Virtual Race Recap: Revenge of the 5th 5K

Last night I ran my first virtual race of the season. If you aren't sure what a virtual race is, the people over at Jost Running give a pretty good explanation.

Last year, I took part in the inaugural Nerd Herd Running trilogy that included the May the Fourth be With You 5K, Happy Birthday Harry Potter 10K, and the Banned Books Week Half Marathon. All the medals joined up to make their logo:

All of their profits went to cancer research and I love nerdy things, so I knew I would have to do the series again this year! Little did I know, things would get even better. This year's runs are the Revenge of the Fifth 5K, Lord of the Bling 10K, and The Rebellion Begins Half Marathon. They all make a super awesome shield and have been dubbed "The Hero's Quest".

Oh, and they all will make a 9 inch shield when put together (the top part is for completing the whole series)! 

Yesterday was the Revenge of the Fifth (since Sunday was May the 4th be With You) and I absolutely did not feel like running. It was my last day of class and I got up earlier than normal for my final, and then I had to do a bunch of final assignments for some other classes. I then came home and was hit in the face by my allergies. The pollen count has been really bad here lately, and I've been feeling it.

Oh, and it's getting worse.

I was tired and sniffly and all I wanted to do was nap (which I did). But I was dead set on running this on the 5th, and so I printed out my bib for some motivation. I then did a Google search for "running with allergies" and found out that in the Spring it is actually better to run later in the day since trees pollinate in the morning. I figured I would give it a try and head out. 

I actually ran really well. I wasn't planning on running fast at all, I just wanted to listen to my body. I was coughing a bit thanks to the allergies, and my nose was running, but I finished in 33:45, which is amazing for me. A year ago for the May the 4th race, I ran my fastest 5K ever to that point at 34:43. I was barely trying last night and beat that! Its crazy how much faster and stronger I have gotten!

There's a costume contest on Nerd Herd's Facebook page, so I figured I would participate. Zach got me this awesome R2D2 tank top, and I bought the ears at Disney World a few years ago. Add a tutu, and it's the perfect girly Star Wars running costume! (Okay, I didn't wear the ears while I ran. There's no way they would have stayed on!)

Official race photo. Thanks to Zach for being a willing photographer!

Last night's run was a great one, and knowing that I almost skipped out made me feel even better after finishing! Thanks, Nerd Herd for such a fun series, looking forward to the next one already!

I'll be getting this bad boy in about a month. His eyes glow in the dark!

10 Reasons Your Cashier Probably Hates You

I have been a cashier at 2 different places for 4 years now. Every day, customers do things (whether consciously or unconsciously) that just grind the gears of my coworkers and myself. Here are the top ten things that will make your cashier hate you.

1. You're on your cell phone.
I have gotten to the point where I actually thank people for setting down their phone when they check out. Please don't tell me to be quiet, I didn't choose to answer that phone call for you. The least you can do is give me 45 seconds of your attention to see your total and pay. That's all I'm asking.

2. You place all your money on the counter, instead of in the cashier's hand.
You can hand us the money, I promise we aren't going to give you germs. Also, please don't act frustrated when it takes me twice as long as it could have to pick up all the change. You could have just handed it to me.

3. You pay a $7.36 total in all change.
Take that change to a CoinStar and get some cash. No one wants to watch you count all of that out in nickels and dimes and then have to recount it, only to find that you are 10 cents short. Then you're just going to have to recount it and hold up the line even more.

4. Loyalty cards.
No, that's the wrong way. No, we can't look it up. I can't help that it's on your other key ring. I can give you another one if you would like. Please have these ready and facing the right way for us to scan.

5. You yell at us for something that's not our fault.
I can't help that you entered the wrong PIN. I can't help that you ordered wrong. I also can't help that you don't know how to pump gas. Please don't shoot the messenger.

6. You act like you know more about the store than the cashier.
Whether they have been working for 5 days or 5 years, the cashier still knows more about where they work than you do. We have to sit through days of training before they let us out on our own and believe it or not, they teach us some things in there. Don't try to tell me that the store down the street lets you do something differently, or that the other cashiers let you do it that way, because I know they don't.

7. You ask why we are working on a holiday.
There are a lot of answers to this question. Sometimes we are mandated to work, but we get to work a short shift. Sometimes we need money. Sometimes (like Memorial and Labor Day) we just don't have any other plans. If people didn't come in on holidays, we wouldn't be open. So really we should be asking you why you feel the need to be out shopping rather than home with your family.

8. You cut in line.
Not only does this make other customers angry, it puts me in a hard place. Do I ignore you cutting and wait on the next customer? Do I ignore the customer who has patiently waited to help you and your rude self? Just wait your turn.

9. You act like we don't exist.
I can't count the number of times I have this conversation a day: 

"Hi! How are you?"
*grumble*
"Anything else?"
*silence*
"Okay, your total is $11.32."
*counts out money*
"Okay, thanks, have a great day!"
*Grabs bag and leaves* 

I hate being ignored by customers. We are required to be friendly, but most of us are friendly naturally. Please treat all cashiers the way you would want to be treated if you were a cashier.

10. You hand us questionable money.
Money from bras, soggy money, money that has just been sneezed/coughed on, money from underwear wastebands, money that has blood on it... I've seen it all. It's just gross. Don't give them to people.

Freezing Cold, Not Enough Sleep, Sunburn, and One of the Best Days Ever: Promise Land 50K

Friday night and Saturday I volunteered at the Promise Land 50K. Promise Land is part of the Lynchburg Ultra Series and is organized by my running professor and mentor David Horton (who set the speed record on the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail. He's one of my most favorite people ever). For his class, we were required to help with a race, and I couldn't think of a better race than one of his.

We got the same shirt as the runners!

I have never volunteered a race of this size before, and being behind the scenes gave me a greater appreciation for what makes a race run smoothly. Because the race starts at 5:30am, most runners camp out at the start line. We started checking in runners and handing out bibs Friday night to the people who were camping out. Runners in large groups are a very confused people. They don't follow directions well, but we got everything in the end.

Watching ultrarunners carb load at dinner is very entertaining. They were allowed all the pizza they wanted (and we got free pizza for volunteering) but I'm pretty sure that some of the guys ate at least a whole pizza if not two. The dessert table was piled with anything and everything  you could want to eat, and most of it was gone by the end of the night.

After some pre-race briefing and prize drawings, most people headed to bed. The volunteers had to be ready at 4am to start checking people in at the start. At about that time the temperature decided to plummet and the wind started to blow in 20 mph gusts. I froze in my sleeping bag wearing sweatpants and a hoodie but actually managed to fall asleep at some point. 

Unfortunately my alarm rang all too soon and we struggled to make our way out of the sleeping bags to go check in starting runners. Again, runners are a confused group of people and we had to yell out individual names at one point to see if they were even starting. Roughly 350 people lined up in the dark, we sang the national anthem (with the assistance of a trumpet), and then they were off.

I then got the pleasure of navigating the Peaks of Otter in the dark to find my aid station. I don't know the rest of the course, but I think I got placed at the one with the best view one the sun had risen:

Sadly, this was the only picture I took during the whole experience

However, at 6:30 in the morning at that kind of elevation it was cold. Even with a hoodie and a windbreaker on, I was freezing! Thankfully Dr. Horton is one of the best people ever and gave me another shirt and jacket to put on over mine. It certainly made a difference!

We were mile 11ish the first time through, so the first runner was expected a little after 7. We quickly put the tables up, made sandwiches, sliced fruit, filled cups, sliced up some potatoes with salt, and did everything to make sure the runners would be able to get what they needed and keep going.

Sure enough, the first runner came through right on schedule. It was a while before the rest of them came through, but we kept them hydrated and well fed. They were just getting to the toughest part of the course, but they looked great. I knew about 20 of the runners from the class I took this semester so it was fun to cheer them on as they came through all excited. I knew they were going to look a lot worse the next time they came through.

Here's the elevation profile. Let that sink in a minute.

Unfortunately, we were a cutoff station, and had to stop people who reached mile 11 after 9:05. Once they descended onto "The Dark Side" the chances of them coming back up and finishing on time were very slim. I've never seen people so heartbroken as those that we had to cut off. Everyone was a good sport, but I could tell they were disappointed.

In the time that passed between the waves of runners, we chatted. Two of the guys I was working with had run several ultras. I was pretty much sold on running Promise Land just from my experience the night before, but they had me deciding without a doubt to run it and the Holiday Lake 50K next year. We honestly had the best crew at my station and part of me wants to run it next year, but the other part would be fine vounteering again because it was so much fun!

Soon, the runners were coming back through and they looked a lot more tired than the last time we had seen them. We were about mile 26/27 this time, they had just finished a nice long hike back up the mountain, and it was getting pretty warm. Several of my classmates informed me that they had thrown up on the Dark Side, and I offered them ginger ale from our station. The runners ate and drank a lot more their second time through, and we actually had to convince them to keep going. Only 2 really didn't want to leave, they wanted to stop and quit. They chose the wrong station to want to stop at, because my fellow workers were having none of it, they pretty much made them get up and keep going.

Around 2 the final runner passed through and we got to head back to the camp to take part in the finish line celebration. During the 30 minute drive I noticed that my face felt really hot. I flipped down my mirror and saw that I had a horrible sunburn! It was so cold on the mountain that it had never occurred to me to wear sunscreen. I always get one bad burn a year, so if it was only my face this time, I'm okay with that.

At the finish line, Dr. Horton asked me what I thought about the race. My reply was, "I'm running it and Holiday Lake next year."

His reply, "Nah, you're not tough enough." He only kids to make me work harder, and I am definitely running both next spring. The experience that I had this past weekend volunteering was one of the best days of my running career, and I wasn't even running. I can't imagine what it is going to be like next year actually running it.

So even though I froze to death, got less sleep than probably ever in my life, and came home with a sunburn, I had the best time. I can't wait till next year.

I Drank the Kool-Aid

When I first started running Janurary 2013, I wanted to run 12 5Ks in a year and call it quits. I thought anything over 3 miles was crazy and didn't know why people would want to torture themselves in that way.

After 2 5Ks I said, "These things are over in like 30 minutes. I want to run longer."

I ran a few 10Ks in training. "This is halfway to a half marathon. I'm going to do one of those."

So I ran the half marathon. During my second half marathon I reached mile 10 and thought to myself, "This is almost over! But I was having so much fun..."

Today I signed up for the race that makes non-runners think that runners are insane. I signed up for a marathon. The Richmond Marathon, to be exact.

I've drank the crazy runner, torture yourself for hours, run 16-20 miles on Saturdays for fun, push yourself to the max Kool-Aid. I have signed up to join the marathoner cult. 

Half of my brain says, "Girl, you're crazy. That's running a lot for month in training, leading up to a 4 hour run at the end." The other half says, "You can do this! It's only double a half marathon! Nothing can stop you!" We're going to listen to that second half.

The other day I saw a Boston Marathon sign that said "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 26.2", and have decided that will be my mantra throughout this training process.

Bring it on, Richmond.

Brooks Transcend Test Run and Easter Egg Hunt

My favorite local running store, Riverside Runners, had a Brooks fun run last night! They do them fairly often when different companies come out with different shoes, and for some reason I've never gone to one. I had such a blast last night that I'm going whenever I can now!

I'm that person who is awkwardly early for everything, so I wandered around the store for a while and talked to the employees and people. I'm trying to be more involved in my local running community (as involved as my work schedule will let me be) so it was nice to meet some new people.

When the Brooks tent was set up, I got to trade my shoes in for a test pair of the new Brooks Transcend. Currently I wear Asics GT-2000, which is a stability shoe. I have super narrow feet and high arches, and I need a lot of cushioning to keep my feet happy. Standing around for the hour before the fun run, my feet felt great in the Transcends. They are super cushiony and have guide rails along the sides that are supposed to keep you from turning your ankle. They also added about an inch to my height, so that wasn't too bad either. My first thoughts were that I would actually consider buying them the next time I needed shoes because they felt so good.

Before we set out to run in them, the rules of the Easter egg hunt were explained to us. All the eggs had Brooks prizes inside- reusable shopping bags, shoe bags, t-shirts, and the "luckiest egg" even had a free pair of Transcends! We were each allowed two, and they were hidden a half mile in either direction of the store, but we were free to run as far as we wanted.

I set out, and my first thought about the shoes was how much heavier they felt when running. They felt fine when I was standing and walking, but as soon as I picked up the pace, they seemed to make my feet heavy. They do move very nicely, and I kept up a pretty fast pace for my whole four miles. (Of course, it helped that the part of town we were in was pretty much flat.

At the end of my run, I decided that I still might would buy them for long long runs, but for anything else they were just too supportive. They actually made my arches hurt (not sure what was up with that), but my knees felt amazing and they almost always hurt after a road run. They're still on my list for consideration, but not at the top.

I went running today in my shoes, and when I took them off and put my TOMs back on, my arches felt really sore. I'm kind of hoping I didn't cause something by switching shoes for a night.

My two eggs had the papers for a t-shirt and a shoe bag in them. The shirt is super cool! It has the Transcend logo on it and is made of a wicking cotton so I can actually run in it. They also were handing out stickers, freeze-dried ice cream (to go with the space theme), lanyards, and collapsible water bottles. I made the comment to another guy that we were coming home with more free things than some races give, and we didn't have to pay anything!

Overall, I had a blast at the fun run, and met a few new people. I decided that Brooks shoes are something I will consider next time I need shoes, although maybe something less stable than the Transcends.

I'm already looking forward to the next test run at Riverside!

The End of Semester Sprint

This part of the semester is like the last few miles in a race. I'm tired, there's a lot of stuff ahead of me, and quite frankly I want to stop.

I have projects up to my ears (both in and out of school), I have my job, and I'm getting married in 38 days. Its taking more effort than it should to get out of bed in the morning.

However, I'm not unhappy. There's plenty of fun in there including my upcoming volunteer weekend at the Promise Land 50K (more on that later in a future post).

I just don't want to do anything school related. I feel as if my school projects and open book tests aren't going to amount to anything in the real world.

This pretty much boils down to one thing: with two weeks left in my Junior year, I have Senioritis, and I have it bad.

I'm treating the last two and a half weeks of this semester as I would a race. I just have to grit my teeth and get through it, and I'll be able to enjoy the party at the finish line.

(I wonder if that party will have free food...)

Race Recap: The Color Run Kaleidoscope Tour

As I mentioned in my last post, this weekend I did two races. Okay, well I wouldn't really consider The Color Run a "race" since it's not even timed and the main goal is to have fun.

You may remember that I wrote about my last Color Run in this post. I was hoping for the same exciting event this year, but it didn't top last year.

Kaleidoscope shot 

Don't get me wrong, I had a blast! However, they changed the location from last year, and it was just an overall lackluster event. We have decided that next year we are probably going to end up doing the Flying Pirate half marathon in the Outer Banks instead.

This year was the Kaleidoscope Tour, which I thought was a good marketing move. No one wants to do the exact same event twice, so they tweaked it just enough that people would want to do it again.

We went to packet pickup on Friday night. Last year the whole thing had a party feel to it, but this year it was more of an assembly line. They also didn't give us our color packet, but instead the bibs had a tear-off part at the bottom to get it at the finish line. I think they have had a problem with people using them before the color throw at the end, so that actually was kind of smart of them to change it.

The "swag" had improved from the year before. The packet came in an awesome reusable bag, and had temporary tattoos, a newly designed shirt, a headband, and a wristband. They also had a store set up with all kinds of cool, reasonably priced (as far as race gear goes) merchandise. I purchased a purple tutu, a reversible headband (because I LOVE headbands), and a sticker (which I plan on making a magnet and putting on my car).

The rest of Friday was pretty much a girls night out with my mom. We shopped (and found a pet store and played with the most adorable English Bulldog puppy) and ate and then went back to hang out at our hotel. Side story about the hotel: at the same time we arrived to check in, about 60 obnoxious high school students were doing the same thing. Apparently there was a technical school conference nearby at the same time, and the hotel lady felt sorry for us and gave us a complementary upgrade to a VERY fancy room I'm still not sure why anyone would need a room that large in a hotel, but it was kind of fun.

The bag my shirt came in. Pretty cute!

After a horrible night's sleep (the pillows on the beds were too fat), we woke up and mom and I decided to go for a matching 80s inspired look with the headbands they had given us. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to wear shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I figured it worked last year so it would work this year. However, last year it was in June, and this year it was in April. I regretted that decision as soon as I walked outside into the windy 48* weather.

Luckily, the race started at a civic center, so we were able to stand inside until the race started.

The following is a breakdown of various aspects of the event:

Course: Eh. It went through a residential area and had some cool houses but wasn't very scenic. There were some hills. Nothing super special.

Volunteers: They were very into what they were doing! They were all covered in the color they were throwing and threw out generous amounts to the runners.

Color Zones: There was one less than last year, but this year they added purple (my favorite color) so that kind of made up for it.

Finish line: The area to exchange the tab from your bib for your color packet was a disaster. It was a mob of people thinking they were going to run out or something. I got stepped on several times. There were also KIND bars, water, and Panera goodies (with no limit on how many you could eat). That was my favorite.

The best part of The Color Run is the color throw at the end. This year, they did them less frequently, so there were a lot of people participating in each one. Somehow we got in the middle, and the sun was blocked out for a minute or so when the color was thrown. It was pretty awesome and I got covered in color.

Overall, it was a fun event, but next year I may stick closer to home. I'm not sure I want to travel for an event that several charities in my area are trying to host for the upcoming Fall/Spring race season. I think next year I may choose a smaller event, and use the money to try something new.

Check out my colorful hair!

Don't get me wrong, I had a blast! But I'm always ready for a new challenge. Maybe I'll replace the color with mud ;)