DreamBig 2013 - #16 Washington

STATE #16 - Seattle, Washington
Rock N' Roll Seattle Half Marathon
Finishers: 12,439

June 21, 2013
After my year in NYC, I was having some good luck with flying and getting upgraded to first class. My hopes for Seattle were all but lost but, of course, with my luck I got upgraded at the last minute and was pumped because this was the first (and only) time I ever had a lay down bed in first class. You would have thought I had never reclined a chair before based on how I was playing with my seat. I ended up watching movies the entire flight instead of sleeping and landed in Seattle midday.

Cooper was meeting me in town later, so I decided to just start my public transportation trip up to the hotel. One of the many fun parts about traveling all over is find the most financially responsible ways of getting around. After boarding the LINK which took me to downtown Seattle, I then boarded the the Seattle Center Monorail which took me from Westlake Center up to the area by the Space Needle. From the space needle, our hotel was only a scenic 3-4 block walk to the hotel past the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Our room had an awesome view of the Space Needle. I went out to wander around while waiting for Cooper and ventured down to a Mariners team store to pick up some fan apparel for the game later in the weekend. Since I was already down in the central city area, I went ahead and met Cooper at the Westlake Center and then ventured back to the Four Points with him so he could put down his stuff and change. The team was finally in Seattle!

We wasted little time before we started out on our Seattle adventure. We needed to pick up our race packets at the CenturyLink Center so we decided to just going on our own personal walking tour around the city. We went back to the Mariners store so Cooper could pick up a t-shirt as well and then head down to the Public Market so we could see what things looked like without the crowds. We stumbled upon a very large piggy bank along with the famous gum wall.

The Football stadium from the conference center

Gum Wall

Sunset Ferris Wheel

Just being local - sightseers...

Piggy wants a penny

We grabbed dinner down near the water before heading back to our hotel to get some sleep for the night.

June 22, 2013
Race Day! I wasn't used to having Saturday races so this was different for me. The start wasn't all that far from our hotel so we had no issue just wandering over to the start line festivities with plenty of time to spar. After a few quick photos, we were off!

PreRace!

The race started near the Space Needle and then headed south through downtown Seattle for the first five miles into south Seattle. I remember Cooper turning to me at one point around Mile 4 and both of us thinking, "Where are we?" It wasn't the nicest part of town or very scenic but that was all about to change.

Normal Rocker on the course

By Mile 6, we finally turned north and started running along the coast of Lake Washington for Mile 6-8. This part of the course was gorgeous but also very challenging and hilly. Mile 7 was very narrow but it was also the memorial mile that was lined with American Flags and ribbons and pictures of soldiers who have died serving our country. We were both a little tired but seeing this demonstration of patriotism gave us both the energy boost we needed. I think Cooper started first and I just followed his lead, but we just started crushing the hill powering past people and using any and all bit of inspiration we could to get through this challenging stretch.

We finally made it to the top and were greeted by a nice shadey tunnel that led us onto the highway! For real, we were running on I-90! It was really cool because although we still had a long way to go, we could see downtown Seattle on the horizon which gave us a good visual to focus on. To be more specific, we could see the CenturyLink Field in the distance and just aimed on getting there which would be a little past Mile 10 and past the biggest climb on the course.

Once we passed CenturyLink, we had about 2.5 miles to go! This is actually where I-90 ends so we exited (using our blinkers of course) and headed back into downtown Seattle. We were running parallel to the street we had started on so my visual memory was in overdrive "counting down" the streets we had run earlier.

Alongside the coast for the final stretch

There was one turn at Mile 11 that took us straight uphill to another highway type road that overlooked Pike Place Market, the Ferris wheel and the harbor. These last 2 miles were no joke the longest miles. We were both trying to keep up a decent pace but at the same time the ups and downs in the course on this final stretch was getting to us. As we passed the market, in my mind I feel like we started running in circles when really I'm pretty sure we only made one more turn. I just remember going under a tunnel and sort of recognizing we were by our hotel and then all of a sudden we were at the finish line. Woo hoo!

Medal for a beer?

OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 16 states down, 34 more to go! #DREAMBIG

As always, I don't typically enjoy the beer garden when I'm alone but with Cooper I always make an exception. We went and got our free Michelob Ultras and played around the finishers area and took some photos before going back to our hotel and getting ready for brunch. To treat Cooper for flying up to Seattle to run with me, I made reservations for brunch at the top of the Space Needle! The restaurant in the observation deck actual spins so we had a lot of fun. People will write notes and put them on the window sill and as the restaurant rotates, other people write comments on your note and if you are lucky your note comes back to you! I wrote one that said "War Eagle" .... and got no replies. Some people just don't know.

Brunch at the top of the space needle 

War Eagle - anyone? Anyone?

We finished up our brunch and went out to the observation deck to get some photos before our second tour of Seattle. Once we were changed and decked out in our Mariners gear in preparation for the game later that evening, we went about walking again to explore some of the places we breezed past the day prior.

Original Starbucks!

We spent a lot more time at Public Market where we went to the first Starbucks as well as Pike Place Fish Market and saw them doing the whole fish throwing show. It was pretty cool to see live. We then made our way down to Safeco Field for the game! They were playing the Oakland A's (funny because Cooper was living in Oakland at the time) and we had gotten tickets through a deal with Rock N Roll. So decked out in our Mariners game, we got a few earned beers and then somehow found the moose mascot of the team and got some photos before enjoying the game.

We had a fun time exploring Safeco and seeing what all the stadium had to offer in comparison to Busch Stadium and Turner Field. No clue what the score was - but super cool stadium!

It had been a long day so we didn't stay out too late as we had a few activities planned for the next day as well. We made our way back up to the hotel ready for a good nights sleep.

June 23, 2013

With one more day left to explore in Seattle, of course we were welcomed with a wonderful drizzly morning. It actually worked out perfect because we decided to book a duck tour of Seattle. If you have never been on one of these, yes they are a little tacky but they are an awesome way to see the city.

The ducks picked us up near the space needle and gave us little duck quackers. We were then given a tour around town on a land and sea tour of the city. Pretty fun way to end the trip!

16 states down, 34 more to go!
#DREAMBIG

DreamBig 2013 - #15 Nebraska

STATE #15 - Omaha, Nebraska
City of Papillion Half Marathon
Finishers: 578

March 16, 2013
I can't remember how I made it work, but somehow I got off work early on Thursday and got on an earlier flight up to Omaha to hang out with Kali. Kali wasn't really working this day but rather was at a Deloitte event in the press box of TD Ameritrade Park. After picked me up at the airport, I used one of Kali's coworkers name tag and ticket in order to get into the event where I spent the afternoon watching baseball, eating free BBQ and meeting fellow Deloitte coworkers. Pretty much my normal when I visit Kali in Omaha.

The best past about getting to Omaha on a Thursday was that I finally got to participate in the Taco Ride! What is the taco ride you ask? Well the Taco Ride is another example of why I love Omaha and the random fun things they come up with in the Midwest. The taco ride was recently (2015) featured in a Jenny O's ground turkey commercial and takes place every Thursday night. Starting in Council Bluff, Iowa the ride goes 10 miles along the Wabash Trace Nature Trail to Mineola, Iowa where everyone stops for taco specials. Halfway into the ride is an area called Margaritaville where everyone steps and - well parties.

So! I hadn't ridden a bike in a while but Mr. McElroy let me borrow a bike for the adventure. We grabbed a case of BudLight Lime and a bike cooler and met Kali's boyfriend and friends at the starting trailhead. We had a great little ride along the trail and made the normal stop at Margaritaville where I shot gunned my first beer (yes, I'm 25 and have never shot gunned a beer). So post beer shot gun, we were on our way again.

I was riding behind Kali and noticed that the straps of the bike cooler were dragging a little too close to the gears in the back and I wanted Ryan, Kali's boyfriend to come check on it. As I mentioned, I had not ridden a bike in a while so when I turned to call back to Ryan, instead of just turning my head, I turned my entire body and before I knew what was happening, I had flipped over the handlebars and was laying in the ivy in the trees along the course.

After everyone stopped laughing at the pink blur who went tumbling into the bushes, I assessed my damages and didn't think anything too major was wrong. I had busted up my forearm and elbow pretty bad and hit my hip very hard as well. So not to ruin anyone's fun, I dusted myself off and we carried on. We made it to the restaurant and at that point I didn't really want any tacos... I wanted a pain reliever and to go to bed. I think someone finally found me a Tylenol. On our way back, I think is when I realized my cycling potential because I literally put the pedal to the medal and flew back to Council Bluffs in the dark craving to get off the bikes. Taco ride gone wrong.

March 17, 2013
On Friday, Kali and I got ready and went into the Deloitte office to work for some of the day. Oddly I know a good chunk of the Deloitte Advisory team in Omaha so we had people stopping in all day to say hello. Our friend Alex came and hung out with us for a while so I could show off my cool new boo boos.

Business Casual Boo Boo

We grabbed lunch with a bunch of coworkers and made plans to meet up with some of them later for dinner. This is also when the trend of me winning things in Omaha continued. At work they were raffling off two tickets to a Creighton baseball game on Saturday - and low and behold, Kali wins them!

I've got friends in low places - jk Juan

We got dinner before the boys met up with us later that night and did a little bar hopping before going home to attempt to get a good night sleep.

March 18, 2013
Feeling a little lazy and slow, we did our best to just hydrate and nap for most of the day.

We made the trip out to Papillion to pick up our packets and made a trip to the sporting good store to buy matching headbands and hats and shirts.

We had tickets to the baseball game so we slowly peeled off the couch and made our way to the game. We stayed for a while until we decided to go on a bit of a sightseeing tour to do the whole "Walk to Remember" scene where you are in two places at once. They have a walking bridge where you can be in both Iowa and Nebraska at the same time.

Hungover Gameday

Two Places at once!

Once we had worn ourselves out, we went back to Kali's apartment to continue napping for the better part of most of the rest of the day, we shared a fancy meal at Fazoli's with pasta dishes and never ending breadsticks and made our way to sleep.

March 19, 2013
Ready to rumble, we got up and made our way to Papillion for race day. It was a pretty small race so we basically parked at the starting line. Kali, as always, decided she needed to go to the bathroom the second before the race started because she likes to see me sweat by playing the "last possible minute game". My hip was not feeling all that great seeing as I had busted off a bike 48 hours ago and the bruising was slowly taking its toll, but I figured I had come all this way and I wasn't about to let a little boo boo stop me from racing

Pre Race ready to rumble

The race started and I couldn't help but love the course because it is just what you would expect from Nebraska - we literally ran through cow and corn fields.

Nothing was all that scenic but the best part of the race was that Kali's boyfriend, Ryan, would randomly just pop out from behind trees along the course to cheer for us. And then not too far away would be Kali's parents there to cheer us on as well.

The race took us around some farmland and through some small towns and on to a trail. We ran into a friend of Kali's knew who joined us to chat for the last half or so of the race.

It was great to see how many place Kali's cheer squad showed up at! It was drizzling a little but not enough to make things unbearable.

We were still doing well cruising at a decent pace when Kali decided to take an energy gel she had with her. I had never tried them before but after seeing the extra burst of energy it gave her towards the end of the race, I made a mental note to try them out.

The end of the course felt like it was switchbacks up a mountain before we reached Papillion High School where the race ended on the track. It was like hell getting up that hill and Kali finally took off ahead of me. Waiting at the top of the hill was our friend Karin cheering and giving us the last boost of motivation we needed to push through the last half mile or so.

As always, when you think you see the finish, usually you end up doing some windy twists and turns before you finally finish. I finally made it to the track and across the finish line excited as always to have finished another race with my friend!

Half #4 for Kali - Race #15 for Ash - and running out of fingers!

OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 15 states down, 35 more to go! #DREAMBIG

We later got brunch with Kali's family in from out of town before I caught a flight back to ATL.

That went well...

15 states down, 35 more to go!
#DREAMBIG

DreamBig 2013 - #14 Kentucky

STATE #14 - Louisville, Kentucky
Kentucky Derby Festival Half Marathon
Finishers: 11,848

*On April 15, 2013, a tragic act of terrorism occurred that rocked the running world. Two bombs were planted at the finish line of the Boston Marathon that killed 3 civilians and injured hundreds more. At the time of the bombing, I was sitting in a hotel in Decatur, Illinois and I emotionally lost it. Runners - a group of historically goal driven, philanthropic, motivating people who do anything to meet their own goals and encourage others to do the same. And they decide to attack runners. I think what the terrorists didn't consider was this same group of runner who they decided to target, would only return and rally together stronger than before in order to illustrate that not even terrorism can bring us down. I posted a Facebook post the day of the race that got some attention that I have shared below:

April 23, 2013

The week after the Boston bombing, I decided it was time to go home for a while. And by home I mean St. Louis. I took the week off and went back to Kirkwood to train and get mentally ready for the race to come this upcoming weekend. With so many thoughts of "why?" still occupying my mind, I tried to channel the need to preserver with the running community into my daily training races.

On this special day, as I was running around the old high school, I stumbled upon the Kirkwood girls distance track team who happens to be coached by my high school cross country coaches, Coach Finnerty and Coach Harris. They were wrapping up their workout and invited me into the gym to do an ab workout and talk with the girls for a bit about my goal. It was heart warming to see their eyes light up when I told them about running all over the country and also when I told them -- I was never that great of a runner. They had a lot of questions to ask and it was a moment to remember just thinking of when I was in their shoes and now being on the other side of things. Definitely something I will remember and try and go back and share my story with the team when I'm home in the future. 

I also did some digging, which drives mom crazy, into all of the boxes in the basement to see what hidden treasures I can find. Here are a couple of really flattering photos from when I had a bullcut in 7th grade and had ruined my hair with sun in as well as some photos from high school cross country.

Kirkwood Track Club - 7th grade - Emily, Me, Grace and Susie

Crushin' people on the Jefferson Barracks finish line hill -  still do this...save all my energy for the finish (poor strategy FYI)

High School Cross Country - likely Sioux Passafe - Erin, Ann, Lindsey, Caitlin, Me, and Susie

April 26, 2013
So, after tearing mom's basement apart, we packed up the car on Friday morning and headed to Louisville, Kentucky. It's only a 4 hours drive from Saint Louis so I was happy mom was able to come along. This was her first half marathon of mine that she had attended so it was all very foreign to her. We arrived and checked into the Sheraton across the river in Indiana before heading over to the race expo to pick up my race packet. Most expos are about the same but this one definitely had a stronger feeling of community in the air with everyone rallying together in support after the recent tragedy in Boston. I picked up several #BOSTON STRONG wristbands and some blue and yellow ribbons to wear on my bib as well for the race. We continued to wind through all of the booths when I heard a voice that sounded familiar. Turns out it was one of my closest friends from childhood (I'm talking, we were even baptized together) and her husband, Austin, at one of the booths! I had no idea she would be there and it was such a treat to be able to catch up for a few minutes before heading on our way.

Caitlin! Can't believe how fate just brings people together =)

Mom and I wanted to drive the course before it go too dark and before we found a spot for dinner so we said so long to the Bristow's, who were heading out of town after the expo, and head on our way to do the race chores. 

Mom was hilarious while we were driving the course (and she continued to do this at the other 3-4 races she attended). So much live positive commentary while driving, 

"Oh Ashley, you can't do this" - "How much farther do we have to drive" "We are only at mile 3?!" "How do you do this!?"  "Are we getting closer?" "I'm tired just in the car!"

She is never anything short of entertaining. Once we were done driving the course we made our way to dinner right on the river where we got to watch the fireworks from the baseball game upstream. I ordered some pasta but was unable to eat much of it because my irrational nerves were already getting the best of me. I couldn't stop my brain from churning. I didn't want to be pessimistic and afraid but it was impossible not to think about what had happened not even 2 weeks prior. We took the food to go and head back to the hotel so we could get some sleep - and so I could plan mom's race day.

April 27, 2013
We woke up early -- lies. I don't think I slept. I had the news on for most of the morning and listened in as they talked about the "no bag policy" and safety precautions and amount of law enforcement on site.  And the forecast wasn't looking all that great as well. I ate a couple bites of a granola bar and woke mom up and headed to the garage we had planned for the race. 

It was barely raining so that was positive and the weather wasn't horrible brisk. Mom had her instructions for how she could see me at Mile 4 and Mile 11.5 with a coffee shop in between and then I would meet her at the finish. The star spangled banner was an emotional one for sure and a moment of silence as well, of course I was crying - that's a given. But at the same time it was empowering - I wanted to run for Boston. 

We set out and I mistakenly confused my adrenaline for speed and exhausted myself within the first 3 miles. With not much in the tank in terms of nutrition, I remember passing the 4 mile turn and looking at mom with an "I don't know about this" look. From that turn, we headed south for 3 miles towards Churchill Downs. I knew if I could get to Churchill that I would reenergize from the experience alone... but all I wanted was an orange slice.

Pray and you may receive -- no joke. About 3 minutes after starting my day dream about orange slices, a lady was just standing in the median of the road handing out little sandwich baggies of orange slices. For a moment I thought I was hallucinating but grabbed a bag with exhaustive gratitude and ate my orange slices like I had been deprived of Vitamin C since birth. Thank you random lady for saving me.

Rebooted, I continued on my way and soon saw Churchill in the distance. What a vision! We entered the arena through a tunnel that entered onto a dirt track. People ask me about this all the time, but we ran around the outside dirt track and had horses running on the inside grass track. I made a video at the time, but I need to hunt that down. The outside track was less than a mile and then as quickly as we had entered, we were exiting the track. Note to self: Must return for the Derby.

The last 4.5 miles took us back north towards downtown which included a mini tour of the University of Louisville. Up third we went until we just about reached the water. I saw mom and then the finish line memories started and I did my best to force them away and focus on finishing for Boston. It was a downhill finish so I made my kick across the finish line teary eyed and went to find mom.

OFFICIAL RACE PHOTO - 14 states down, 36 to go! #DREAMBIG

Space blanket doubles as tarp

We got my race photo and beat the rain just in time. I was able to get on an earlier flight back to Atlanta from Louisville and made it home in time to grab dinner with the roomie and friends!

Homecoming party

Great race and highly recommend it just for the Churchill experience. Thanks for coming mom!

14 states down, 36 more to go!
#DREAMBIG