October-ness

So as I had mentioned previously, I decided to run the Rock 'n' Roll Prospect Park 10K as my race for October. Between making sure my new roommate moved in succesfully, setting up new bills and my best friend Mandy coming to visit, I felt like I didn't have a ton of time to run before the race.

She's here!

Mandy came to visit for 5 days between work and my new roommate moving in. It was a crazy week leading up to her visit but I was so excited to see her here in NYC. We filled her visit here with eating, a beer garden visit, Oktoberfest at Bear Mountatin (Circle Line cruise included!), kickball, cheering on the 49ers and her birthday celebration. Hope you had a blast Mandy!

Oktoberfest with Mandy, Kevin and Janssen

After Mandy left it felt like the week flew by and before I knew it, it was race day! With a early wake up call to make the hour trek to Prospect Park, the nerves didn't set in until my bag was checked and Michelle, Janssen and I headed to our corrals. As I told them, "I'll meet you at the end, I want to finish standing strong and to run continously.. and if I make it under an hour and a half I'll be happy too." 

Pre-race... when the nerves set in.

And we were off! Having never run Prospect Park before, Janssen told me there would be some slight hills that would be tough without having run them before. I felt good and knew that possibly I would see Michelle's husband Josh sometime after the 5K mark. Nearing the 5K mark I didn't see Josh but realized he'd probably gone ahead to cheer her on. As the first exhaustion wave set in I keep reminding myself that I have gotten farther than many people who've not gotten up off the couch and run. With that and the determination to run straight through I forged ahead. As I neared the 6 mile marker I started see people who had finished the race walk by with their medals and smiles on their faces... with that I knew I had to finish strong. AND I DID :) 1 hour and 27mins later, I completed my first (and probably last) 10K!

I had to get a photo with the back drop and my medal.

San Francisco

This past weekend I went to San Francisco for Megan & Gordon's wedding at the Piedmont Community Center near Oakland. I was so thrilled to be invited for such a special event, thanks Megan! After landing, spending time with sorority sisters and picking up the wedding present, I was ready for Saturday nights festivities. It was such a blast to spend it with sorority sisters who I have seen recently and those I haven't (good to see you Megan Weber!). Here's a few highlights!

After coming back from San Francisco it was already October, crazy how time is flying this year. This week itself has been crazy with cleaning my apartment so my new roommate could move in and for when Mandy comes tonight. I'm so excited to see her and catch up on life. Also excited for the Oktoberfest event on Saturday taking the Cicle Line up the Hudson to Bear Mountain Park and all the other things we plan to do while she is here. Lets hope I can squeeze in more times to run before the 10k next Saturday!

Running Update

“The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” - John Bingham

With some much needed words of encouragement from friends who are running the Rock 'n' Roll New York 10k in Prospect Park, Brooklyn on October 12th. Eeek! I decided to do this run as part of my goal to run a race every month this year. As the date gets closer and closer I am going to do my best with the time I have to run/prepare for this as much as I can. I just started school this week, two nights at week and therefore cuts down the time I have to run. 

Race route

Goal: To complete this run; not for time but just to say I finished. Finished with that sense of accomplishment (and not to mention a shiny medal). When I completed the registration form I put 1 hour 30 minutes as a rough estimate of when I think I would finish based upon previous 5k times. We will see how this goes, wish me luck!

Update: I plan to now do 13 races for 2013 but instead of running #13 I plan to volunteer for a race to give back. Race #10 is the 10k in Prospect park, race #11 will most likely be the race I volunteer for (eyeing either the Brooklyn Marathon or the Festival of Lights 5k/10k in Bay Ridge), and race #12 is the Flushing Meadows 5k the weekend before Thanksgiving. Race #13 is hopefully going to be a race with my sister while I am home for Christmas since I thought it would be awesome to start and end the year by running a race with my sister. We will see how things go!

1 Year Later... The Color Run

Feel good. Be happy. Run faster.

1 year later and I'm back at Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn with my friend Kerri ready to run The Color Run. After an early morning rise to meet Kerri at Atlantic Terminal to be at Brooklyn College by 7:30am to catch the shuttle to the complex. When we arrived at the complex I was surprised yet happy to see a few changes from the previous year. 1) They moved the stage to the back of the area reserved for the run which helped stream line the flow of things. 2) That being said, the bag check area was moved towards the exit of the area and was a definite upgrade. They had scanned bar coded tags for each bag and required the runner to give a phone number to match with the photo they also took for record keeping. 3) There were more vendors this year (one of my favorite - Kind Bars). Two negatives I would say about this year: 1) They didn't have lawn blowers to blow off any excess color dust. This helped tremendously the previous year and 2) Occasionally they squirted color water into the post-race color throwing party crowd. Great idea for it being warm but didn't exactly dry quickly before getting back onto the shuttle.

Race #9 for the year :)

As for the race itself, it was the same layout as the previous year although they shifted the start and finish lines so you ended up running through the finish line right into the festival area. Kerri and I made a plan to try to run the race straight through as we didn't feel the need to stop and take pictures after each color zone since we had done it before. The color zones were better equipped this year with more volunteers, music at each zone and huge arches designating the color. 

With a happy feeling inside, Kerri and I finished the race straight through with no stops for pictures or anything and I felt GREAT. After a couple pictures at the finish line, we made our way to check out the post-race festival. There was coconut water (found out I'm not a fan), Kind Bars (yum!), Color Run gear and this year even food and beer for sale. We managed to gather at the stage for a color toss with the free packets of color we received with our registration and managed to fit with Kerri's waist pack. Dancing, color throwing, and singing among the fellow runners, we had a blast for a couple hours until we were too exhausted and hungry to enjoy anymore. Disappointed we didn't see the lawn blowers out, we dusted off as much color as we could, grabbed our bags to head home.

Goodbye August, Hello September

I can't believe summer is basically over, August went by in the blink of an eye. Starting off the month on a fun note with the mud run, I was excited for the rest of the month's activities I had planned. Made it to a few baseball games, went white water rafting, checked out the MTA Museum in Brooklyn, went to the NY Cosmos game, tons of birthday celebrations and brunches. Here is a few snapshots that was August.
 

Suprise birthday for Kara :)

I can't wait for what September has in store for me. The Color Run is this weekend, my 9th race for the year. Also looking forward to more birthday celebrations, a trip to San Francisco to celebrate a wedding of one of my closest sorority sisters and starting school (finally). Keep you posted on my adventures!



MTA Musem - Old Subway Car



Mud, Smiles, Cheers, Laughter and Scars

Mud, Smiles, Cheers, Laughter and Scars... the 5 words to describe the 5k I participated in this weekend. The Dirty Girl Mud Run is a 5k mixed with mud and obstacles along the way. Proceeds benefit breast cancer and research. I saw my sister post about this awhile back and decided to post about it via my Facebook page to see if I could gather any interest from my friends to join me. In the end Elina, Christina and Rebekah (kickball friends) joined me in the awesomeness!

Obstacles they posted about on their website 

Saturday after I picked up my ZipCar (by the way awesome!), I headed into the city and down 2nd Ave to pick up the ladies. After a quick hour drive we made it to Englishtown Race Track for the race. With an hour to spare, we spent time checking in, taking photos, writing our team name on our arms, browsing stuff for sale and just getting in the spirit of the run.

Team Rainbow Warriors

Pre-race

Although we were in the biggest wave of the morning, we managed to get near the front and stay ahead of the pack. Despite the advertisement of obstacles on their website, our race didn't have the exact same ones:

1. Knee high mud pit

2. Bungee maze

3. Tires

4. Mud pit with fence to crawl under

5. Rope fence to crab crawl across (about 5 feet high)

6. Small wall to climb

7. Balance beam logs

8. High jump logs that got higher off the ground

9. Mud pit with tubes to crawl in between

10. Water pit - chest high

11. Small hill to climb

12. Natural mud pits through the trees/forest

13. V ramp to climb then under a fence

14. Ladder rope climb

15. High wall to climb

16. Race ended with a mud pit! :D

Post-race with our numbers & free beer :D

To summarize - an AWESOME time with some amazing women. Despite the bit of rain, the weather held up nicely. After the water pit, most runners were a bit cleaner than they had gotten so the 4 of us made a pact to get back to being dirtier by holding hands as we ended/got into the last mud pit and dived in.

Muddy, dirty, happy and feeling accomplished.

After a stop for lunch and a u-turn (twice) to get Blizzards from Dairy Queen (of course since not in NYC) we headed back to the city to relax and get ready before a friend's patio party.

Muddy & smiling with Elina

Goodbye July, Helloooo August

Goodbye July, hellloo August! I can't believe summer is already half way over, where has the time gone? Can't wait for August to start as there a so many fun things planned. 5k #8 is this weekend, the Dirty Girl Mud Run with Christina, Rebekah and Elina. I'm excited to participate in a mud run and to support a great cause while doing so. Even though it is a bit of a journey to get to the course in Englishtown, I'm ready for a great day full of mud, music, bonding and laughter. Stayed tunned for pictures! In addition, restuarant week dinners, happy hours I have plans to go white water rafting, more baseball games, a weekend with my dad that includes a New York Cosmo's soccer game, and most likely sporatic other events that come my way.