In short, the Scope It Out 5K was amazing for many different reasons. We arrived in D.C. around noon on Saturday. We had to pick up our bibs and d-tags at City Sports in Dupont Circle by 1PM. We got that taken care of and wanted to get lunch since we couldn't check in to our hotel until 3PM. I had been wanting to try this cupcake place called Hello Cupcake and turns out we parked right across the street from it! I was so happy and who cares that we hadn't eaten lunch then. :-) I got the Cookies-n-Cream cupcake and D got the 24 Carrot cupcake. I had a little bite of his and both were very delicious, especially the Cookies-n-Cream. So after our cupcake stop, we continued to walk around the circle looking for lunch. We ate at a place called Potbelly's because D saw a sign that said lunch special-he is all about a good deal! They had the "Skinny" sandwiches and small bowls of soup. I got the Tuna skinny and D got the T-K-Y (turkey) skinny. Both sandwiches were very good. We also split a small bag of kettle BBQ chips. We had plenty of time to kill afterwards so we went in a couple of shops and even sat down on the benches in the circle and just talked. Once our parking meter was up, we headed back towards Arlington. We still had about an hour to kill so we hit up Marshall's. D wanted to get a new shirt and tie and I wanted to get a short sleeve shirt for the race. We finished up our shopping and headed to the hotel.
We got checked in and got our bags out of the car. I had brought a light jacket and a heavy jacket but I wanted to bring both so I told D to grab it out of the car because I wanted to wear the heavy one to the concert (remember his birthday present was tickets to the Kem concert). That's when he told me that he didn't bring clothes for the concert!!!!!!!! He had on track pants and a UGA sweatshirt so he couldn't wear that to the concert. We both were in disbelief! I was cracking up because if you know us, I would definitely be the one to forget my clothes when traveling away from home-not D. So we headed back to Marshall's. I had planned to take a nap but this trip cut my nap time out. I also got a different shirt to wear to the concert so it was a trip that was well worth it. We also got pasta for dinner before the concert. The concert was great! We both enjoyed ourselves. We got back to the hotel about 11 and got our stuff ready for the next morning. We wanted to be up by 6:30 and at the train station by 7:30.
Sunday morning we got up and got dressed. We ate a light breakfast (half of a banana, half of a bagel with peanut butter). We walked to the train station, actually we lightly jogged because it was so cold! We got to the race site and we are walking to where the vendors are and I hear someone call my name! I turn around and its my Aunt Valerie!!!!!!!! I was so, so, so, surprised!!!
I had talked to her on Saturday and she said that she wished she could be there. Back story: my aunt was diagnosed with colon cancer May 2010. This was a race for colon cancer research so of course she was my motivation for running this race. I felt like I had a vested interest and knew that it would help me throughout the race. So we spent a few minutes taking pictures and video. Shortly before 8AM we headed towards the start. The race was nothing like I imagined. I had no idea what to expect so that's kind of a good thing. D and I started off and pretty much stayed in the middle. The weather was cold at the beginning but very shortly we both started to warm up. I just remember hearing the footsteps of all the runners and I felt exhilarated. D and I pretty much kept the same pace although, I took the lead for the most part. :-) I had my iPod and I don't even remember listening to the music other than the first song. I felt a little fatigued probably between 2.25-2.50 miles. D kept saying "almost there baby" He was a great partner. When we got to the part of the course that I could see the finish line sign, I got chills. I saw the first (last) mile marker which was mm 3, I knew the end was in sight. Lots of people were on the side line cheering and saying "sprint to the end"! I started to sprint and it felt great! I told D to speed up but he slowed down because the paparazzi (my aunt) was taking pictures of me crossing the finish line. I finished in 32:57 which is the fastest I've ran 3.1 in all of my training. I also finished under my goal of 35:00 minutes. I ran about a 10:37 mph pace which was also amazing! I know the sprint at the end added to this! Oh yeah-I RAN THE ENTIRE THING!!! That was very important to me and I did it-thank Jesus!!! He will grant you the desires of your heart. D finished right behind me! We took more pictures and got water and fruit and granola bars to eat. We headed back to the train and made plans with my aunt and her friend Ms. Marion for lunch. We went to Chevy's Mexican Cantina and ate yummy food! I also got a blood orange margarita-one of my first drinks since starting on my plan. This race was a great one for my first race and now I am addicted to running more. I will go into more detail when I share my April goals next week!
We got checked in and got our bags out of the car. I had brought a light jacket and a heavy jacket but I wanted to bring both so I told D to grab it out of the car because I wanted to wear the heavy one to the concert (remember his birthday present was tickets to the Kem concert). That's when he told me that he didn't bring clothes for the concert!!!!!!!! He had on track pants and a UGA sweatshirt so he couldn't wear that to the concert. We both were in disbelief! I was cracking up because if you know us, I would definitely be the one to forget my clothes when traveling away from home-not D. So we headed back to Marshall's. I had planned to take a nap but this trip cut my nap time out. I also got a different shirt to wear to the concert so it was a trip that was well worth it. We also got pasta for dinner before the concert. The concert was great! We both enjoyed ourselves. We got back to the hotel about 11 and got our stuff ready for the next morning. We wanted to be up by 6:30 and at the train station by 7:30.
Sunday morning we got up and got dressed. We ate a light breakfast (half of a banana, half of a bagel with peanut butter). We walked to the train station, actually we lightly jogged because it was so cold! We got to the race site and we are walking to where the vendors are and I hear someone call my name! I turn around and its my Aunt Valerie!!!!!!!! I was so, so, so, surprised!!!
I had talked to her on Saturday and she said that she wished she could be there. Back story: my aunt was diagnosed with colon cancer May 2010. This was a race for colon cancer research so of course she was my motivation for running this race. I felt like I had a vested interest and knew that it would help me throughout the race. So we spent a few minutes taking pictures and video. Shortly before 8AM we headed towards the start. The race was nothing like I imagined. I had no idea what to expect so that's kind of a good thing. D and I started off and pretty much stayed in the middle. The weather was cold at the beginning but very shortly we both started to warm up. I just remember hearing the footsteps of all the runners and I felt exhilarated. D and I pretty much kept the same pace although, I took the lead for the most part. :-) I had my iPod and I don't even remember listening to the music other than the first song. I felt a little fatigued probably between 2.25-2.50 miles. D kept saying "almost there baby" He was a great partner. When we got to the part of the course that I could see the finish line sign, I got chills. I saw the first (last) mile marker which was mm 3, I knew the end was in sight. Lots of people were on the side line cheering and saying "sprint to the end"! I started to sprint and it felt great! I told D to speed up but he slowed down because the paparazzi (my aunt) was taking pictures of me crossing the finish line. I finished in 32:57 which is the fastest I've ran 3.1 in all of my training. I also finished under my goal of 35:00 minutes. I ran about a 10:37 mph pace which was also amazing! I know the sprint at the end added to this! Oh yeah-I RAN THE ENTIRE THING!!! That was very important to me and I did it-thank Jesus!!! He will grant you the desires of your heart. D finished right behind me! We took more pictures and got water and fruit and granola bars to eat. We headed back to the train and made plans with my aunt and her friend Ms. Marion for lunch. We went to Chevy's Mexican Cantina and ate yummy food! I also got a blood orange margarita-one of my first drinks since starting on my plan. This race was a great one for my first race and now I am addicted to running more. I will go into more detail when I share my April goals next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment