The New Haven Road Race experience started on Sunday meeting Chris at the expo. We looked around at the expo a few minutes and I bought a "swim, bike and run" car magnet and now I am kicking myself for not buying a gym bag that was only $7. Oh well hopefully the bag lady will be at the next race I do.
Then Chris and I met up with Dianna, the running chick with the orange hat and Jon, the chocolate runner. We waited for David and his family and headed out for pizza. We ravished a variety of pies and had wonderful conversations. It is so cool meeting bloggers face to face. I feel like I know people from reading and sharing their blogs and it is definitely different when you are actually looking and speaking with someone. After pizza, we all went on our way to try to sleep before the big day.
I got lost on the way to my friend's house, but I find that New Haven is a friendly city and a nice big man gave me directions that were perfect actually. When I arrived at my friends' house, I had the house to myself which was weird. I settled in and luckily figured out how to operate her TV and plunked myself in front 'Titanic'. I have only seen Titanic about 99 times, but the whole sinking ship and love story get me every time. I love that old lady, I hope I grow to be just like her.
I had a pretty good sleep and headed over to New Haven at about 7am. I met up with Chris, my running coach and buddy, at about 7:45. We met up with the other bloggers, put in one last potty stop and headed to the start line. Dianna decided we would be good running partners for this race. At first I was nervous, I know Dianna can run a LOT faster than I can, but lucky for me she has been riding her bike more this summer and her legs were heavy.
The beginning of the race flew by, it felt like the first five miles were over in a flash. We were having fun, gabbing and teasing each other. The three of us ran together for about the first nine miles, but then they started to pull away. I knew I wasn't going slower and my 10k split proved me right. My 10K split was 53 minutes and my finish was 1:46, so they sped up and finished about two minutes ahead of me. I was very happy with my time and feel really strong about my running right now.
My favorite part of the day though was the visit afterward. All the blogger buddies drank beer and refueled together on the green. What a great group of people. I often curse the evils of the internet, but after sitting and sharing with such a neat bunch of friends, I have to say it can't be all that bad. Without the internet I would have never met any of these people. One of them is quickly becoming one of my best friends and the rest are people that have given me support and kindness in ways I am sure they don't even know matters.
I can't wait for next year!
2 comments:
Way to go! Super speedy half marathoner woman :-)
It was great seeing you again, Beth. I must say you looked (and ran) in fine form. I wish I could have been on the 20K with you (for whatever part I could have kept up with you). I've got bigger fish to fry this year though, but NEXT year, New Haven is my target race.
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