New Balance Girls Night Out! NYC Edition

 

A couple of weeks ago, Pam and I attended the first of it's kind, Girls Night Out hosted by New Balance. I found out about this event through the contest their hosting for a Girls Night Out at RunDisney's Wine & Dine Half Marathon weekend.

The event was at the New Balance store on 5th Ave. 

The evening was great! We had a guided warm up and then were separated into 2 running groups. I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with the group after running The BK Half that weekend, so I asked what the route was and Pam and I ended up doing our own thing. We picked up a new runner along the way who was left behind by the group and had fun making a new friend!

The route was supposed to take you over to the High Line, up to 23rd and then back around for a total of 3-4 miles (depending on the group). We cut ours to 2 miles and accidentally got back before the faster group. Opps! But no worries, they were there before we knew it and that's when the party began!

There were h'ordeuvres and a fully stocked bar for cocktails. The Editor of Fitness Magazine talked to us about motivation and the NYPD spoke about runner safety. 

 We even got our own panic alarm to bring with us on runs.

No event is awesome until there is a photobooth!

There was dancing and fun to be had! 

It was really fun and I can't wait for the next one!

The 2014 Brooklyn Half Marathon

There's nothing like a hometown race. Every city/ town has one- that one race a year everyone runs. I think the Brooklyn Half is the best equivalent of that for New York City. Everyone who is any kind of runner or lack thereof, runs this race, hence why it sells out in hours. Now that I've experienced it for myself, I can definitely see why! Thanks to my guaranteed entry for volunteering at the race last year (that was NOT complimentary and NYRR failed to mention this pre- me getting up at 2AM. Thanks a lot!), I was able to score entry without worrying about the insanely fast sellout (although, it didn't sell out nearly as fast as it did in previous years, but I'm not bitter or anything).

I followed the warning of leaving extra early to get to the start and ended up sitting on the cement for a good hour before wave 2 was supposed to start. Opps. But it did give me a front row seat to the chaos of bag check for wave 1. Apparently, a TON of wave 1 runners did not heed the "get there EARLY" and missed their bag check (which to be honest, I thought they were bluffing to about the trucks leaving, too- but they did!). They did have 1 truck designated for late baggage for each wave, and I'm pretty sure the wave 1 last baggage truck had more bags in it than all the other trucks combined. I still have no idea how they got all those bags to fit into the ONE truck. The smarter thing for them to do would've been to push back closing bag check for 10 extra minutes- which is exactly what they did for wave 2. Good call.

Once it was getting close, I decided to find my way to a corral, and coincidentally enough, I ran into a friend of a friend, who I knew it was a her first half. I decided to stop and talk until the start of the race to pass the time and hopefully distract her from being nervous.

The sun came up and it was time for the race to start. The first half of the race was in and around Prospect Park, which I was very familiar with. I started thinking about my 1st 20 mile long run. Then I remembered I did all of my 20 mile long runs in and around Prospect Park. Almost like clockwork, my knee started hurting at the exact spot my 20 mile run ended. It was uncanny. I tried not to focus on it and it eventually went away. 

Then it was time for Ocean Parkway. Honestly, I was really concerned about the 2nd half of the race. 6 miles of straight highway- which means straight SUN on blacktop. Luckily, there WAS shade on the left side of the road and it was only straight sun for about .5 at the end of the race. I'm sure I would've died if it really was going to be 6 miles of sun. Do not forget your sunscreen and a hat for this race!

For some reason, NYRR decided it would be a good idea to put all the water stops on only ONE side of the road and that side also happened to be on the sunny side of the road. So, every mile the course of runners would start veering right to the water stop, then move back into the shade.

I absolutely LOVED the Brooklyn love and support we were getting. Something about the born and bred Brooklynite in that famous accent cheering us on was a huge energy boost. Hearing "Way to go! Brooklyn, Baby!" "You got this, Brooklyn!" "Looking good, Brooklyn!", I just felt incredibly Brooklyn Strong.

Have I mentioned I'm a huge fan of my borough? Brooklyn was the first place I lived when I moved to NYC and it was my saving grace after living in Manhattan for over 2 years. Without it, I would've peaced out from this city a long time ago. Brooklyn is my home and I have truly fallen in love with it through the years. I would even go so far as to say it might rank higher than NOLA and that's saying something. I thought about all that and I got pretty emotional.

The wind started to pick up and I new we were close to the boardwalk. I REALLY wanted to come in under 3 hours. I nearly ate boardwalk trying to accomplish it- seriously? Who put sand on the course?!- but I did it! 2:59. I'll take it!

At this rate, I'll PR in about 17 more half marathons :)

I went straight to the medical tent to tape my knees, per usual, but it seemed like everyone in the medical tent was running around with chickens with their heads cut off. All I needed was my knees wrapped, but it felt like I was asking for the moon. I know I couldn't have been the first person who only needed her knees wrapped. I wasn't interested in hanging out in the medical tent all afternoon, which they seemed very interested in keeping me there. I swear all I needed was ice for my old lady knees, but they REALLY wanted to find something wrong with me. Yes, I was not so very nice to some volunteers and I'm sorry for it, but seriously?! Luckily, I found the NYRR official medical director, who is in charge of all the NYRR races. He knew the drill and taped my knees perfectly and I was out. Thank goodness for him!

The post-race party was in MCU Park, The Cyclone's Stadium, which made me very happy for a real bathroom to change in. Best idea ever: bringing clothes and flip-flops to change into. Much like the expo, the Brooklyn Half Marathon isn't just a race. It's an event and you will be very happy for clean dry clothes, even it's only for the subway ride home.

There was a band playing and lines for days for food and beer. Getting to walk around on the AstroTurf was positively heavenly, but I preferred the shady seats to enjoy the post-race moment. I hung out there for a bit, but I really wanted to get on the beach. 

 Feet in the Atlantic= perfect ice bath. 

The water felt amazing and the beach was pretty empty. It was a nice peaceful moment from the crowds and noise at the after party. I would've stayed longer but I knew if I stayed in the sun much longer without eating, I would get sick.

I walked around for a bit trying to decide if I was hungry/ what I wanted to eat, etc. Luna Park was in full swing, but there was no way I could stomach getting on rides. I also decided I couldn't stomach eating a Nathan's hotdog (I know! Sacreligious!), so I got on the train for the long trek home. I miscalculated how long it would take to get home vs. how hungry I was, so I stopped at Dig Inn Market on my way home.

SO delicious. 

The Brooklyn Half was definitely a full day event and it was one of my favorite races, thus far! I'm so glad I got to run it.

The Brooklyn Half Marathon Pre-Party

The Brooklyn Half Pre-Party is not your usual expo. It's not a grab your bib and scope out the vendors on your lunch break type. . . it's a full on event. You should seriously consider it your evening plans. 

While the location was beautiful, it was seriously out of the way- and I live in Brooklyn! Sadly, the weather was super gross all that week, so the beautiful view of Manhattan that would've been worth the trek was completely greyed out and it was annoyingly drizzling.

It was about a mile from the closest subway station. Luckily, there were signs and volunteers guiding the way. I'm not familiar with the area, so it was a little  frustrating. There was also a ton of construction, so in order to get to the waterfront, you had to cross a bridge- that swayed. Talk about freaking out. The last time I experienced that I was on the Verrazano for the marathon.

The bridge of death and the construction.

It was also brought up that this is the only NYRR race that packet-pickup isn't in Manhattan. Could you imagine having to go to each of the respective boroughs for their races?

Once you finally arrived at the Pre-Party, it was really cute almost making you forget about the hike back to the subway- if you could remember how to get there. The official expo portion was under a tent and a tad crowded. Once you got your bib and shirt, you spilled into the New Balance merchandise area and the few vendors that were there were around it. I had my heart set on a couple of the race shirts that Brooklyn Circus designed, but I was disappointed that the designs either came in women's cut or unisex. The women's cut was shaped weird but that didn't stop me from buying way too many cotton blend shirts that said Brooklyn. I also picked up a half zip- what? How many times do you run your first Brooklyn Half?

You could also donation a pair of shoes and receive a $25 off coupon to the New Balance store on 5th Ave. I was really hoping I could pick up a pair of the New York City Marathon edition 890s, but alas they had already sent them to their outlets. You could buy the shoes at the expo, but you couldn't use the coupon. Whomp whomp. I should've bought them. 

Sparkly Soul had a custom headband for the race, so you know I had to have it. I'm loving that they're branching out this way, since they are the only headbands that don't give me headaches (but that doesn't stop me from buying others!) Nuun also had a special edition water bottle, like the one I got in DC, but I didn't realize that until it was too late, lucky for my kitchen cabinet. 

Brooklyn artists were there tagging your race shirts for free! By the time I decided I need that in my life, they had cut off the line. I thought it was a nice touch.

They also had a stage with lots of different musical acts, as well as plenty of AstroTurf area to enjoy the music. 

I was really interested in the food trucks for dinner. I am always on the look out for good Mediterranean cuisine, so I chose Toum. There was also a macaroni and cheese truck as well as a pizza one, I think. Luckily, I snagged a table under an umbrella and enjoyed my dinner.

I wasn't really fond of the only bathrooms being portapotties. It's one thing to go into one during a race, but in my work clothes with tons of bags? Ew.

See what I mean? It was an event. I easily spent a couple of hours there and I could've stayed longer, but I knew the trek home was going to be brutal.

I'm a fan of how much effort they put into making this entire event an authentic Brooklyn experience. I'm looking forward to how they handle the other borough races this year as well. I think it would be awesome for the other boroughs to get this much love, even if it does mean trekking there during the week :) 

Celebrating Earth Day with Bears

Happy Earth Day! 

We are really big fans of going to see the new Disney Nature film that comes out to celebrate. This year did not disappoint! Bears was a super adorable story about Momma Bear, Sky and her 2 baby cubs. John C. Reilly narrates and it's great. If you went opening weekend, proceeds are given to a film related charity so it's a win win!

Last week, I also happened to stumble upon a Q&A at the Apple store with filmmakers Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey and DisneyNature ambassador, Dr. Jane Goodall. It was a great experience and fun to get more insight as to how the film was made. If you want to see that panel, Apple will be posting it to their website, where they have tons of sessions like it from all kinds of Apple stores all over the world. How cool is that?

During the panel (as well as a trailer before the film) they gave a sneak peek to the next Disney Nature film, Monkey Kingdom. It was described as the real life Jungle Book, where monkeys rule. It sounds like it's going to be quite the comedy. Can't wait for next year!

Are you a fan of DisneyNature? 
Do you do anything special for Earth Day?

A Spartan Sprint (+ a race entry giveaway!)

Yesterday, I decided to go check it out the Spartan Sprint at Citi Field. I did not participate in the race, but I can tell you I was definitely regretting not signing up once I was there. I was extremely jealous of everyone who was getting ready to earn the title of Spartan. 

The race started on one of the stadium ramps and from there you ran back and forth and down and up on the stadium's upper seating area. The race was 3.1 miles in and around the stadium with many obstacles sprinkled throughout. I'm not sure about all of the obstacles, but the ones I saw were pretty intense:

Wall crawl, sword throwing and the Cirque tent- oh my!

You pick the ball up, you throw it down. You repeat.

These aren't your playground's monkey bars.

And just as you get back into the the field to run your victory lap, there is a rope climb, a wall climb and a net tower to get through before you get your medal. 

I'll be honest, I was extremely nervous about each obstacle that required upper body strength (because I have none) and the 30 burpee penalty (every time you couldn't complete the obstacles) is intense.  If I wasn't so worried about injuring myself for a couple of big running events I have coming up, I probably would have done it anyway. I love that there are no time limits for Spartan events- encouraging everyone to just get it done! Now that I've been to an event, I'm pretty convinced I need to do one.

LOVED the camaraderie!

This guy's team waited for him and gave him a badass welcome in! 

The winners! First time I've ever seen an awards ceremony. 

There was also tons of stuff for spectators to do as well. Being that this was in a stadium, you could see your Spartan a lot throughout their race. If you just wanted to hang out in the stands by the finish line, that's cool, too. The jumbotron and all the monitors throughout the stadium were showing clips of the Spartans at various places along the course. About once an hour they were shooting t-shirts into the crowd as well. It was a lot of fun! There were even kid races for your Spartans in training. 

Getting to watch the different obstacles on the jumbotron.

Check this site out for more information on Spartan races near you! 

Do you want to WIN a chance to earn the Spartan title? Well, lucky for you, the Spartans are allowing me to give away a free entry to any US 2014 Spartan Race! See below for more details.

Don't want to wait/ didn't win? Don't worry! Here's 15% off:  
http://bit.ly/spartanwarrior

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nike Women's DC Training: 2 weeks to go!

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 2.5M

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: HILLS

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 8.5M

Sunday: Rest

I really thought the week was going to go to crap when I couldn't make it to the park on Tuesday. I had a work meeting downtown that ran over, so off to the gym I went! It's funny, when you start running outside again, the treadmill does not sound like much fun. My body was not happy about that and it let me know- my feet and my knees were not fans of the moving belt. The upside was I got in and out of there in no time. The downside was I ran an entire mile less than I would have had I been at the park. 

Not to worry, I still got to the park on Thursday. Pam suggested running the 81st St. Bridal Path hill. I had never heard of it, but when I mentioned it to another runner friend, her comment was "Good luck with that. Have fun!" Awesome. The hill seems to go on forever and it feels like you'll never see the top. I definitely had some I feel like a smoker again moments trying to will myself to get up it at the fastest speed I could muster. There was lots of mentally cursing Pam and her bronchitis the entire workout. I have no idea what my mileage was for the night because I forgot my Garmin but that might've been a blessing to not know how slow I was actually running up that hill. I need to keep reminding myself all of this is going to make me faster.

But faster I was not on my long run this weekend. Not gonna lie and I will say it, Saturday was HOT! Then again, I did decide to start my run at noon- so that's no one's fault but my own. It did make me long for those cooler winter runs though. I am really not looking forward to summer runs- then I remember I'm not training for a marathon this year, so rock on. I'm seriously contemplating retiring from running for July and August just because I can. Although, the race I want to potentially PR in will be in the beginning of June- I'm definitely wishing for a freak cool front for that. 

I also decided it had been a while since I ran along the Brooklyn waterfront and what better day to do it?! It also happened to be where the Williamsburg Brooklyn Flea was. Oh, and surprise! I think this was the 1st weekend they held it outside for the season. I'm sure you can imagine how awesome it was trying to bob and weave around the entire hipster population for miles. Because of the heat and the direct sun, I didn't think about how thirsty I would be. Luckily, I made it to my favorite park with a working restroom and refilled in the sink twice. I also grabbed a Gatorade at the CVS on the return trip. I was pretty sure I was going to be sick for the rest of the day, but luckily I was not. 

RIP midday long runs. We had fun while they lasted. 

The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging to talk about something that I'm geeking out about. No, I wasn't asked to write about this, I'm just that excited about it.

 

I read a news article about The Fabergé Eggs yesterday, and then kind of forgot about it. Then, I went to Columbus Circle to run in the park last night, and discovered about 10 of the over 260 eggs that are all over the city. I'm already a huge fan of the artistic sculptures that cities will randomly do (my favorite to date are the New Orleans Bead Dogs they did a couple of years ago), but put an interactive aspect to it, and I'm sold! 

Enter The Big Egg Hunt app- You can collect eggs with the QR codes, see the latest news and even view a map to let you know if you're close to any eggs you haven't cracked yet. There is even a leader board letting you know how other many eggs the top collectors have. The campaign started yesterday and by the time I downloaded the app and got involved, some people had already found 80+ eggs. That's impressive. There are also a few different sweepstakes/ contests going on that you can win prizes for which definitely ups the stakes.

When you collect the egg, you can also read the description of the piece and find out more about the artist. This really made me do a double take at a few eggs and appreciate some more than the ones I was initially attracted to.

Then, there is merchandise. I've never in my life wanted to own a Fabergé egg- until now! I've scoped out a few of the ostrich sized replicas I'd put on my mantel. . . whenever I have one ;)

The hunt will go on until the 17th, then they will move them to Rockefeller Center. They will be on display there until the 28th and auctioned off for charity. The charities are Studio in a School and The Elephant Family- saving the arts and animals, what could be better?! 

So, now you know what I'll be doing next weekend and probably my lunch all week.

Kudos, Fabergé and all of your sponsors!

The 2014 NYC Half Marathon

Thanks to volunteering at the finish line last year, I got non-complimentary automatic entry this year's NYC Half Marathon. Even though I'm not where I'd like to be speed-wise, it is the 3rd anniversary of my first half marathon. I'm really glad I got to run the course again. I've decided having a local half marathon is a blessing and a curse. It's great not having to travel and having a home court advantage, but it also makes you lazy about preparing. 

After New York Road Runners opened a second lottery (making it the race's largest to date with over 20,000 runners!) I wasn't sure how this 3 different wave starts were going to work out. The only major snafu I noticed was baggage- they had the baggage trucks lined up numerically. Which would've been fine, but having wave 2's trucks by the wave 1/3 entrance and having wave 3's trucks past the wave 2 entrance on the other end of the park, caused for a lot of unnecessary traffic and congestion on Central Park South. Luckily, I was there super early for my wave start, but I could only imagine the frustration it caused for wave 1 and 2. 

I was so glad I got to meet up with one of my Princess partners in crime, Emily before the race- it was a long wait. Wave 1 hadn't even gone yet, which meant we couldn't get into the corrals. But it went by quick- it always helps to have a friend to chat with! 

It was COLD. Can you tell?

Something new this year was a metal detector before entering the corrals. I get that there needs to be safety, but letting the runners know beforehand might've been nice. And letting them know they didn't have to take off their running watches, etc. (even though we were being barked orders to put everything in the plastic bin) would've been nice as well, so I didn't have to take everything off in the freezing cold and try to figure out how to put it back on. Also, having bathrooms after security would've been nice- if you had to use the portapotty, you would've had to go through security again. 

Once the race started, we decided to take it easy, but Emily was too quick for me. So, we said our good-byes and I set out to figure out how I was going to finish the race. I just started taking new medication that had my muscles tense. Do you know how hard it is to function as a normal human, much less run a half marathon, when your muscles won't let you do anything? Yea. It was an interesting race to say the least. 

Just in case you didn't know, Central Park is hilly- making the first half of this race a beast. You climb Cat Hill within the first mile and then you hit Harlem around the 5k- 2 of the biggest hills in the park, not to mention the 3 sisters bitches and a couple of others scattered. It's pretty brutal. They changed up the course this year, so you actually exit the park right before Harlem Hill. There is an out and back on, which adds another hill to the mix. Awesome. BUT I will say it was a really cool addition; getting to see all the runners going so many different directions was fun. 

Times Square. Finally!

Once I got out the park (thank goodness!), the fact that I was running down 7th ave. hit me and I just tried to soak it all in. That feeling never gets old. It was a really great moment and I slowed down a bit to enjoy it. I realized how lucky I was to get to run this race for the 3rd time and for it to be in my own backyard. How often do you get to be in the middle of Times Square car- free? The only other time is New Years Eve and being the New Yorker that I am, I'd never be caught there.

Character stops in front of M&M World!

Construction on the Marquis.

There was even karaoke. No kidding.

Then it was time for the 42nd St. wind tunnel. I still had not taken off my throwaways- and thank goodness! That wind was insane. If that was going to continue, I was not looking forward to the rest of the race down the Westside Highway, even if it was the flat part of the course. Luckily, that wasn't the case. It is a little daunting to just keep going in a straight line for what looks like forever. I just keep focusing on the Freedom Tower and it getting bigger as I got closer.

It was great seeing friends on the course as well- running and cheering! I got to say hello to all my old TNT coaches, my new running friends at a water stop and then running friends as we passed each other on the course. All of those were definitely great factors and made the race even more enjoyable for me. Another plus to a local race.

After mile 8, I was stopping to stretch every mile or so. My left ITB/Hip was starting to act up. That seams to be the pattern- whichever leg doesn't bother me during training, will inevitably hurt on race day. I did the calculations and didn't think I had a chance to come in sub-3hours, so I just continued to enjoy myself.

If it was 2011, this would be the finish line.

I don't know what happened to me in the tunnel, but I just started running FAST. Once we got to the other side, there was .6 left and I was really close to the 3 hour mark. I tried my best to go as fast as I could and ended up with 3:01:29. What?! That's crazy talk. Who knew I had that in me? And who knew I am apparently really bad at math? (well, we should all know that already, haha) Even with all the stops through Times Square and the stretching.

As soon as I crossed the finish line, I ran into this lady!

When I read about the Recovery Zone, I was excited that it was indoors. I really needed to get out of my wet clothes and get warm. Sadly, it was only mats and foam rollers. As cool as that was, I wish they would've had an area for changing. But no worries, I found a corner and stealthily changed shirts for the long subway ride home. And speaking of the subway, I liked that the finish line was right by The Staten Island Ferry Subway stop- it was easy to hop on the train back to Brooklyn. The last time I ran the race, the finish line was closer to the South street seaport, which is super cool, but for someone who doesn't go that far downtown often, finding a subway station was kind of a pain.

I totally love that this is my anniversary race. This race holds my second fastest half and since I know I'm no where near that time, I'm really happy just being able to enjoy the course and coming close to a sub-3 finish. With all the stops and lollygagging during the race, I know that I could easily accomplish a sub-3 next time.

Since I ran The Manhattan Half and this one, I just need 2 more borough series races (which I'm already signed up for the Brooklyn Half and the Queens 10k) and I'll qualify for the 2015 NYC Half! Fingers crossed I'll be able to run this race for many years to come.

What's was your 1st half marathon race?