The day before, I picked up the packet at a triathlon store by the beach, nothing too crazy… just a table in the store to pick them up. A little different than my previous packet pick up at Le Tour de Femme (promise a recap on that coming soon) but still the ladies were very nice. They handed over the goods and told me how to put my chip on. I was only half listening to the chip instructions, so later I had to Google “how to put a timing chip on your shoe”. Thankfully, there is a YouTube video for that!
So the night before I laid out my cute outfit for the race so I could just wake up and go. (Yes, I bought new running shorts for the occasion!)
However, that changed when I woke up and stepped outside… it was cooooold! So I had to completely switch my outfit plan, but I made it work. After a quick stop for some Dunkin Donuts coffee, I headed down to First Landing State Park to meet up with Shelley. Now I always go down to First Landing to walk Lexi or ride my mountain bike, so I was super excited to race there.
The atmosphere was fun and very relaxed. It was the first year they were doing this race in Virginia Beach, so it was very low key. Just a few tents and everyone was mingling around. Finally, it was time to line up. There were only about 60 women doing the 5k, so everyone was cheering each other on. Finally, we were off and started with a nice walking pace. I’m not going to lie… as soon as we started my competitive juices kicked in and I wanted to take off! But I was there to be a cheerleader for Shelley, so I resisted. There was a pack of about 15 walkers, and we all kept together for the first mile and a half.
The scenery was great, one reason I love this park so much, and Shelley and I talked the whole way. It was nice to catch up with her since we work opposite schedules most of the time. (We needed to catch up on the office gossip!)
Finally, we were getting close to the finish and could hear the cheers! At this point, I could tell Shelley was getting tired but with the finish near we picked up the pace. We were both excited to see the finish! As we crossed the finish line, they announced our name, which was a fun touch!
We officially finished in 54:17… which is awesome! Shelley was so amazed because she didn’t think she would finish under an hour. She was fantastic!
After we finished we walked over to the tent to grab some water and a banana. Again, nothing too fancy just water and bananas. The post party was at a local bar, and we agreed we didn’t feel like going to a bar at 10 in the morning. (We both had homework to do, boo!) Therefore, after chatting some more we parted ways. Overall, we had a great time and agreed we would do it again soon!
Now onto the good stuff… the freebies! At first I was a bit bummed because the website said nothing about a t-shirt… come on, why do you think I do these races? Ooo I mean for personal fulfillment, not the stuff you get, duh. Well when I picked up my packet I was immediately looking at the stuff they gave us (probably why I didn’t hear the chip instructions) we got a sling bag, water bottle, and another bag. Saweeeet! Good stuff!
This great low-key race definitely got me in the mood for my big 10k this weekend. I’ll definitely be doing it again next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment