The Hills of Howard County

Not sure where to begin with this race recap. This race was very important to me mentally. This was my first half marathon by myself and I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it. I wasn't sure if I would end up walking most of it or going at it half-hearted. So I charged up my shuffle and hoped for the best. Jon was amazing and woke up to come and cheer me on, to be honest I was thankful to have someone there to drive me home!!

It wasn't a wave start so I decided to move to the back of the pack so as not to be run over or start to fast. I will say that even more obnoxious then the joggler (the guy that runs while juggling) is the jogroper (a guy who runs while jump roping). More than one did I contemplate tripping him or grabbing the rope! The first few miles were ok, I kept telling myself to hold back I was only at the beginning.

Then halfway through mile 4 I hit THE hill! Whoever designed this course was either insane or completely masochistic. More then once I looked in front of me and just said "What fresh hell is this"? I was also very thankful to find a waterstop with powerade! This race was like running hills in the Amazon Rainforest! Yet, somehow around mile 8 I found some energy and got back to my intervals and kept it until about mile 12.5 where I began the final climb to the finish. Amazingly enough I actually finished in 2:59:01 which is only 10 minutes off from my half PR. So given the crazy hills I am just glad that I finished without collapsing. So race 1 towards my half fanatic status is complete. Now onto race 2 this weekend in Williamsburg!!

10 miler playlist

Ok so I knew I would be running alone and I needed to have an awesome playlist. So after much googling and some facebook suggestions I came up with the below playlist. Thought I would share since it is hard to find good running song suggestions!

Playlist!

Life Is a Highway 4:37 Rascal Flatts
I'll Make A Man Out Of You 3:22 Donny Osmond & Chorus
Go The Distance 3:14 Roger Bart
Ever Ever After 3:29 Carrie Underwood
Ready To Run 3:53 Dixie Chicks
Take Me Away 3:09 Christina Vidal
Don't Stop the Music 4:27 Rihanna
One Girl Revolution 3:15 Superchic (k)
Songs Like This 2:37 Carrie Underwood
Raise Your Glass (Glee Cast Version) 3:20 Glee Cast
We R Who We R 3:25 Ke$ha
Loser Like Me (Glee Cast Version) 3:19 Glee Cast
Tik Tok 3:20 Ke$ha
I Gotta Feeling 4:49 The Black Eyed Peas
Forget You 3:44 Cee Lo Green
Hey, Soul Sister (Glee Cast Version) 3:41 Glee Cast
It's My Life / Confessions, Pt. II (Glee Cast Version)
Waking Up In Vegas 3:19 Katy Perry
California Gurls (feat. Snoop Dogg) 3:55 Katy Perry
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) 4:04 C+C Music Factory
Naturally 3:23 Selena Gomez & The Scene
Only Girl (In the World) 3:55 Rihanna
Club Can't Handle Me (feat. David Guetta) 3:53 Flo Rida
Footloose 3:47 Kenny Loggins
Rockstar 2:59 Hannah Montana
Four Minutes 3:12 Madonna Ft Justin Timberlake
Minority 2:49 Green Day
Crazy Dreams 3:38 Carrie Underwood
Switch 3:19 Will Smith
Hands Down 3:07 Dashboard Confessional
Till the World Ends 3:58 Britney Spears
Fight for You (HumanJive Remix) 4:57 Ehda

Broad Street 10 miler...yep its flat!

Race recap time!

Broad Street 10 miler

I can say without a doubt this is one of the best races that I have run. All of the elements combine to make it friendly to every type of runner.

So this story actually starts last year at the MCM expo. Jon gets really annoyed but I have this ability to start talking to random people and at expos this is easier. So while walking through the expo I saw a booth that said Broad Street. I went up to the lady and asked her if it was Broad Street as in Broad Street Bullies, Philly Flyers? To which she said "yes, but no one in DC is a FLyers fan". After correcting her and chatting about the Flyers I filled out an entry to win a free entry into the race, and Jon filled one out too. Surprise, surprise we both got a free entry into the race!

Fast Forward 7 months and we are in Philly for the Broad Street 10 miler. We actually got a hotel near the stadium and since it was the 1st game of the Stanley Cup semi-finals we got tickets!! So after a quick trip to the packet pick-up and expo we headed to the Wells Fargo Center for the Flyers game. They lost but it was still fun!

So the next morning we drove across the street to the parking lot, got on the metro (which was free to runners) where we rode to the other end of the line for the start. We got there way to early but found ways to entertain ourselves. It was a wave start but I was in the last corral. It started at 8:30, my wave started at 9, it was a good wait! But we finally got started and it was a great race. Really hot, but it was totally flat! There is only 1 sort-of turn in the whole course.

So I found this Rita's guy while making the only turn by city hall. There was no line (which never happens in Disney) so I took advantage and stopped for a quick pic!. Jon never even saw him. I found this to be really mentally uplifting. This was the first race I had ever run by myself and by mile 6 I was really feeling the mental strain of having to push myself and do it alone! Seriously, it is a lot less fun by yourself! I pushed through and finished at the naval yard in 2:11:47, which was great for me! My only other 10 miler was 2:17:??.

One of the best things about this race is that afterwards, since you run back to your car, was that everyone tailgated the race. People had grills and pop-up tents it was awesome! I look forward to doing this race many more times. It was also the first year that they had a medal for the race. I really like it

Very sturdy and great image of city hall!