FINALLY I am taking a minute to post my latest race review~ My intentions of sitting down and blogging on Friday where thwarted by my BIC Bands business. I was blessed with orders, and my goal is to get the product to the clients as soon as I can… so… here we are!
Let’s see… let me start at the beginning. I drove down to Huntington Beach on Saturday to hit up the expo. It’s about an hour and a half to two hour drive for me, depending on traffic. I was being a good runner girl and hydrating the whole way down, rocking out to my new play list and then it hit me….. as I was sitting in good ‘ole Orange County traffic… I had to Pee (sorry to be blunt~ I know my grandpa reads this… but no other way to put it!!! lol) After getting out of the freeway traffic, I got to sit in traffic to get into the expo. ONLY to find out the parking lot was full and was shooed away! (I thought I was about to die at this point!) I had to pull into the state beach parking lot, and had to pay $15 for parking (I know California is broke, but geesh!! that’s ridiculous!) I RAN to the nearest restrooms, only to find out they’re locked (again, CA is broke… so only a few are open….) AFTER finding a usable restroom, I was off to get inline and wait to get into the expo. The line moved quickly, and I was soon in. My friend Heather was waiting inside for me with the number I’d be racing with.
As if I wasn’t already slightly annoyed with the expo so far… to get your bibs, they sent you to the back of the tents. It was packed, hot and stuffy, and I felt bad for the vendors that were along the lines. Once you got your bib, you’d a been a fool to try and get back over to that area~ just a mad house. Another thing~ non of the “official race help” really knew what was going on. They kept giving wrong info (go get your timing chips checked over there…) and the expo tent was just way too small for an even that size. Or at least, put the bibs up front so you those that wanted in and out could do just that.
I did however, enjoy shopping the various booths. (I’ll actually BE at some expo’s later this year… more info on that in a later post…) There is definitely an excited “vibe” in the air at the expo~ it definitely get’s you pumped and ready for the next day. While shopping, I hit up the RunningSkirts.com booth (big surprise, huh?!) and bought me a new skirt. I ended up with the Haute Pink Ultra Skirt. While visiting the booth, they had superstar runner Dane Rauschenberg signing his book. Don’t know who he is? Don’t stress it! I didn’t either (but hey, I’m still a bit of a newbie to this running thing and really don’t know many of the “BIG” names….) Dane ran 52 marathons (all under 4 hours) in 52 weeks! CRAZY! I did purchase his book and I’m currently reading it. Dane was super friendly, and chatted with Heather and I a bit. In chatting, he asked what time we were looking to get and I told him I wanted to break 2 hours. He then asked if I wanted advice on how to do it. (My thought process at this moment: “Someone who knows what the heck they’re doing wants to give me advice? SHOOT! Of COURSE I’ll take it!) Dane said that the secret to getting my time was to go out slower. Keep my pace at 9:15 for the first 5k and then after that pick it up to 9. Instead of putting it all out there in the beginning, save it for the end. Makes sense, right?
My friend Heather that I run with is an AMAZING photographer (seriously, if you live in or around Salt Lake, hit her up!~ I think my Baby girls newborn pics from 4 years ago are still on her site…) BUT, we didn’t take hardly any pictures =( . We did shoot one shot at the expo.
I met this guy while waiting in line to get our bibs. Don’t laugh~ I don’t remember his name… but he happened to be in front of us for this photo op~ Heather and I also took the pic~ but it was one of the official race shots.
After the expo, Heather and I checked into the hotel and headed out to dinner. We knew we wanted to carb overload and asked the front desk for some ideas. We headed out with a map in hand, pulled into the parking lot and after walking up we quickly realized we were under-dressed for the fancy restraunt… should have realized there weren’t many other Ford Explorers in the lot… lol!
We ended up at Maggiano’s and to forgo the hour and a half wait, snuck a seat at the bar. Had some yummy Baked Ziti and even took home some lasagna for later (that was cool!).
Tucked ourselves in for the night after laying out all our race attire.
I’ll post next about race day, but for now I gotta run. My family is looking at me like they are starving….
A Mom On The Run 