MIMM- Electric Rides and Rainy Runs (Love Run Philly Recap)

Ugh. I have so much I've wanted to blog about and so little time. Hopefully this week I can get back on track. I swear I'll update about my races two weeks ago and other random running things! Things have been stressful, packed, and less than marvelous lately, but hopefully that will turn around this week.  

Friday I went to Rev Cycle Studio for an Electric Ride spin event with some friends. It was a 60 minute class with a DJ, blacklights, and glowstick gear.  The class was hard, sweaty, but fun. You bet I kept my glowstick tiara on the whole ride! 

Saturday morning my boyfriend and I trekked up to Philly in the pouring rain to pickup my race things at the Love Run Philly Half Marathon Expo. It's the inaugural year for the half marathon, also known as the race that loves you back (cute!), but still had around 10,000 runners.  The expo was in the Philadelphia Convention Center and was pretty well-organized.  I picked up my Love Run mug, shirt, and bib and pretty much got out of there. I loved the ideas of getting a mug and having a vanity bib where you got to choose what you wanted your race bib to say!

Mine is still packed away, but it looks just like this!

Otherwise,it was the usual race expo tables of running gear, and my cranky self was not in the mood to fight through people to look at some more running clothes I don't need! Sidenote, I've also been convinced I'm getting sick this weekend/today with all the of stomach viruses and upper respiratory infections going around so I was not so well on Saturday.  

Since the convention center is right near Chinatown, my boyfriend and I grabbed some pho a few blocks away which totally hit the spot. It's been way too long since I've had a nice big bowl of pho-it's good for the soul.  

Saturday evening was pretty relaxed and included watching Despicable Me and eating some homemade gravy and meatballs & spaghetti courtesy of my mom. I didn't sleep well because my stomach was really bothering me which lead to more anxiety and sleeplessness-great. I still manged to wake up early Sunday morning, check the weather, get dressed, and eat my banana & peanut butter along with a big glass of Nuun energy. 

Repping Baltimore in one of my favorite shirts!

 The weather on Sunday called for more rain, but it looked like it might stop mid-morning and pick up again in the afternoon. Spoiler alert: this is not what happened! 

See how happy, pre-race Lauren looks?

When I got to the race start, it was lightly raining so I was glad to be wearing my homemade trashbag poncho. The race started and ended at the Art Museum area, like most of the races I've run in Philadelphia.  It was colder at the race start then it was when I left so I was regretting not adding an extra layer to my outfit.  

lovely foggy,rainy weather

The race started promptly at 8 AM, and the course was similar to the Philadelphia Half Marathon course.  The first four miles through the city streets and the Old City area flew by. There was pretty good crowd support , and I was feeling good.  From miles 4-5 we started to head back out past the start to Boathouse Row and towards Fairmount Park.  I knew there was some hills in the park around mile 6, so that wasn't surprising.  Running against the wind with the rain was crappy, but I was glad that my Nuun visor mostly kept everything out of my face.  

Miles 7-11 were crappy. We pretty much did too loops in Fairmount Park and then it was an out and back. Around mile 9 the rain had stopped and I was feeling warm so I ditched my trashbag poncho.  Miles 7-9 were in a straight line and then you turned around somewhere around 9 and went in a straight line back the way you came for miles 9-11.  There was little crowd support or anything going on so it was really rough for me and felt like it took forever to get to each mile marker. This is one of the first races where I only looked at my Garmin once, and went strictly by the course for distance markers. I knew I was ahead of the 8 min/mile pacer so I just felt out my pace and ran, which I am pretty proud of.  

Around mile 10, it started to downpour. I was already wet so I just accepted being soaked, which is all you can do. However ,I was cold and wet and just wanted to be done.  Those last few miles were just about me pushing to get this race done. I was completely soaked, but managed to finish the race with a smile on my face. I grabbed my medal and a desperately-needed Heatsheet and walked to the food tent to grab my bag of goodies. I still managed to finish in 1:42:27 (one second faster than my half marathon two weeks ago!) with an average pace of 7:48, with not bad placing.

It was still a downpour so I managed to meet up with my boyfriend and parents who sadly missed me crossing the finish line. They didn't know who was crazier, me for running a race in that weather or them for coming to watch me! (The answer is me, of course). By the time we got to the car I was shivering and wet-all I wanted were some dry clothes! The little food bags we received were pretty nice-I scarfed down a Philly soft pretzel (LOVE)  and a banana.  They also had some PB&J, Snyder's potato chips and butterscotch krimpet Tastycakes for a nice Philly flair.  I missed out on the hot chocolate, but hopefully I'll be enjoying that next weekend a the Hot Chocolate 15K in Philadelphia. 

The medal is pretty large and has a fun little spinning "O" in the word "Love"! 

All was well when I got home and took a long hot shower, and then ended up at brunch with the family which included bottomless mimosas/sangria. Don't worry, that was followed by a long nap :)

Overall I thought the race was pretty well-organized and had lots of volunteers-even in the crappy weather.  It was a pretty great race and course (minus the straight,boring stretch) and something I'd probably run again-hopefully in better weather!

Have you ever run a race in the rain? What is your favorite post race eats?