done! The race volunteers and police that were staffing the course were smiling and enthusiastic toward every single runner and I am so appreciative of that. There's nothing worse than being a back-of-the-pack-er and seeing volunteers look annoyed at the fact that you're still running and they can't go home yet.
Eventually I turned into City Park and I knew the finish line was SO CLOSE! As you turn toward the finish chute the energy and crowd was unreal. The music was pumping, every member of the crowd was cheering for every runner, and it just felt so good to be able to be welcomed to the finish line in that way. I saw the Cheer Squad to my right, waved and blew them a kiss, then gave my final push across the finish line. Another state done! ✅
The volunteers at the finish were great. You were given your medal and had a couple opportunities to take your photo with them. You were handed snacks, water, and Gatorade, and congratulated left and right. When you're super delirious after 26.2 miles it's really hard to think coherently and the volunteers at the finish line made it so you didn't have to. That way you could just reflect on what you just accomplished. I took my medal and a handful of snacks and drinks and met up with the gang so I could finally sit on the ground. 😂
We didn't think to take finish line photos of our own for whatever reason (maybe because I was dead 💀) so here are some close up shots of my medal!
Again, I wasn't sure what time I finished in. My watch was dead, I wasn't sure how accurate Strava was, and I guess the Rock n' Roll tracking app said I arrived to the finish line WAYYY before I actually did. Strava said I finished in 4:58 (and later said I finished in 5:01?) and my unofficial time from Rock n' Roll was 5:04:13 but because the app said I arrived several minutes before I actually did I was worried that my time was much longer than that. It wasn't until later that evening that we got official results, and it turned out my unofficial time of 5:04:13 was my official time! I HAD SET A NEW PR!!!! 🎉🎉🎉 Regardless of what my time would have been I was super proud of myself and how I performed that day. I knew my training had made me a much better runner and had made my marathon experience much better for it. I was super happy and ready to celebrate!
One of the *only* things I would criticize this race on is that the finish line festival was SO. FAR. from the actual finish! City Park is a huge place and the organizers opted to put the finish line festival all the way across the park from the finish line. I was really confused by that decision because there was so much empty space at the park much closer to the finish line that could have easily been used for the after party which would have made it so much easier on the runners. I can speak for myself when I say I am definitely not up for walking super far after running 26.2 miles, and I'm sure other runners could say the same for any of the race distances that were offered. Unfortunately because it was so far from the finish I had zero desire to check it out, even though I'm sure it would have been really fun! If it was closer to the finish and I didn't have to go as far, I likely would have gone and checked it out.
But if that's the only thing I'm criticizing the race on, I think that it's a pretty damn good race! 😉
For real, this race was great. The volunteers were so helpful and friendly, the pre-race communication was excellent and I knew exactly what I needed to do as a participant, the on-course experience was so vibrant and fun, and I just felt happy the entire race! This was my first Rock n' Roll race experience and I am so happy it was a positive one. I've heard really mixed things about this race series and I'm glad that my experience was one that makes me excited to come back to it. I'm really looking forward to heading to Seattle and Savannah with Rock n' Roll later this year!
After the race, we went back to the AirBnB to chill for a couple hours. The Cheer Squad needed naps and I needed a shower and a place to sit down. 😂 Eventually, though, we needed to venture out for food because I had burned a LOT of calories that morning! We opted for my fave - PIZZA. We hit up Louisiana Pizza Kitchen in the French Quarter and like all of the other food we had that weekend, it was BOMB. All I need in my life after a long run is some cheese pizza and I absolutely devoured it. I was excited I was able to eat whatever I wanted again, and partake in some cocktails! Erin and I opted for a carafe of peach sangria and it was delicious.
It was Brett's first time in NOLA so we had to spend some time on the world famous Bourbon Street. I was really hankering for a post-race Hurricane so we headed over to Pat O'Briens to grab a few! We got a table in the courtyard and it was a beautiful night to sit and chat about the day with pals.
After wandering Bourban Street for a bit, acquiring beads, dancing to street performers, and enjoying a couple of Hand Grenades (you can see all of that on the vlog below!), we knew that our final stop of the evening had to be to snag a couple order of beignets! We were going to go to the famous Cafe Du Monde, but we opted to stop at Cafe Beignet instead (because it was closer and we were tired lol). I'll tell ya that the beignets were *incredible * and good if not better than Cafe Du Monde - there's more than one place to get beignets, folks! 😍
Sadly Erin and Cullen had a super early flight so we woke up around 3am and sent them on their way to the airport. We were able to hang around in our AirBnB until 11, so we relaxed and gathered our things before heading out midday on Monday. Before heading to the airport we went to The Ruby Slipper for brunch and it was super delicious. I had this amazing vanilla iced coffee that I had so snap a photo of. I'm not sure why (maybe I was still hungry from the day before haha) but it honestly tasted SO GOOD. Everything tastes good post-marathon. 😂
After brunch we headed to the airport to catch our flight home. This was such a fantastic trip and I feel like this is one of those cities that I will definitely be back to again in my lifetime. There's still so much of this city to eat, drink, and explore and I look forward to experiencing more of it in the future!
For more marathon & NOLA adventures, check out the vlog from days 3 & 4 of our trip below!
May has been quite the busy month for reading! I've been loving getting back into the swing of reading on a more regular basis. It's been a struggle over the last few months but it's been great making it a priority again and having fun participating in the book community a bit more actively than I've been able to. I'm hopeful that this is a sign of things returning back to normal!
This month I had three different bookish type projects that I worked on. First off, I wanted to focus on reading some of my Book of the Month books, as I have quite a few that have gone unread, so all of my owned physical TBR books that I picked up this month were from my Book of the Month collection. You will be able to see which books are BOTM books below as I've marked them with a little "*".
I also participated in two readathons this month! This first was Bookémon Badgethon, a month-long readathon created by Megan from Tome Infinity, which centered around earning badges Pokémon trainer style! Each page you read and badge you earned allowed you to collect points for your team (I was obviously Team Mystic 💙). I think in the future they're planning on hosting a round where you catch different Pokémon and the type of badges you have will dictate which kinds of Pokémon you can catch, so I'm obviously SO PUMPED for that! I collected a total of 3,332 points for Team Mystic and I am so excited for when this readathon makes its return.
BOOKÉMON BADGEATHON READS
Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs
Library book (audio), 3/5
Badge earned: The Know-It-All Badge (Non-fiction)
383 pages
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman*
Physical copy, 5/5
Badge earned: The Fantastical Badge (Fantasy)
369 pages Challenge completed: A book with magic in it
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Library book (audio), 4/5
Badge earned: The Archival Badge (Historical Fiction)
531 pages
Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant
Physical copy, 5/5
Badge earned: The Pictorial Badge (Book with pictures)
40 pages
Challenge completed: A book you will read within 24 hours
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan*
Physical copy, 4/5
Badge earned: The Diversity Badge (Main character or author who is a POC)
462 pages Challenge completed: A bestseller from 2018
The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy*
Physical copy, 3/5
Badge earned: The Chiller Badge (Crime/Thriller/Mystery/Suspense)
317 pages Challenge completed: A book that was published in your birth month
The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
Library book (audio), 3/5 Badge earned: The Jester Badge (Humor/Comedy) 288 pages Challenge completed: A book written by an actor
When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri*
Physical copy, 3/5
Badge earned: The Rainbow Badge (LGBTQIIA+ representation)
272 pages
No Exit by Taylor Adams*
Physical copy, 5/5
Badge earned: The Panic! Badge (Horror)
336 pages
And then, of course, I participated in Round 6 of #BorrowAThon! I honestly can't believe we've had 6 rounds of this readathon already, but here we are. Every time BorrowAThon comes around again I'm reminded of all of the reasons why I'm part of this bookish community. The folks who participate in this readathon are so kind and silly and fun and just always brings such joy into my life. If you watched my May Wrap Up vlog you know I've been struggling with my mental health lately, but the folks that I interact with each round of BorrowAThon make me feel so comforted and at ease in this community. UGH I love it so much. 💖
#BORROWATHON READS
9 Days & 9 Nights by Katie Cotugno
Library copy, 4/5
263 pages
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
Library book (audio), 4/5
329 pages
The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell
Library copy, 3/5
393 pages
By Your Side by Kasie West
Library copy, 3/5
342 pages
OTHER READS Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Library book (audio), 4/5 415 pages Challenge completed: A book set in Australia
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
Kindle eBook, 1/5 624 pages Challenge completed: A book with a time of day in the title
Of course, while I was taking a bit of a blogging/YouTube hiatus, I fell behind on my regular reading wrap ups! I was thinking about doing a sit down reading wrap up for the entire previous 3 months, but instead I felt like a blog post would suffice so I could get you all up to speed on what I've been reading during this first portion of 2019. I'll be back on my wrap up game moving forward *fingers crossed* but for now, here's all of my reading stats!
FEBRUARY
Books read: 8
Reading challenges completed: 7 (14/52 total)
Pages read: 2,561
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan Physical copy, 4/5
I actually filmed a reading wrap up vlog in April because I was participating in the O.W.L.s readathon! Feel free to click play on the video below if you'd like to hear a bit more about what I thought about each book. ☺️
Over the weekend I flew down to Virginia for my eighth marathon: the Anthem Richmond Marathon! (Also known as America's Friendliest Marathon!) I was super nervous to run this race because my training for a fall marathon was pretty bad, but it actually turned out to be a really excellent race and experience! I would highly recommend Richmond for anyone who is looking for a Virginia race because I had a great time!
I left for Richmond early in the morning on Friday. My flight out out of Boston was at 7AM so I was on the road by 4 to make my trek to Logan. I'm glad I left as early as I did because the security lines were insane and TSA seemed to be holding up folks for every possible reason. I did make it through security with about an hour before I boarded, though, which was great because time is always a huge stress factor for me! I waited in a mile-long Dunkies line for a bagel and a coffee and settled in for my long journey south.
I did have about a 2 hour layover at Laguardia on the way down, which I honestly don't mind. I really enjoy the process of traveling most of the time and I often see layovers as forced chill time XD. I spent time reading my book and relaxing a bit before grabbing my next flight to Richmond. The plane down to VA was SO TINY that we had to walk out onto the tarmac and climb up some stairs into the plan itself. I did get the exit row, though, so I was pretty pumped about my extra leg room!
I arrived in Richmond around noon and caught a Lyft to the marathon expo! My Lyft driver was super friendly and we had a great chat. He had apparently been driving a lot of runners around and we had a good chat about running as we made our way to the expo. Such a great welcome to Richmond! When I got to the expo I picked up my bib and wandered around a bit. I picked up the gels and the blocks I would be using for the race from one of the vendors, my t-shirt from the expo volunteers, and a cowbell for Erin and Estee who would be cheering me on during the race!
I was fairly hungry at that point so I walked to a restaurant called Lunch and Supper (ha!) for lunch. It was a cute little place that had a lot of sandwich options. I could tell I was in the South because EVERYTHING had bacon on it. XD I opted for a sandwich called the Jimmy K which was basically a turkey club sandwich with avocado, which I had with no bacon. It was really yummy and hit the spot!
After lunch I ventured to a nearby grocery story to pick up some snacks (even though it was POURING out) and then I took a Lyft to my AirBNB to finally relax. I took a nice hot shower which was so needed after being completely soaked through in the rain, made my flat runner, and relaxed on the couch with some Friends on Netflix. It was fairly relaxing for the rest of the day. I ordered in a pasta dinner with steamed broccoli, and accidentally passed out on the couch and stranded poor Erin outside for a couple minutes (sorry, girl!). She arrived around 10:15pm and chatted for a bit before PASSING OUT. It was a long day and we had things to do in the morning. ;)
After a fitful night's sleep for both of us, we got up to get ready for the big race! I shoved a peanut butter bagel and a ton of water down my throat for breakfast and we made our way to the starting line. We were supposed to meet up with Estee at the start, but as the entire city was shut down for the race, it was really hard for her to make her way to us, so Erin and I just decided to park and then make our way to the start!
Courtesy of Erin's InstaStory
The morning seemed to be flying by and before I knew it the race had begun! Erin walked with me for a bit in the corral as we made our way to the starting line. Unfortunately I couldn't convince her to run with me :P but it was so great to have a friendly face there with me to calm the nerves! I was underway around 7:55am and was excited to get moving because it was COLD!
For this race, I was doing the run/walk interval method. I would run for 5 minutes and walk for 1. I had my Garmin set to alert me of every interval so I really didn't have to think about it that much which was nice! A lot of folks around me in my corral were doing the same thing so I felt comforted that I wasn't the only runner taking this route. It was my first race using this method so i was little nervous about how I'd feel, but it honestly helped my race so much!
Crossing the first bridge over the James River around mile 7
The course itself was so great. There were a few rolling hills but it was fairly flat for the most part but the hills here and there really kept things interesting. There was a lot of different scenery to take in, including the James River (above), a stretch of wooded back road along the river, city portions, neighborhoods - pretty much everything! I will say that I definitely wasn't bored while running this race because there was just so much to look at.
This was along the back road that wound next to the river. So beautiful!
The crowds on this course were so great! There were a few stretches where there weren't a lot of folks around, but when there were people cheering on the course they were SO INTO IT! I saw people dressed up as T-Rexes, flamingos, and event Santa Claus was there cheering the runners on. So many folks from the community (beyond the race volunteers) came out to hand out water, snacks, candy, and even booze to the runners. I know that running + booze doesn't tend to mix well for me, but there was a house that had a mimosa station and ya girl was TEMPTED. XD I also really loved the party zones and the junk food stops along the course. The crowd's energy really helped me through the tough miles and kept a smile plastered on my face!
One of my absolute favorite things about this races were the "coaches" they had out on the course. There was a whole slew of runners in bright orange singlets whose sole purpose it seemed was to keep runners amped up and excited to be running the race. So many of them were wearing silly hats and costumes, were cheering the whole 26.2 miles, were giving high fives, and running with people to keep them motivated through the tough miles. I honestly think this is the reason the race has earned the title of "America's Friendliest Marathon". It seemed like their main priorities was to see you smile and to see you cross the finish line and I absolutely love that. I wish they were at every marathon! :D
Crossing the second bridge with the view of the Richmond skyline around mile 16
The only issue that I had this race is a big bout of nausea that hit me from mile 16 to mile 21. The above photo is right before it really hit me. That was not fun. Running on a wonky stomach is never fun because you can't really do anything about it except hope for it to pass. Luckily it did around mile 21 so I cranked up my tunes and kept pushing! Originally Erin and Estee were going to try to meet me at mile 17 but I ended up seeing their text too late too let them know where I was at in the race, but I was ultimately happy that they missed me then because I felt AWFUL! D:
We did manage to arrange to meet at mile 24, though, and it was so great to see them! They were hanging out with a large group of people who were blasting music and dancing and it was just such a fun corner to finally see them and especially at that point of the race, that boost of energy was exactly what I wanted to push through the final two miles! I saw them again at mile 26 which was also so great! I'm honestly so impressed that they were able to get there so quickly XD but it was great to see them at the very end of the race.
Crossing the finish at top speed!
Mile 26 to the finish is 100% DOWN HILL and the hill is honestly no joke. I honestly think I probably would have slipped and fallen if it had been raining XD But it was a welcome end to the race. I'm pretty sure I just let my body go as fast as it wanted all the way across the finish line. You know, solid running technique. XD
Finish line selfie!
After snagging my medal, finisher's hat, and finisher's blanket (this race has SWAGSWAGSWAG), Erin and Estee were able to find me in the crowd. We found a place for me to sit and take my sneakers off (order of business #1 for post-marathon Riley!) and we just hung out in the finisher's area which was so nice. It's always nice to have friendly faces to greet you at the end of a race and to have two pals that came all the way down to Richmond just to cheer me on honestly meant so much.
Rocking all my finisher swag!
I was honestly so surprised that I did not have any leg pain this entire race. Usually my legs cramp up in the later miles or my hips or ankles give me serious grief. That wasn't the case this time around, which I really attribute to the run/walk method. I was super happy with how good my body felt through the whole race (minus the nausea) and I will definitely continue doing the run/walk method for future races! It wasn't until I stopped running and was walking to our grassy area to sit that all the pain and cramping came crashing down on me. XD
The only downfall of a downhill finish is that you have to walk all the way back up the hill to get back to your cars! D: So after about 15-20 minutes of hanging out on the grass/getting food from the finishers tent (pizzaaaaa) we made our way (verrrryyyy slowly) up the hill to head to Secret Sandwich Society for lunch! My stomach was still feeling kind of blah so I just ordered the butternut squash soup and some french fries and honestly it hit the spot! It's always good to have a nice warm meal after spending the majority of the day in some cool, breezy weather.
We headed back to our AirBNB to relax for a couple hours post-marathon before venturing out for ice cream and to meet up with Estee's sister. We also made a stop at a local brewery for Erin to pick up a couple bottles for Cullen (she's such a great wife!). We were all so pooped by the end of the day, though, and had to be out the door by 4AM to catch flights and head home, so we decided to call it a night fairly early. It was honestly so much fun wandering around Richmond with them, even if it was only for a little while!
Overall I had a really wonderful experience running Richmond for my Virginia Marathon. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I was really nervous about toeing the line at another 26.2 but I think this was the perfect marathon to take on this goal once again. I felt so welcomed and encouraged by the community and the runners of this race and I loved that I was able to run with a smile on my face for the majority of the race! I would highly recommend choosing this race if you're looking to run in Virginia. The event was incredible, the people of Richmond were amazing to the runners, the weather was gorgeous, and I honestly have no complaints! :)
OH, and for those curious about my times:
I did vlog my experience running the Richmond Marathon! If you'd like to see me traveling to Richmond, me out on the course, as well as some shots from Erin and Estee's perspective, click play on the video below. I hope you enjoy! :)
