Wasn't it just last Monday?!?!

Why, hello there, smack-dab middle of April!
Where the eff did you come from?!?

Another weekend has come and gone.
And this one was a delightful one!

Friday afternoon, I traveled an hour and a half north with my sweet little family to Richmond, VA.
We met up with my mom who traveled 3 plus hours down to meet us in Richmond to watch me in the race/spend the weekend with us!
We checked into our hotel and off to the expo to pick up my bib and race swag.
This place was a cluster F from the driving/parking to the facility itself.
It was hot as balls in the building which makes for a cranky as shit pleasant husband!

I wanted to peruse every possible vendor but there were so many people and it was hot.
Not to mention our ever-moving 18 month old who wanted nothing to do with being in his stroller.
And did I mention my husband was cranky?

I was on a mission for some Bondi Bands so I knew that was a definite stop.
I found the table no problem.
Perhaps the mountains of bands on a table made it stand out.
But that also made it hard to find the ones I was looking for!
I'm super indecisive so I know I was at the table for awhile.
Which made my husband all the more merry!
But I finally managed to pick these 3:

We finally got out of there and had a nice carbolicious meal at Panera Bread.
Back at the hotel, it was time to unwind.
And spend an hour plus getting Royce to sleep.
Then another 2 hours for me to fall asleep.
Only to be woken up an hour later by my sweet little baby.
I may have slept from 2am-6am.
MAY HAVE.

(Not to mention my poor mom that paid for our hotel room got kicked out of the bed to the hotel floor by her sweet little grandson who just wasn't happy until he was in the bed with his mommy)

Our alarm went off bright and early.

I was tired.

But I was more excited for the race so that exhaustion would just have to take a back seat.

We got breakfast and walked the 2 miles from our hotel to the starting line.

(Nice little warm up!)

There were thousands of people there.

(32,000 runners to be exact...ish)

Music pumping.

I was getting excited!

I said goodbye to my mom, husband and baby and went to get into my corral.

(Wave M for Move the eff over, I'm coming through!)

As each wave set off, we got closer to the starting line.

The music. The vibes. The energy. was intoxicating!

I was surrounded by people, not knowing a sole and dancing my ass off.

I was amped!!

Finally it was my turn to go.

And "go", I did!

Miles 1-3 went by super fast and felt a breeze!

My legs felt so good.

I hit the half way mark and knew a text would be sent to my husband letting him know where I was in the race. #awesomeracefeature

There were so many spectators just a-yellin' those encouragements!

It felt so good.

I may or may not have seen people on the side handing out free RVA (Richmond, VA) stickers and cut across specifically to get one.

#iheartfreeshit

I may or may not have stayed on the outside to high five all those cute little kiddos anxiously holding their hands out! 

I was enjoying this race so much!

Miles 4 -6 were kind of tough.

My pace slowed a tad and my legs were starting to get heavy.

But the adrenaline from so many people and wanting that PR kept me going!

Strong to the end!

When I stopped my Map My Run app I saw this:

I was stoked that it was not only under my PR hopes of 55 minutes, but it was under 54 minutes!

Well, apparently I should have paid less attention to stopping this at exactly 6.2 miles

(cos 6.2 per my app was actually at the 6 mile marker on the race course)

And paid more attention to upping my speed just a tad more at those last 2 tenths of a mile cos this was my official race time:

55:03!!


4 stupid seconds over my goal!

Now, let me get this straight.
That is a great time!!
I'm 100% proud of that time.
Under an hour, eff to the yeah!!

But, I'm a numbers person.
To an OCD-ish tendency... 

(Anyone remember where I said I had to stop my app at exactly 6.2 even though I hadn't actually finished the course that I was currently in the middle of running?!?! Point proven.)

While proud of knowing I did great, I was bummed that I don't have a completely accurate account of how I'm actually doing.

My phone app uses GPS to asses the mileage.

It's not going to be 100% accurate.

But I want to know exactly how I'm doing.

I want to know what I'm capable of doing in an actual race...

...what times I'm capable of beating in an actual race. 

I over analyze to a fault.

I need to know what to expect going into any situation. 

I have control issues.

But that's another post for another day. 

#bloggingischeaptherapy

Anyway....

After we hung around the post race festival for a little bit, we headed back along the race course for the 2-mile trek to our hotel. 

This was a total highlight of this event for me, because I got to cheer on the runners/walkers still doing the race.

I loved shouting out mad encouragement to them!

...letting them know "You're doing great!"

"Keep going!"

"You can do this!"

"Looking good!"

 

The appreciation in their smiles back were like a runner's high for me.

I felt some of them looked at me after hearing my encouragement and seeing my bib number, thought "Hey, she did it. She finished. I can too." 

It was either that or "Stupid bitch. I hate you for already being done."

Either way, GO GET 'EM, TIGERS was what I was thinking!

But the real award goes to this guy right here!

 "I need more cowbell!"

He was such a trooper my mom and husband said.

Didn't give them too much hell having limited space to run all around.

He's my biggest fan and my biggest encourager!

(With a close second being my husband and mom! THANK YOU for being there to support me!)

 Helping mama refuel post race!

And next week, he'll by my race buddy (along with some kick ass friends) in the Color Me Rad 5k this coming Saturday!  

And don't worry...

This race is for pure fun!

We'll probably walk the whole thing.

So no "woe is me and my time" post next Monday!  

Now y'all get out there on this Monday and...

GO GET 'EM, TIGERS!