West Coast, beautiful scenery, wine and a race...A september 2013 Race review

Once we signed up for the Virginia Wine Country we got emails from the Race Coordinators, Destination Races.   On the exact same day J and I got an email from Destination Races about a wine country race for Labor Day, we emailed each other at the exact same time saying we should sign up!  A Labor day vacation trip was born!

This was my first ever trip to the West Coast and I was hoping to extend the trip to drive down the Pacific coast highway but real life got in the way and I needed to come back to NY to move into my new apartment.   We flew out Friday night after work and arrived about midnight local time to drive to our hotel.  As with most of our running adventure travel the GPS hates us and we took a roundabout way to arrive at our hotel but once we got there a good nights sleep was had by all!

Saturday was spent a race packet pick up and then exploring Portland as well as seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time, it was FREEZING!

It was absolutely beautiful that morning, the sun rising over the mountains.   The race started off pretty well, I kept up with crazy J for a while but at one point I just lost it.  Her training in Denver beat my training at sea level when it came to lung endurance.  Plus if I'm being really honest with myself my training had not been the most consistent leading up to the race with all my packing and moving stress.

The course while extremely beautiful had some areas of gravel that were terrible, not small gravel like the reservoir where I run often but big huge rocks.  I had some trouble on the rocks and managed to roll my ankle a little, which coincidentally was my left one and the foot where my cyst appeared about a month later.  No idea if it is related.

J smoked that course something terrible.  I did my usual time, sometimes it is extremely frustrating to me that I feel no matter how much effort and time I put into training I always finish somewhere in the 2:30 ball park.  I guess I should be happy I'm consistent but part of my always wonders why I can't break through that barrier.

We did a wine tour afterwards and I learned of my extreme love for Oregon Pino Noir, YUM!  Another wonderful family trip.

5B, Wine and a half marathon....A June 2013 race review

What happens to peer pressure when you grow up?  It definitely still exists in my opinion but it becomes more about being healthy than doing stupid things, well and drinking wine obviously.  My college girlfriends who I will refer to all the time as 5B decided it would be great fun to get together and do a half marathon.  Lauren is the only one who did not participate as she was going to give birth a few short weeks later and Robyn of course was in Paris.

It was HOT and HUMID for this race in the lovely winery region of Virginia.  To set the scene, a lot had happened in the two weeks between this race and the Brooklyn half.  I had traveled to London for work making a stop in Paris to visit Robyn and come home with quite a cough.   I wasn't going to let it stop me from running.  We had quite a group, 5B, Jamie and her sister in law, Lulu.  Debbie and Lulu were running their first ever half marathons!

I started off with Jamie and Lulu and things were going well until mile 3 and my first coughing fit.  Lulu and I sent Jamie ahead but shortly after I sent Lulu ahead of me.  I coughed up a lung and decided hmm perhaps this wasn't just a cold.  By mile 6 I was in some major pain breathing wise but I wasn't going to stop.  I got some gauze at the aid station at mile 6 because they had no tissues.  After hearing my cough the one paramedic said you should probably stop by the other one knew I wouldn't and said go finish!  I ran/walked/coughed the rest of the race eventually finding a girl who was doing her first ever half marathon.  I encouraged her and she kept me from dying and we ran across that finish line.  It was my worst finish ever but I was still under three hours.  After a short time at the finish festival and a few sips of wine we went to lunch.  At that point I was still in a ton of pain breathing wise so after changing I went to the urgent care near Siobhan's house where I discovered I had pneumonia.  Yep, one lung half filled with fluid, one a quarter filled...perfect way to run a half marathon. 

The group before hand with our sparkle skirts.

5B with the lovely Owen, best spectator ever

After, you can't even tell that I can't breath

Yay ladies!!