Sole of the City 10K 2012

This was the first running of the "Sole of the City 10K" hosted by Charm City Run. I loved the run and think it was really well organized event! Would recommend to all.

Overall rating? A

Main complaints? None

Favorite parts? The premium!

Communication before the race? A

Expo? None- but they did have race day packet pickup

Premium? A. Under Armour long-sleeved quarter zip

Water Stops/Aid Stations? A . Definitely frequent enough and well stocked! Wish they had used paper cups instead of plastic cups

Finisher's Medal? N/A

Finisher's Festival? A. Great boxed lunches from the Greene Turtle!

Would I run this race again/recommend it to anyone? YES Defeinitely.

Run for Love 5K

This morning my good friend Emilie Cecil and I "Ran for Love". The course started at Fraternity Row at the University of Maryland, and wrapped its way around Lake Artemesia. Although it was untimed and a little short of a 5K, I still had a great time :)

2012 Cherry Blossom 10-miler

This was one of the first
runs I did for Lew Goode,
 battling brain cancer.

One of my dear friends, Lewis Goode was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. This was one of the runs I did "for Lew". Ever since he was first diagnosed, whenever I lace up my running shoes, I run for him. Whenever I hit a wall in a run, I think of Lew and he helps me get through. This is for you, LEW!

I'm glad I did the George Washington Relay two months ago! I didn't really train much for this 10 miler, but I really enjoyed it. It was great to be out in DC, and after not "making the cut" last year, I was happy to lace up my shoes and run with thousands of other runners in DC for this historic event. In 2011, I entered the lottery, but was not chosen to run so I opted to volunteer (I helped with the random drug testing for the elite athletes :)).

Overall rating? B

Main complaints? None really - race was punctual, court marshals were around

Favorite parts? Probably the fact that it retraced part of the Marine Corps Marathon 2011 course.

Communication before the race? A

Expo? C. Kinda small - was in the National Building Museum, but wasn't bad for an expo for a 10 miler!

Premium? D. The shirt sucked - the design was lame and all we got was a cotton tee. I understand it's expensive to host a big event like this in such a large city, but come on... at least give us a tech tee :)

Water Stops/Aid Stations? A . Definitely frequent enough and well stocked!

Finisher's Festival? C. Average. Nothing to write home about

Would I run this race again/recommend it to anyone? Yeah

Ran for "Lew"

One of my favorite pics - kind of invigorating
to have the guy behind you tear his shirt
off :)

George Washington Memorial Run: Marathon Relay

Two of my best friends and I have been running together since high school and decided we should all run together in a race...which wound up being the GW Memorial Run in Greenbelt, MD. Apparently it has been put on for 50 some-odd years by the Washington Road Runners. I ran the first leg of the run, which was the longest leg(~9.3 miles) , and really enjoyed it. This was one of my first low-key races, and I really enjoyed it! I'm not sure what my time was exactly, but our team name was "Da Gazelles". I had a great time and really think the race was put on well - they had a great meal at the end of it! No complaints :)

Overall rating? A

Main complaints? It was a smaller race, but that isn't really a complaint

Favorite parts? Running through a hidden gem of Prince George's County - the Beltsville Agricultural area!

Communication before the race? A

Expo? Wasn't one. Nice that we had race day packet pickup

Premium? A. Black Brooks tech gender-specific tee

Water Stops/Aid Stations? A .Plenty of water!

Finisher's Medal? None

Finisher's Festival? They had a hot meal for us in the Greenbelt Community Center - loved it!

Would I run this race again/recommend it to anyone? YES 

The Worst. Race. Ever: Hot Chocolate 15k 2011

Want to run the worst race of your life? Run a RAM Racing event. Everything possible that could go wrong will go wrong. Sorry to start this post off so negatively.... but I can't help myself :).

To start things off, you had to purchase a "parking pass" (which was like $15) to park at Rosecroft Raceway. No one enforced the parking passes, so you could have easily parked for free. Next, you had to hop on a bus to the starting line, which wasn't THAT bad, but our driver had no idea where they were going. Once you arrived to the start, it was FREEZING (I'm pretty sure it was below 30 degrees) and there was one small tent for all of the thousands of runners to stand in. Obviously we all didn't fit. About half an hour before the race, they started to corral us at the starting line. They kept doing a count down for when the race was going to start....but it never started.... 1 hour and 15 minutes later the gun went off. We literally stood there and froze our hineys off for 1 hour and 15 minutes. If we had used the "premium" we were given (which was simply a black trash bag with the Ram Racing logo on it), we would have been even colder!  There was no way to stay warm (since we had already handed our bags in) except to huddle together like penguins. Also, you couldn't leave to go to the bathroom, which made the wait that much more painful!

We were told that the race was delayed because of an accident on the highway, even though there were no police reports of accidents - only heavy traffic and there was not enough parking for all of the runners (they had originally had the race open to like 4,000 runners and 20,000 runners wound up being there). Once the race started, we found ourselves running on uneven pavement, and even in the same direction as traffic at one point!! They had one lane closed on a four lane highway and we ran the SAME DIRECTION as traffic, so if a car decided to swerve through the cones or one of us tripped and fell over the line of cones, we were toast. Once we crossed the finish line (which was uphill), we had to walk a half mile up ANOTHER hill to the "chocolate festival". Sounds great, right? Nope. Barely gave us any chocolate! I definitely think this race was a ripoff and would never recommend an event put on by RAM Racing to anyone in the future.

Overall rating? F

Main complaints? Everything that could have gone wrong did. They didn't enforce the parking permits, started an hour late, and the premium SUCKED

Favorite parts? None. Well, maybe the fact that a Prince George's County cop was actually SMILING made it okay haha

Communication before the race? C

Expo? D. Bad. Should have bailed for the actual race once I realized how bad the expo was

Premium? F. Basically the equivalent of a black trash bag with a sticker thrown on

Water Stops/Aid Stations? C. Barely any.

Finisher's Medal? None

Finisher's Festival? We had to walk a mile uphill to get to it once we finished and it was not unlimited Ghiradelli Chocolate like we all thought - we only got a little bit

Would I run this race again/recommend it to anyone? Nope! I would actual not recommend anyone ever run a race put on by RAM Racing

Marine Corps Marathon 2011

Finished:  15874 out of 21023

Bib #14431

Age:       19

Finish Time: 5:19:05

Overall : 42.7% , sex place: 5871/8598 , division place: 60

Ice bath once I got home! bbrrrrr

At the finish of my first full marathon - finished in  5:19:05

 I ran my first full marathon on October 30, 2011; the Marine Corps Marathon. I had to get up super early to take the metro to the start....we had to walk in the cold/dark for ~1 mile to the start once we got off the metro. Tons and tons of port-a-potties! It was pretty cool to see the sun rise! All I can remember is that I had layers upon layers upon layers on. After I took last one last potty break, I handed my bag to the UPS men (they have the UPS trucks transport your bags to the finish) and headed to the start! I was so pumped/nervous - my longest run had been ~15 miles , was I ready??

Gun goes off....my iPod dies. How exciting. I had run every training run with my trusty iPod and even made sure it was charged the night before!!! No dice. It was AWFUL! So off I went... 

About 15 miles into the marathon, my feet started to hurt. I cried, stomped my feet and told myself how much I hated myself for walking ! I learned pretty early on in cross country in high school if you walk, you're a failure...and that's pretty much how I felt. It took me just over a year once I started seriously running again that I would get over this awful philosphy that if you walk, you fail. Around mile 18 I met a nice young fellow from Illinois who was also on the struggle bus.... I think his name was Sam (he's in the left of this picture below)

We ran the majority of the rest of the marathon together. My goal was to get to the 14th street bridge before the cut off, and I did! The worst part was probably the 14th street bridge - it was so hot, barren, and no people were there to cheer you on. We then meandered our way through Crystal City (I was delusional by this point--but I do remember there being tons of people and donut holes - which are my favorite). 

One of my friends was planning on meeting me / cheering for me, but by the time we reached mile 21 and I hadn't seen her so I kind of gave up on all hope....and then I saw her at mile 25! From Crystal City to the finish it was quite uneventful - and there weren't many people cheering for you. I did run with a lady for a short amount of time who was running her second marathon (I think?) and we chatted for a little bit - until we were passed by a 16 year old! How crazy. 

Overall rating? C

MAIN COMPLAINTS: VERY crowded, long lines for the metro (even though they had shuttles to Crystal City the lines for the buses were long)-- took me almost 3 hours to get home (College Park!) from Roslyn via Metro!!, horrible premium 

Communication before the race? N/A. Honestly, I don't remember - this was almost 2 years ago! I don't remember anything that bad?

Expo? B. There were a lot of vendors, but I think they could have chosen a better location than the Armory...

Premium? D - they give you an awful mock-neck turtle neck...if you've been hosting a race for as long as you have, you'd think the participants would get a little nicer of a shirt that actually fits them and doesn't choke them, right?

Water Stops/Aid Stations? B - There were plenty of water / aid stations, my only complaint is that they handed out pretty nasty GUs , and if you couldn't stomach GU or weren't able to carry nutrition you were pretty screwed. I still ran with my 4-bottle FuelBelt, but never had to stop to refill the bottles. I took Gatorade and Water at every stop they were offered!

Finisher's Medal? A. Probably the most bad-ass medal I will ever get! It had a spinny globe in the center of it!

Finisher's Festival? C- Really crowded  (I'm pretty sure we were all funneled in to single file lines to get food and that's pretty hard to do when there are tens of thousands of cold, hungry, stinky runners!).

Would I run this race again/recommend it to anyone? No. Too crowded, didn't like the premium; could have been much better!

2011 Baltimore Half Marathon

Me before the 2011 Baltimore half - ready to  go!

Starting Line

This was my second time running the Baltimore Half Marathon and I loved it! I really don't remember much from it, except my friend Harley drove up with me to cheer me on, and I didn't have the fastest time (2:17). I did finish and enjoyed it just as much as the year before.

Finished 5021 out of 9150 runners
Bib # 30279
Age: 19
Time: 2:17:40

My friend Harley took this picture -- I'm  turning around waving :)

Overall rating? A

Main complaints? None

Favorite parts? I absolutely LOVE running through Baltimore, especially since I've lived in the area my whole life. The "merge mile" (mile 3 of the half when we joined with the marathoners) was pretty inspirational too . I LOVE LOVE LOVE the premium - an Under Armour t-shirt. Can't complain!

Communication before the race? A

Expo? A. Just the right amount of vendors. This year it was in the Baltimore Convention Center which was kind of a pain to find parking for, but there was more than enough room in the venue

Premium? A. Under Armour orange tech tee. 

Water Stops/Aid Stations? A . Definitely frequent enough and well stocked!

Finisher's Medal? A . Cute crab on it - loved it!

Finisher's Festival? B+. The only reason why it's not an A is because there is only one way out for all of the thousands of runners. It was pretty awesome to have men from Helping Up Mission there handing out water and food. THANK YOU!

Would I run this race again/recommend it to anyone? YES Defeinitely. I'll run it every year until the day I die