Running Rut :(

I am in a running rut - I admt it.. After the ING Half Marathon I was exhausted from training. Also, we moved into a house about a week later, so I was busy busy and really ran out of time to run. Now that we are in the house I have been consuming myself with "fixing" it up - painting, working in the yard, decorating, etc. It has been crazy around our house. I have just stopped running all together.

A couple of friends wanted to run the Big Peach 5k a couple weekends ago. Of course, I was excited to do it - especially since I would actually get to run it with friends! I barely ran in the weeks beforehand because I was busy with the house. Also, David's dad had been in a motorcycle accident the weekend before and we'd been in Pensalcola for a few days. Before I knew it the race was only a few days away and I had barely run. The week before I attempted to get some solid 3 milers in with hills just to make sure I was ready. That week I was overwhemed with stuff to do, so I only managed to run a couple days of the week. Then there it was - the day of tha race. I didn't think it was that big of deal that I hadn't run a lot over the last couple weeks. I thought, 3 miles? Pshhh. No problem.

Well, it was a problem. I started off feeling ok, but knew right away that I wasn't in my best shape. My goal was to keep up with my guy friends (which I may have actually been able to do if I'd been training), but there was no way that was happening for this race. Within the first 5 minutes, the guys were off and I couldn't even seem them in the distance. I kept my pace steady, but with every 1/2 mile I felt it slipping. We were not even at mile 1 when I felt a horrible cramp right near my ribs. I'd had cramps before, but never one right there basically in my rib cage. It was miserable. With every breath I took in, my ribs just ached in pain. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?" I thought. "What did I eat this morning?" 3/4 of a Luna Bar and a small glass of water. I couldn't figure why this cramp was here. I just pushed through it, thinking it would go away pretty soon, but no. I had that sucker almost the entire time. I think it finally passed with 3/4 mile to go. Just my luck. I think I knew it was bad when I saw this huge hill near the last mile. It wasn't huge in terms of steepness, but it was a steady incline that just seemed to last forever. In my opinion, they are the worst!!! I'd rather take a steep incline any day. About halfway into the hill I just felt like I was just done - like I just wanted to walk because I couldn't breathe. I thought to myself, "You just ran 13 miles about a month ago - COME ON!!" With pure anger at myself I made it up the hill. I could see the finish line in the distance, but I had no energy to speed up. I knew that my time would be one of my worst.

I saw a girl from college passing me. She probably didn't recognize or even see me, but I saw her as she passed by. I was so mad at myself because I could tell that I was overall in better shape then her, but she was the one passing me! This is usually the point when I feel like I can give 120% and push through it, but I just felt even more defeated as I got passed. I already felt like I was giving 120%, but that I had nothing to show for it. Two blonde, skinny moms, with their DOUBLE wide stroller started to pass me by. Are you kidding me!??!?! I tried my best to just put it all out of my mind and just focused on continuing to run. One foot in front of the other and no stopping!

I saw David right before I crossed the finish line smiling at me. I hardly looked at him bc i was trying to focus on just making it across the finish. I am normally smiling and waiving, but not that day. Finally I finished with a time of 26:53. Sick. That was definitely my worst time ever. I was mad, but I knew that I hadn't trained at all to get a good finishing time, so why was I suprised?

So here I am - with a disappointing race behind me and busy schedule infront of me. I know one thing, without running I felt a little lost and kinda sad to be honest. I definitely don't feel as good about myself. I need the exercise. I WANT the exercise! It makes you feel better all around. So today is THE DAY! I have 7 weeks until Peachtree. This year the Peachtree has qualifying times that determine what start group you will be in. I had a pretty good qualifying time from the US 10k, so I should get a good starting group. I am hoping to simply beat my time from last year, which I think it definitely possible. So here, I go again. I am glad I taking a step in the right direction.

The plan for this week?

Monday: 3 mile run + strength
Tuesday: 3.0 miles
Weds: 35 minute tempo run
Thurs: 3.5 miles + strength
Friday: OFF
Saturday: 4.5 mile Long Run
Sunday: some kind of cross training

ING Half Marathon

Race day weather was cloudy and chilly. My girlfriend, Jenn and I met at the Marta station at 5:45 am, so that we could catch the train downtown and have time to check in before the race. The train ride was packed with runners and you could feel the excitement in the air! Jenn and I were feeling kind of nervous actually, but we knew it was just the pre-race jitters!

When we got off the train we walked to Centennial Olympic Park where the race was to start. There were people EVERYWHERE! We checked our bags and started stretching our cold muscles. I couldn't believe how chilly it was and the wind was blowing like it was going to start raining any second. We were all praying that that the rain would at least hold off until we were actually hot and sweaty!

We headed to the start line and found our starting corrals. This is always the most nerve racking time for me. I just want to start running already! Enough with all the build up! Soon it was 7 am and we were headed out.

The race course was one of my favorites because of all the awesome places we got to see. Like I mentioned, it started at Centennial Olympic Park in Downtown Atlanta and continued through the city to Georgia State University. We then ran past the Atlanta Civic Center and over the Jackson Street bridge with seriously one of the most spectacular skyline views of Atlanta I've ever seen! I had to slow down and just take in the view. It was so cool!

Then it was onto the Martin Luther King Jr Historic District by the house where Dr. King was born. It was an incredible feeling thinking that MLK had walked these very same streets that I was now running. And with that, the skies opened up and showered us with a little rain. It never poured - just drizzled, and drizzled, and drizzled some more. No one seemed to mind though as we were all pretty hot at this point.

The course continued through Atlanta neighborhoods - Old Fourth Ward, Inman Park and Little 5 Points- for miles 4-6. I think it was about there at Mile 6 or so that a girl running in the race next to me answered her cell phone. YES, she was running with her cell phone. Not in a bag or anything, just holding it in her hand for 13 miles. EEKK! Anyhow, she answered the phone (this was funny to see). When she hung up she looked over at me (I had no idea who this girl was) and she said, the first place runner just crossed the finish line. SAY WHAT? We had almost half the race to go and the first guy already finished. WOW!

Anyway, we continued running onto through the Poncey-Highland neighborhood where the Half Marathon course splits from the Marathon course. At this point we had just started mile 7 and I thought to myself, "I am so glad I am not running the MARATHON!" I felt bad for those guys as they turned the corner. They had 19 more miles to go!!! After the split, we ran into Piedmont Park. While in the park I realized that we were about 9.5 miles into the race. I felt like I was almost there!! I was excited, but soon started thinking about how far Piedmont Park was from Centennial Olympic (the finish) and I cringed. We still had awhile to go...

We then ran through Midtown and up some BRUTAL hills! Huge hills on Mile 10? Yikes!!!! I was exhausted. My knees were starting to ache. The course flattened out as we crossed the bridge over I-75/I-85 and ran through the Georgia Tech campus. Now I was at Mile 11 and thinking, "oh please, Lord get me through this!!!"

When we finally turned onto Marietta St I knew the finish line was coming soon! What a relief. My exhaustion turned into adrenaline when I say the 12 Mile Marker! Only one more mile to go! I started looking for my mom and my hubby. I knew they'd be around the last mile somewhere, but I wasn't exactly sure where. I knew I was getting close to the finish line as I could hear the music playing and crowds yelling. My excitement was growing. I saw the photographers on ladders who were taking crowd shots of everyone. I waved and smiled.


I knew this was it, the finish line was coming, but where was the 13 mile marker? I still hadn't seen it.

We turned a big corner and BOOM! There were the crowds, the music, the bells ringing, the homemade signs being waved in the air. 13 Miles and only .1 to go! I could see the finish. "Thank you Lord! I did it" I thought. I lifted my hands in victory and just when I did I heard, "GOOOOOOOO ASHLEY!" I turned to the left and there they were - My mom and David standing in the COLD and drizzle cheering for me. I let out a "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and kept running with a BIG SMILE on my face.

Seeing my family cheering me on is always my favorite part of any race. David got the whole thing on video! It was awesome. I am attaching a link to the video so everyone can check it out.

As I was about to cross the finish line my teammate in her 65 Roses shirt patted me on the back. "Let's go team!" she said. As she crossed the finish line right infront of me I saw the back of her shirt where she'd written, "For my daughter" and I thought, "yeah, this is what running this race was all about...raising money for CF!" What a way to end my journey!

I crossed over that orange and blue mat and I was done. YES! What a sense of accomplishment! It was such a wonderful experience even if it was COLD and a little rainy at times.

I am so grateful for so many people who donated to this awesome cause. Our team, 65 Roses, raised almost $60,000.00 for Cystic Fibrosis! Truly amazing!

watch me cross the finish line here ---> http://vimeo.com/11402036

Gobble Jog - a new thanksgiving tradition!

THE HALF!!

Well, I am writing this many weeks after I ran my race, but what a crazy experience it was. I have to admit that I didn't keep up with the blog as much as I hoped I would, but I simply ran out of time. The half marathon was such a great experience though, so I have to blog about it. Plus, it was what all this training was for.

The half was on October 4th in Brookhaven. David and I are friends with a couple that conveniently lives only a few blocks away from where the start line was located. Kelly and Scott were very gracious and let us stay with them the night before, so that I could avoid having to drive to the race. That was a great bonus considering the race started at 7:00 a.m.

Despite having woken up fairly early we were still running a little late. We underestimated how long it would take to walk there. I saw everyone already gathered at the start line. I felt nervous. People were packed in like sardines in the races corrals. People were already lined up according to their estimated finish time. I noticed that there were only limited places where you could jump in line because the sides of the corrals were barricaded. There was space next to the 1:50 time group to jump in line. Ok, so I knew that was pretty ambitious of me. In fact I knew I was in over my head, but I thought that I'd rather jump in with time group 1:50 then have to go all the way to the back and start with people who were going to walk/run the half.

This would be a good place to talk about my time goal. So they say that for your first half you should never set a time goal. They say your goal should be more realistic like, "to finish without walking" or something like that. Well, that was my goal at first, but then after all my training runs I thought, "oh come on, I know I will run the whole thing, so I should have a time goal." This probably wouldn't have been that big of a deal expect for the fact that I never time myself when doing my long runs. All I cared about was the mileage. So, for all i knew, I could have been running 11-12 minute miles the whole time. I found this online calculator where you can put in your most recent 10k time and it would estimate your Half Marathon time. Well, my last 10k time was a PR of 53 minutes and I used that number to estimate. It told me that my time would be about 1:58-1:59. I knew I'd be cutting it close. The more I read about it though the more I wanted to do it. I'd known several people to run half marathons, but few had run it under 2 hours. I knew that making it under 2 would be a huge accomplishment for my first half.

So I was committed. Anyhow, back to the story- so although I knew that the 1:50 time group would be too fast, I figured I'd stand at the start with them and then get to the right, slow down and fall back with my time group. Well, that is not the way that it went down. When the race started I was so nervous/excited that I just started running with that group of people and forgot all about slowing down. I honestly forgot that I'd started with people who had a faster pace than me. I even remember in the first mile or so thinking, dang, we are going pretty fast.

The first mile was crowded. I didn't even cross the actual start time until about two minutes on the official clock. I wasn't concerned about that though as they had given us crono tags to keep up with our personal race times. These time chips don't start until your foot cross the start line.

Another thing about the start- I was looking for my friend Matt. We had said that we'd meet up near the start and that he'd just call David and find me there. We tried to call him, but there was no answer. He'd injured his IT band earlier in training. He told me that he'd probably run this race slower than usual because of his injury and that we could run together for most of it. Although I was nervous about running with someone (especially someone that was faster than me), I knew it would keep me motivated. So I was kinda disappointed when I didn't see him at the start line.

During the first couple of miles I would try and look for him when people would pass me or I'd pass them, but I never found him. I finally gave up at about mile 5. I figured he was way ahead of me at that point.

The first thing I noticed about the race was that I wasn't feeling very good. My hip flexor has bothered me before when I don't stretch it properly before running. In my last couple of runs before the half I'd noticed that it was acting up a bit. As long as I stretched it before running though I could prevent it from causing me problems. Well, again, I was rushed at the start line, so I couldn't exactly get on the ground and do the ridiculous looking stretch that I knew I probably needed. At around mile 5 I felt the pain creeping up, but it wasn't awful. I figured I could just ignore it.

I knew David was going to be at Mile 6 and Mile 12, so I was looking forward to seeing him. Plus, he was going to give me my hand held water bottle. As I had been training with that thing on my longs runs, I really wanted it with me. I liked it because when using it I didn't have to worry about water stations. When I was feeling like I needed some water I had it right there with me. Also, these Cliff Shot Blocks I had to eat were much easier to get down with a big gulp of water.

Although I am usually all smiles for the camera - I was not feelin it at Mile 6. I just was on a mission to get that water bottle and pop some shot blocks for electrolytes. I was already feeling run down and that made me nervous as I had 6 more miles to go. I only managed a half smile and then grabbed my water bottle and took off. I did say thank you to Matt's GF, Penny who had made a sign for us, "Go Matt and Ashley - 13.1 Miles!" That was pretty awesome. I've secretly always wanted a sign or something fun like that :) I didn't even think to ask where Matt was because I figured he was way ahead of me and I didn't want to be discouraged.

Anyhow, up a hill and then it was onto mile 7. At this point my hip flexor is starting to kill me. I knew that I needed to just stop and stretch, but my time goal was in the back of my mind. I pushed myself just a little further and decided I couldn't take it anymore - not for 5 miles at least... I jumped out of the race and sat down in the grass to stretch.

I jumped back in the race about 30 seconds later and although I felt somewhat better I knew that it was too late. If I am experiencing pain already its usually impossible to "stretch it out." Should have just stretch prior to the race! UGH! At this point I was feeling defeated. I decided that I wasn't going to make my time goal and that I should just re-adjust my goal to "run this race without stopping....(again)." Just when I had wrapped my mind around this idea and just began to accept it, who comes running up to me from behind and taps me on the shoulder? MATT!

He's like, "hey, what's up?" - Not really out of breath or anything and with no ipod to take his mind off the fact that we are subjecting ourselves to this craziness. I was so happy to see him! Oh my goodness I just cannot explain it. He told me that he'd been late to the start line too and that he was forced to start in the very back. He'd manage to get through all of those people and then he found me! I told him that I was hurting and that I had to stop and stretch. He told me not to worry about it and that he'd run with me for awhile.

Matt is a pretty funny guy, but the fact that he got me to actually laugh a good number of times during the race (yes, that's right, LAUGH while running 13 miles) is amazing. I manage to have "broken" conversation with him here and there between breaths -not really talking about anything significant, just comments here and there as we ran. One comment I specifically remember is laughing about all the "sport beans" dropped along the course. Every time we'd see them we'd point them out and laugh while thinking about the poor guy who'd dropped all of these everywhere. Matt was keeping a good pace and I felt like I was definitely being pushed, like that there was no way I'd be keeping up with that pace if I was running the race by myself. I kept truckin along. All the sudden I realized we were on mile 10. I looked at my watch and thought, "oh my - i might actually make this under 2 hours." I tried not to think about that though and just continued to focus on pushing through.

I missed mile marker 11 because I was so out of it. I think it was the fact that I was trying to ignore the mix of pains in my hip and now knee. I tried my best just to make occasional convo with Matt and to blast my music and just forget about it all. After Matt told me were about half a mile away from Mile 12, I told him to go on and speed up if he wanted. I knew he was holding back for me because he knew I was in some serious pain at this point. He gave me a thumbs up and headed out. I watched him as he climbed the last hill of the course and disappeared in front of me.

I started thinking - "just get to mile 12" I knew that I would see David and my mom again there. I thought that if I saw them it would give me enough motivation to push on through that last mile. Over the hill and and I could see them in the distance. I felt like I was going to cry. I was feeling so emotional and so completely exhausted. As I got closer they could tell I wasn't feeling good. They waived and told me good job. I looked at my mom and said "this hurts so bad" with tears starting to form in my eyes. She said, "i know hun, but you can do it - you're almost there." She was right. I only had a mile. I could do it.

I looked at my watch again. I had about 9 minutes to get to the finish line and make it under 2 hours. I knew I was going to be cutting it close. I picked up my pace a little. I got closer and closer to Oglethorpe University (where the race began and ended). I knew the finish line was getting so close. Near the gates of the University I could hear yelling and cheering for the finishers. I could hear the announcer calling out the finishing times. I looked at my watch. I had about 2 and a half minutes before the 2 hour mark.

GO GO GO!!! I had to pick it up. I was haulin it and felt like I was flying past people around me. Meanwhile the course is winding around the university and I'm thinking, "where is the damn finish line???" I headed down and around a corner, nope- not there, couldn't be too much further. Up an incline (yes, an incline right at the finish line - blah!) and another corner and there it was- the finish line! I heard people yelling and I was so excited. I could see the clock - it had just started at 1:59. I continued all out sprinting to the finish. Crossed the line and looked at my watch for the last time 1:59:19. OH MY WORD. I did it. I couldn't believe it. I did it!

Eyes filled up with tears and I was full of emotion. Looked around for my husband. Where is David? I scanned the crowd - back and forth - back and forth. I forgot that I was still in line and manage to get my banana, water and bagel. I looked down and somehow in the excitement of it all they had given me my finishers medal and put it around my neck. I must have been delirious at that point. I still couldn't find my family. There were people everywhere. I sat on the ground and started refueling. I took a second to just by myself- to be proud of myself.

After a few minutes I saw my mom and David walking up to me. I ran to David and hugged him. I could tell he was so proud. Proud and cold. (it ended up being a pretty chilly and overcast day). I think the best part was when we were walking to the car - he said, "I can't believe you just ran 13 miles this morning. That's incredible." It was pretty incredible. I think I had a permanent smile on my face for the rest of the day which I spent sleeping, lounging, eating and just relaxing....It was the most accomplished I'd felt in awhile.

Oakland Cemetery and Halloween

Wondering how to celebrate Halloween? Wake up early and run a race in a thunderstorm through an old historic cemetery. Right? That is Jenn and I before the Race. Yeah, we had no idea it was about to down pour on us. Actually we could kind of see it in the distance, but we were in denial.

BEFORE the rain at the start line.

AFTER the rain at the finish!! Soaked!

Brick House and Fred Flinstone

This is truly frightening. I wish I could have had a pic after the rain washed almost all of that body paint off. Hilarious!

What a GREAT way to spend Halloween. I need to make this a tradition.

Rank for Us 10K Classic

I was number 32 out of 190 people in my division (which is 20-29 year-old timed females). Not bad! :)

Putting the "labor" in Labor Day

This morning I ran the US 10K Classic which starts at Cumberland Mall and then goes down 41 and finishes at White Water. The U.S. 10K Classic is known for its hilly course and being one of the toughest 10k races in Georgia. I had been looking forward to this race for months. I grew up right down the street from where this race is held and remember seeing all the posters and signs along the road. The main thing I remember is the hills. Everyone from Marietta knows that 41 is hilly! It's just one rolling hill after another. The course is definitely intimidating. When I started running again I knew that I wanted to run this race. I'd been waiting for Labor Day to get here just so that I could run it.

A few days before Labor Day weekend I started feeling sick. With all the hoopla about Swine Flu I figured I was done for. The thing about me and sickness is that whenever there is some new infection spreading around I almost always get it. I have no idea why this is. You'd think I'd have a relatively good immune system, but no. And when I get this "cold" or "flu" or whatever is being passed around it usually lasts for way too long and frequently turns worse than most people have to deal with. All that being said, I just knew when the news talked about swine flu that I'd get it. I also work at the most public place ever...the Courthouse. Yeah, so you see how I started to freak out when I felt the least bit of post-nasal drip. Anyway, I was feeling run down on Thursday morning at work. That afternoon my boss told me his son had swine flu and attorneys kept coming into the office talking about how their children were also infected. AHH!! I tried to ignore the fact that I wasn't feeling good as best I could, but by Friday I felt worse and decided to stay home from work.

The first thing I thought about was the race. I was going to have to start feeling a ton better if I wanted to run on Monday. Water and Rest. Water and Rest. Saturday morning I woke up still feeling bad. By this point I'd loaded up on lots of vitamins and had started taking sinus medication. Turns out my allergies get bad every time the seasons change, not just in the spring.

Saturday I couldn't stand it. I had to run. I hadn't run since Thursday. Bad idea. I went out for a run and at about 4 miles I started feeling awful. No energy. Dehydrated. Blah. Shouldn't have pushed myself. I came home almost in tears as I told David that I didn't think I'd be able to run on Monday. "Just take it easy" he told me. He wasn't happy that I tried to run. "If you'd told me beforehand I would have said that was a bad idea and talked you out of it." He said. Yeah, I knew that. That's why I hadn't told him. I spent the rest of the day resting and hydrating. I stayed off my feet.

Sunday I woke up feeling better, but still not a 100%. At least I actually made it out of the house and returned to life as normal person though. I ran errands and went to the grocery store. I was feeling much better. I did some more resting on Sunday night. At that point I knew I'd feel even better on Monday morning and that I could run this race. I'd been wanting to run it for so long!!

So I woke up this morning feel tons better! I was excited for the race. David and my mom were going to watch the start and then drive near the finish line to meet my step-dad, (also a David) and watch the finish. I knew exactly where they were going to be. Let me just say that I loved this race. Seriously. I thought it was so much better than the Peachtree. No time group starts with world class runners. No people stepping all over you. No obnoxiously loud "bands" every quarter mile. (I mean, I think bands are fun, but not every step along the way). No walkers on the left side. Plus, this race only had 13,000 people compared to the Peachtree at 55,000. The race also consisted of road bikers, skaters, and wheelchair racers (that all start before the runners). And like I already mentioned- this course is insane with all the hills.

Before the race started parachuters came soaring down out of the sky. As the national anthem was being sung, a parachuter with a giant American flag attached to his pack landed at the start line. Cool way to begin things. The start was all downhill which was fun. Only thing was that everyone was trying to do a mad-dash sprint for the first 400 meters which was just a waste of energy with that first huge hill staring right at us.

The first hill wasn't awful. It made the first mile go by pretty quickly. The next mile was almost all uphill - to Windy Hill. It's comprised of two hills actually. The first one wasn't so bad. It was the second hill that gets you to the top (where Windy Hill road crosses 41) that was the worst. It felt like a 90 degree angle. Relief came with another down hill. I watched as others ran past me on the downhills, but then slowed down on the up hills as I passed them. I figured I had a pretty decent pace going. I didn't know my time though since I'd forgotten to get a new battery for my watch.

I have no idea what I was doing during mile 2-3. I swear I don't remember seeing that memorial cemetery on the left or the target on the right. At one point around mile 4 I looked up and thought, "where am I? have I passed that target?" I'm pretty sure around that time I was focused on not peeing. I had to go so bad I thought at any moment I was going to have to stop and run behind a building or something. I told myself that if I saw a port-a-potty that I'd run in. I never saw one.

At the mile 4 marker they had a timer - it said, "33:20." UHH?? What? About an 8:20 mile. How was that possible with these hills? I didn't know how I was going that fast, but seeing that gave me the motivation to keep with my pace. At about 4.5 miles I saw one of the sheriff's deputies from the Courthouse who was working the race. "heyyyyy!!" i yelled and waved. "Hey - looking good-almost there" he said. That's when I realized I was at South Marietta Parkway (my exit when I go to work). I knew I was close now. There was the 5 mile marker. I was getting tired, but with only 1 mile left my adrenaline started pumping again. I knew I'd be seeing my family soon. One little hill left near the big chicken. Please. After all those ridiculous hills I'd just run I knew I could do it. After the last hill I could see the finish line in the distance. It seemed closer than it really was. I knew David and my parents would be close by. I started scanning the crowd and found them. I laughed because I waved to them for awhile before they saw me. I waved and gave a thumbs up- its my favorite part of the race when I see them. Makes me so happy.

I had about 400 meters left. Although it was down hill I felt like I was running so slow. I was pushing as hard as I could, but I just couldn't go any faster. I was getting passed. Then I could see the timer - 53:00 minutes. WHAT? I couldn't believe it - I was two minutes faster than my Peachtree time. I thought, "I've got to get in under 53:30. I pushed a little more and got that chill. Do you know what I'm talking about it? It's that feeling you get when you are pushing your body so hard that you think you might be sick to your stomach. eek. And this wave kinda comes over you...Hard to explain. Anyways, I pushed and before I knew it I was there in 53:28. I did it!

As I crossed the finish line this lady handed me some blue thing wrapped up in a plastic bag. What was this? This isn't water. As I made it through to the food and water stations I examined my bag. It was a medal! A medal!? I was so excited that I ripped it open and put it on. I knew it was dorky and probably kinda lame, but I couldn't help it. I was pumped. I'd read about these on the website and knew that it meant I'd finished in the top 1,000. Made my day.

Publix was a sponsor of the race and hooked us up at the finish with bananas, all kinds of muffins and bagels, pretzels, yogurt, apples, two-bite brownies, cookies, etc. It was amazing! Never seen a spread like that after a race! Thank you Publix!! I asked for a bag and loaded up on some goodies. The beverage stations also had gatorade, water and propel. Oh yeah, and also muscle milk - gross! I think the guys were loving that though.

After I got all my treats I headed to the get my shirt and to my surprise,a hat. All of these extras about the race (as well as the massive organization by all the volunteers) just made it such a great experience. It was definitely my favorite race thus far. Great Labor Day.