Half marathon

Race Etiquette

| cheriarmour

I ran the Nike Women’s Half Marathon on Sunday morning, which you totally know if you follow me on Twitter, IG, or Facebook. And yes, that is a shameless plug, but ya girl’s gotta eat!

I promise, I promise, I promise, you are going to get a full recap of that race, but I literally took 10 million pictures that I need to get together, and I might actually have to split it up into two posts.  And I literally just thought of that, and I think that’s a good idea.  I might do that!  Less overwhelming that way, right?

Okay, moving right along.  So I had a wonderful time at the race this weekend with the exception of one really really nagging issue.

So, race day, we were organized into corrals according to our estimated finish time, which we estimated way way back in December, when we were registering for the race lottery.   This is where I made my first mistake – I think I was still reeling from the death of my grandmother, and from having puked all over the Greensboro Marathon, because I must have put something much slower than my normal pace in.  When I got my bracelet which organized me into my pace group, I was pretty surprised to see that I was in like the 10:00-10:30 group.  “Alright, no big,” I said to myself.

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I should have known better, because I ran into this issue last year, when I started at that back of my pace group, and spent like the first three miles of the race duck, diving and dodging folks to try and rally for a good nice spot that I could cruise in for the rest of the race.  So that part was my fault, and I should have not been so hard on myself about my pace (I averaged a 9:05 for the race, which is still a little slow for me, but nowhere near that 10:30 I was tripping on).

The rest was just folks with bad manners.

Race etiquette. 

These are a few actual things I observed during the race that created a sometimes annoying, sometimes dangerous situation for me and other runners.

  • Know your pace, and stick to that pace group.  Hey, I was guilty here of starting in a pace group that was a little slow for me.  And I had to work my way up.  But when you start in the 7:30 corral, and you’re walking within the first 3/4ths of a mile, you’re creating a really dangerous situation for the runners around you that have to dodge, have to slam on their “brakes” when you decide to stop, or who have to slow down and idle behind you until they find an out.  Now, I understand that sometimes you start there, and you realize it’s just not gonna happen that day.  And that’s fine.  But that brings me to my next point.
  • If you decide that you’re not gonna stick to your pace, get over, kind of like you’re driving a car, and kind of hang out there while you stretch, catch your breath, tie your shoe, or walk it out.  Again, don’t slam on those brakes because it creates confusion and congestion for the runners behind you.
  • If someone sticks their hand out for a high five, don’t be an a-hole.  High five them back!  Chances are, because you’re with me in the 9:05 minute club, you’re not breaking any records, and you can spare a high five.  Plus, it literally makes the minutes and hours go by a little faster.
  • If you’re stopping to take a photo, get over.  I mean, seriously?  Don’t stop, whip out your friggin iPhone, and have me trippin over you because it’s time to take a selfie.  And I get it, I love a good selfie this time of year, but let’s keep it appropriate.
  • Anticipate water stops.  I saw so many people do these awkward crab walks across like 10 lanes of runner traffic for a cup of Nuun.  Fun fact:  most of the water stops were on both sides of the street (nice perk!) and didn’t require that crab walk.

So these were some of the things that I caught…what are your race pet peeves?

Blogging from the Westin Lobby!

| cheriarmour

Not even kidding.

I’m staying at the nicest hotel ever ever ever, and WiFi isn’t free in the room, so I grabbed a glass of overpriced white wine, and I popped a squat in the lobby to read some blogs, do some commenting, and observe all the drunky monkies as they come in from their nights out.  I’m not judging them.  That hard.  ::evil laughter::

Okay, so I’m staying in the hotel, by my lonesome, taking a much needed “break”.

And by break, I really mean that I’m blogging a bunch, catching up on some wedding stuff, and running a half marathon.  But I get to do it all while sleeping in a very very comfortable bed and watching Bravo without any cats parking on my face like one of them did last night.  Anyone want a free cat, I’m bout sick of that little orange one I adopted last year….(JK freaks!)

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So first thing I did, after I wrangled my bags into my room, was to do a super fast run down to Niketown to check out the name wall that they do.  Last year, my friggin name was on this split, so I was Cherisse no-last-name-til-the-next-line, and this year, by the grace of God, I’m Cheri full-last-name!  Eep!  The run felt good, was really short, and was flat.  I plan to do the same tomorrow morning, wake up really really early and get down there to get my packet, then return here to do a little more work.  I love it here.  🙂

What are you doing on this gorgeous Saturday?  

Sometimes ya just gotta make out in public.

| cheriarmour

photo 1-1 photo 2Sike, when is this EVER okay?  Like, EVER.

Austin, his sister, and I went to the best sushi place in all of Raleigh for dinner to celebrate his sister’s almost-last class in her rotation at Pharmacy school.  She’s really cool, and noted this really odd couple at the bar – an older gentleman and a younger girl, maybe my age.  They flat-out refused to be normal and made out for like 70% of the night, making everyone on the bar side of Sushi Blues uncomfortable.  Cool….

Anyhoo, despite shattering my thumb into 10,000 pieces, I’ve been a able to at least keep up with my runs for the Nike Women’s Half this weekend, and got a run in some friggin beautiful weather in prep for the big race.

Race Prep

I’m so excited for the Nike Women’s Half for a few reasons.  One, having a race to run motivates me to keep up with my running and my fitness.  I work out a ton in real life, but having something to work toward, imagining cruising and ticking off miles on Sunday morning is what has kept me going over the last few weeks.  It’s cool because I get to do it with a million (okay, closer to 15,000) other women, I get to meet other bloggers in a meet-up on Saturday morning before the race :), and I get to spend time in the city that I really am in love with.

So now that I’ve blathered on and on about what my plans are for my weekend in DC, what are you looking forward to this weekend?

 

Rock ‘n’ Roll Raleigh Recap

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Before I dive right into the recap, please take a moment to think about the two men that lost their lives at RnR Raleigh.  That is really scary, and my heart goes out to their families.

Let’s recap the race.

So I told you a little bit about the expo on Friday, and that continued throughout Saturday.  This time, I worked the Brooks tent, which was absolute madness between the shoe fittings and the folks scrambling for novelty items and last minute items they’d forgotten for the race.

DSC_0230Check out our fitting rooms.  I kept expecting them to smell like an actual port-a-john, but they were clean, promise.

Saturday night, I cleaned, and straightened up, and tried to go to bed early, but it was a bust, so I watched 21 Jump Street until I could cobble together 3 or 4 hours of sleep.  I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning (around 4am), showered, and headed downtown early before the streets were closed to traffic.  I beat it all, parked in my expo spot, and hit the VIP suite to do an early pre-race breakfast.

photoMe and a friend, Mimi, of WRAL hanging out.  We noshed on a half a bagel, some fruit, and I took a swing of a Coke for a little bit of sugar.

The race started about 10 minutes late to allow time for folks that were stuck in traffic.  The waves went off and I was a bundle of nerves, but I remained pretty focused and started and finished pretty strong.

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This was the first of many, many hills of that race.  Credit to Austin for the photography with our fancy new camera!

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Finish line!

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Coming down the chute!

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Gotta blow a kiss!  After this, I utilized the full length of all of my legs and cranked it out for the final lap.

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There was a huge fence separating us from the spectators, I’m guessing due to security reasons.

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Here, I was trying to block Austin from making that shot.

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We found fun Mateo (Matthew) after the race!

 

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And the best photo of the entire afternoon?

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So my review of Rock ‘n’ Roll Raleigh?  

The expo:

DSC_0222Incredibly well-done, and well organized.  Besides parking, which was kind of annoying if you weren’t familiar with the city, you could get in and out relatively quickly if one of the booths didn’t suck you in.  Some examples of vendors included Brooks (where I worked one day), Gu (where I worked another), Garmin, Tom Tom, City of Oaks, and Hoka, just to name a very few.  I even caught sight of some of the brands I rock on the regular!

Race Day Logistics: 

Awesome, if you followed instructions and did what you needed to to avoid traffic jams.  I left early, had a plan for parking, and was where I needed to be by 5:30 am.  For other folks, parking proved to be a little more difficult, especially if they did not get to where they needed to be before 6am, when they blocked the streets off.  Once the race started, the waves were really done excellently, and miles were marked extremely well, and from what I could tell, extremely accurately.  There seemed to be a ton of medical personnel on the course, and a lot of bathrooms.  Water stops were well-manned, and there was an excellent variety of Gatorade, a Gu stop for us, as well as water.  I was especially impressed with how clearly the split between the marathoners and half marathoners was defined – there was no way you could get confused on that.

The course. 

So. Hilly.  I mean, I run in Raleigh, I looked at the course beforehand, but that course was really really hilly, and really challenging.  It was not a day for a PR, and it was pretty much, to date, the most challenging race I’ve ever done.

The finishers celebration.

DSC_0298Very cool, and done in a HUGE venue, where you could cop a squat anywhere.  There was pizza, chocolate milk, bananas, and cold bottle waters for finishers, as well as some food trucks parked.  I kinda wish there were more food trucks, but there was adequate stuff to eat.

Overall?

Competitor has done it again, as far as pulling off a great race.  It’s streamlined, it’s neat, and people really come out to spectate these races.  Raleigh would be remiss in its duties to not allow them back.

That said…

The day was darkened by the loss of two of its competitors, participants in the half marathon who tragically lost their lives.  This was due to no fault of the race, and I truly wish for swift healing for the families of those participants lost.  That said, as I go forward and run in the future, I will be extra vigilant with keeping my body healthy, especially on a hot, hilly day like today was, and I plan on running this race again in the future.

How was your race or run this weekend?

 

I don’t know what to say.

| cheriarmour

The race was awesome.  The course was hot and hilly, and I was a little scared going in because of how ill I had been with my allergies all week, but I crushed it.  It was no PR, but the race was crushed.

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Pre Race Photo

And then after the race, a cloud kind of drifted over our post-race celebrations, after we’d grabbed our free beer and headed out to a local bar (with terrible service) to grab some more non-free beers. After checking Twitter, our friend Jess found out that WRAL, the presenting sponsor, was reporting that two people had died at the race.

I don’t want to be funny, or silly, or crazy right now – I want to extend my deepest and most sincere condolences to the families of the two men who lost their lives today. I will catch you all soon ❤

I wrote a real thing.

| cheriarmour

I kinda forgot that I wrote this thing for NPR a few months ago, so when I got a call from a really cool Carol Jackson,  I sorta had no clue what she was talking about for like 10 seconds before I remembered I’d written a little something something.

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 11.57.28 PMClick through to read the article. 🙂

 

So a Haitian, and two Argentinians walk into Fleet Feet…

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Kinda sounds like a joke, right?

Well it happened.  Except I made a rookie mistake and I didn’t snap a selfie, so I just have to tell you what I was doing with an Argentinian camera crew.  So enjoy today’s favorite gif instead.

So a few weeks back Competitor Group, the group that puts on Rock ‘n’ Roll contacted me – ESPN Run, a division of ESPN that’s really big in Latin American countries needed a local runner, me to like, do what I do and let them film me doing it.

You would think that would make you feel like a boss ass bitch –

boss assBut really, I felt horribly dorky the entire time.

It was like…

…run – but run slow

…stretch slowly so we can see your muscles

…breathe into this mic

…stand still for three minutes, and stare in the same spot.

I’m really excited to see how this footage turns out, and I will snap a quick pic for you all tomorrow, because the guys are coming over tomorrow to film me making breakfast – through the magic of editing, they’re going to make it look like I’m prepping my breakfast in the minutes before the half, without stressing me out and actually following me around on Sunday morning.

So….what are you guys up to today?

The project is still in progress –

5 most memorable moments in life. (Part I)

| cheriarmour

Firstly, I’m having a blast of a time with the new camera that my future mother-in-law got me.  Seriously, I don’t think that you will be hearing any horror stories from me, she’s awesome.  I made sure to play with some filters, and took photos of brunch on Sunday morning with a friend.

DSC_0141 DSC_0142The place was Coquette in North Hills, and in addition to some delicious french toast, they had bottomless mimosas for like $10.  I’m not mad at it, plus I got to hang out with a friend who I’d not seen in a while 🙂  that is the literal best.

Anyhoo.  

I totally stole this idea from Sara at Loving on the Run, but it got me thinking – what are the 5 most memorable moments in my life (thus far)?  This one is tough, but I’ll do the best to get a few of the biggies together.

1.  This is really dorky, but my senior prom was pretty awesome.  I was a big reader in high school and in middle school, and I’d always read about proms and stuff, so I really built the magic up in my mind.  Senior prom was sick awesome, and I think that was one of the most fun nights that I ever had in high school  (and I’m 26 now).  I honestly just remember that I didn’t stop dancing the entire time.

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I’ll leave that right there….

2.  My entire experience at Elon University.  I’ve talked nonstop about how much I fell in love at Elon, but I really learned so much there.  I had incredible classes, incredible teachers, and incredible experiences there.  Incredible incredible incredible.

3.  Years and years ago, I dated someone, who, when I told him about my plan to become licensed in Zumba and teach classes, told me “You aren’t even athletic,” and made fun of me for wanting to try to teach.  I think he apologized later, but it still hurts to think that someone that cared about you could say something like that.  Years later, miles later, and plans later, sometimes when I’m feeling lazy, or when I’m feeling like I don’t want to work  I think about this, and it pushes me through a rough time  I AM athletic.  I AM fit.  I AM strong.  What someone says shouldn’t determine how you live your life.  And I’m so happy I went through with the licensing process, because it was the gateway to all the running I do now.  And I feel like it changed my life.

4.  Us.  Our first date, our second date, the whole getting-to-know you phase, and us, all the way to our engagement. 

308199_738548441023_853436731_n-1We’ve been together for almost three-and-a half years, and the entire process has been fun.  He started out as that guy I kinda was interested in, and he moved to being that guy that we would go on beer dates with each other, to this guy I went on a date with and now we’re getting married and having 5 babies.  Just kidding (kinda!).

5.  Running my first half-marathon.  My first half was the Hallowed Half in Wake Forest.  There are not any pictures unfortunately because Austin was out of town at a funeral, and the entire time I ran, I just thought about Austin, how much I loved him, how I needed to get back home to him, and how bad my inner thighs were chafed at the time.

Okay, so I think I have a few more, so I might split this up into parts, but this is what I got for my 5 most memorable (thus far).  I have some more, but we will get more into those at a later time.  Give me one of your favorite memories!