March 31, 2014

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.  
MiMM

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! 


RevCycle_ElectricSpin

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!



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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.  
PhiladelphiaPho

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. 
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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! 
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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.  
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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.
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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. 

LoveRunPhiladelphiaHalfMarathonmedal

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?

26 comments:

  1. damn you are so fast. great job!! ughhh now i am really craving a philly soft pretzel, bottomless sangria and mimosas anddddd a long nap. perfect haha.

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    1. Thanks so much! It hit the spot-although all this junk food called for some healthy eats this morning haha

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  2. i ran the Annapolis 10 miler in the pouring rain, the hardest part was how sopping wet my shoes were! congrats on a solid finish!

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    1. Well kudos to you too then. So much for nice springtime racing haha!

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  3. congrats girlie! bundle up and get lots of great warming things in you.

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    1. Thanks-I took a LONG hot post-race shower followed up by hot coffee and hot food :)

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  4. that mug is too cute; I love it. congrats on your crazy awesome finish!!

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  5. Woooo look at you go with all of these races! I knew you'd do well and you managed to do it in crappy weather. Now I want a philly soft pretzel next weekend, so that's definitely happening. My freshman year of college I ran every single meet outside in the freezing, pouring rain. During my first 5k ever (in college), the thunder started the second I crossed the finish line. I'm pretty accustomed to all weather at this point but I'm still hoping for some good weather this weekend!

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    1. Thanks! Yes I'm totally down for more soft pretzel goodness #allthecarbsalways. Well you are used to bad weather-I'm a newbie runner and wimp so I don't like the rain haha.

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  6. Congrats. You did great. Totally agree with your review. Wish I Iived closer. I would love to do it in nice weather,

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    1. Thanks so much-Philadelphia is a lovely place to run!

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  7. Congratulations on finishing the race & beating your previous 1/2 marathon time. Was this a PR for you, or no?

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    1. Thanks so much! Nope my PR is 1:39. This race was pretty much my average half marathon pace though!

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  8. Congratulations! As a Philadelphian, I heard a lot about the race and was curious to find out how it went, especially with the rain! Sounds miserable, but you still ran awesome!

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    1. Thanks! I grew up right outside of Philly on the Jersey side so I love making an excuse to visit Philadelphia by running races :)

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  9. Congrats on the race! I was there as well... what an adventure! The volunteers were spectacular and I LOVED the post race food. I inhaled the pretzel and crustable on my walk back to the hotel :)

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    1. Thanks so much-definitely an adventure of a day. I agree the post-race food was worth it!

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  10. I was there too! I agree with everything you said, except that the pouring rain started at mile 6.5 for me which pretty much sucked! I wish the race had ended in center city because I would have loved more crowd support at the end. Not many people were cheering for us on MLK drive in the rain! I did totally looooove those food goodie bags, the Tastykakes were literally just what I needed! Congrats on a PR and a seriously awesome finish time in that rain! I'll also be at the Hot Chocolate 5k next weekend, maybe I'll see you there!

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    1. Awesome-the downpour was no fun and like I said I totally needed more crowd support or cheers that second half. Yeah....those tastycakes were gone later in the day :) Fun-definitely follow me on twitter and instagram cause I'll post what I'm wearing if we bump into each other!

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  11. i love running in the rain.. until i start to chafe and get freezing cold and dream of a hot cup of coffee. haha then it's not so fun! props to you for sticking it out in the downpour!

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    1. Agreed! It was fun until the end when I was cold and soaked and wanted to go home! I knew once I made it to mile 6, I had to finish, haha.

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  12. I totally think the viewers are crazier!! At least we warm up and are sweaty so what's a little rain :) I know I am crazy after what we ran through in this weekends relay!

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    1. Welcome to the crazy runner club! I can't imagine standing in the cold for hour to watch a race, haha.

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  13. GREAT RACE GIRLIE!!!! And I love the glow stick tiara!

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  14. Wow... sounds like you did great despite the crappy weather! Thanks for sharing the review... Definitely is helping me mentally prepare for hills, rain, and anything else :)

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