DreamBig 2012 - #12 Nevada

STATE #12 - Las Vegas, Nevada
Rock N Roll Las Vegas
Finishers: 22,114

November 30, 2012
I made the justification that I needed to stay in New York for Friday night, and then I dipped out on an early morning flight to Vegas... VEGAS! Thrilling, right? Not so much - Vegas alone is surprisingly not fun. But the fun thing is when you travel alone you don't care all that much about the frills and you just book things to get a good deal. An example of this is that I booked my hotel at a place that is now called the LINQ but at the time was called like...the Cube or something scary and it was going through some major renovations and I paid $26 a night. Twenty. Six. Dollars. 

I landed midmorning with the time change from NYC and my room was not yet ready so since all I had traveled with was a backpack, I decided to hit the strip and check out what Sin City had to offer. Sin City has a lot of people paid to stand on the street and make snapping noises with what look like playing cards advertising for strip clubs and escort services. Great start....

I wandered to one end of the strip and decided to check out what the discount ticket office had to offer in terms of shows. The only decently priced option for the night was the Criss Angel "Believe" show at the Luxor. Once I had checked in to the hotel, I started to head that way to turn in my voucher for a ticket. I had totally underestimated the length of the strip and ended up basically run/walking because I thought I was late.

So I got to the box office and there were two teenage boys who were twins working the booth. I turned in my voucher and they showed me my option of seats based on the fare class I had purchased -- aka in the back. About halfway through their explanation, they stopped and said "Wait - are you by yourself?" A statement like this never fails to make you feel great - yes, I am a Party of 1. Evidently they felt bad for me and ended up giving me an aisle seat on the 4th row. 

The show wasn't for another hour so I waited around and got a small meal at the hotel bar. 

If you have a few dollars to spare, or some time to get on YouTube, check out Criss Angel. You will be giggling, confused and disgusted all at the same time. Because of my proximity to the stage, I was in the danger zone for crowd participation. Thankfully, I was not chosen. After the show I head back to the hotel and called it an early night catching the Bellagio water fountain show on my walk home. Early like -- first person in the city of Las Vegas to go to sleep.

December 1, 2012
Ready for another thrilling day, I got out early for a walk before the streets got to busy. The race expo was at the ginormous convention center. I had planned to spend a significant amount of time there but then realized I have been to this same expo 6 other times this year with all the same vendors. I wanted to not waste another day, so I bought a matinee ticket to the Cirque du Soleil show, Mystere, at Treasure Island. Exploring these hotels is fun so I wandered for a while and watched the pirate show outside before going to get my seat.

Those Cirque shows are the real deal. After the show I somehow ended up at the Toby Keith "I Love This Bar" restaurant in Harrah's next to my hotel where I ordered about 20 wings at a high top table alone where I watched some country music videos and then took my remaining wings back to the hotel where I stayed the rest of the night.

I am literally the most boring Las Vegas tourist of all time. 

December 2, 2012
Race day! The oddest thing about this race was that it started at 4PM. 4PM? Well what the heck do I do all day? I stayed in bed for a while and then went to an all you can eat breakfast buffet at the Harrah's next door. I probably had about 3-4 plates which is the ideal thing to do the morning of a half marathon.

In order to not exhaust my body, I ended up just cooling it in the hotel until it was time to walk to the race start. I had spur of the moment decided to buy a long sleeve shirt and I'm glad I did because it was starting to get a little windy. The race started down by Mandalay Bay and then ran the strip down and back and ended at The Mirage. The walk down to the race start was fun because the strip itself was empty and all of the sidewalks were full of a migration of runners all heading south. We hung out for a while in the parking lot and thats when the wind starting picking up - quick.

It started getting dark just as it was about time to run -- because its winter. So we started the race and all of a sudden you realize how massive the strip is. This is one of the larger races in the country and they pull out all of the stops for it. They even have a RUN through wedding ceremony that you can do.

So I was cold and it was super flat and the abnormalness of running in the evening instead of morning (and maybe the chicken wings and all you can eat buffet) was seriously cramping my running style. My legs were playing that game where they feel like bricks and just don't feel like loosening up. I just sort of put up with it and kept going.

Running the strip at night was an awesome memory but once you get off the main strip and pass the Little White Chapel, you are in dark back streets of downtown Vegas and you feel 0% safe -- even running with 22,000 other people. We did a lot of winding up and down these streets -- again all super flat which sometimes is not good. And then finally I realized we had to turn around at some point which was at about Mile 9.

*None of these photos are mine - obviously...

The Mirage in the distance was just that. I could see all of the landmarks of the where I needed to get to but the more I ran, the more it felt like I was standing still. Nothing was getting closer. Mind tricks on top of brick legs and the cold night time race? I was obviously having a great time. By the time we got back into the real Vegas strip, I was in "I for real may need to walk" debate mode but opted to continue shuffling along instead.

I had no kick available when I got to the finish line but got a space blanket and just sat down and pouted for a few minutes about how much pain I was in and questioned if I would ever make it back to my hotel -- 2 blocks away.

OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 12 states down, 38 more to go! #DREAMBIG

I eventually made moves, had a girl take a picture for me and limped back to the hotel. After a quick shower, I hailed a cab, made my way to the airport, took a red eye back to NYC and was sitting at my desk in the office by 6:30am.

Just your average Ashley weekend. See ya next year!

12 states down, 38 more to go!
#DREAMBIG

DreamBig 2012 - #11 Minnesota

STATE #11 - Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
Monster Dash
Finishers: 6,029

October 26, 2012
Cooper and I both flew in late last night to MSP - him from Milwaukee and me from NYC. I had been working really hard all week because we had a nonstop weekend ahead of us that involved needing TWO different Halloween costumes. This involved running all over Brooklyn and the lower east side looking for materials for my projects. I think I went to American Apparel like 6 times and created an arts and crafts table at my work desk full of felt and googlie eyes. 

Not my smartest use of money...but still a good one. 

I called this work.

We were staying at the Aloft in downtown Minneapolis and got an early start as we had a lot of errands to run to finish weekend prep. We got breakfast at a super cute restaurant called Blackbird Cafe before heading to Mall of America to shop til we dropped. And by that I mean to hit up some costume store to find 80s windbreakers (I still wear the one I bought on frequent occasions as my triathlon race warm ups). 

From the mall we made our way to the race expo to pick up our race swag. It was kind of cool because we got like jackets and headbands and stuff. The only thing I was thrilled about was that nothing was Minneapolis specific. Because the company putting on the race were not unique to MN, they just had blanket items (medals and jackets) that weren't branded for the specific location. Smart on their part in terms of mass ordering but not as unique - life will go on.

We took a few pics and then went back to the hotel for a little to see if our friend Cate and her husband Jeremy would be able to meet us for dinner. Things didn't link up so we went and got a quick dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then went home to put the finishing touches on our outfits. 

October 27, 2012
Race morning! It took a lot longer than normal to get dressed because I had so many elements to my costume to figure out. It was also freezing outside so I was trying to layer without jeopardizing the validity of my attire. We made our way over to St. Paul to the race start once dressed and met up with Cate and Jeremy to wish them luck and take some pics. 

Cate!!!

But how funny?

This was Cooper's first half marathon so I was super excited for this milestone and just praying his poor knees would hold up. Still freezing, we made our way to the start with the rest of the crew. The race was sort of a big triangle.

We started and ran about 4.5 miles west towards the Mighty Mississippi. Despite being cold, it was a true fall morning with leaves changing on the trees and crunching under our feet. Cooper and I were getting a lot of compliments about how cute our outfits were.

We were making good time and took the first turn at the 4.5 mile mark and then followed the river for the rest of the race. The great thing about that was following the river we were essentially running slightly downhill the whole time. At about Mile 6, Cooper had to stop for the portapotty line and Cate and Jeremy ran passed exchanging cheers.

We got back on the road and continued following the river which made a northeastern turn around Mile 8. I was feeling pretty good but by Mile 10 Cooper started having knee pains so we just chilled and entertained ourself looking at all of the costumed folks running by. It's amazing what some people can run in. 

I tried to help the situation by saying we only had a 5K left to go and that it was all downhill from here -- wrong. Mile 11 was a long uphill climb towards the end of the race. We had a good finish despite the pain and made our way back to the hotel to change and race to the airport for round two.

Post race

OFFICAL RACE PIC - 11 states down, 39 more to go! #DREAMBIG

We had a quick lunch on the plane from Minneapolis to Chicago where we met up with a bunch of Cooper's friends from Milwaukee. We had booked a suite downtown and had everyone over once we got in town to pregame before round 2 of the days fun and costumes. From firefighter and dalmatian to 80s workout team, we rallied hard and joined the crew bar hopping out in Wrigleyville. 

A very quick, nonstop weekend but a ton of fun!

11 states down, 39 more to go!
#DREAMBIG

DreamBig 2012 - #10 New York

STATE #10 - Hamptons, New York
Hamptons Half Marathon
Finishers: 1,332

September 28, 2012
I figured if I was in New York for a year, it probably was in my favor to take advantage of that and run...New York. I found a race out in the Hamptons and invited a bunch of friends to tag along and I would take care of all the accommodations. Well, once race weekend rolled around, it turned out to be just me on the Montauk train in route to Amagansett... alone. The weather was fairly cloudy but oh well. 

So I made my way out to the Hamptons and called a cab to take me from the train station over to The Hermitage where I had gotten like a 3 bedroom condo on the beach. I'm really popular. Because it was rainy and gross I spent most of the morning just chilling and watching movies.

I didn't need to go to any type of packet pickup because I had already gotten my stuff at a pickup in the city after work one day. Let me just say, this may not have been one of my favorite races BUT they for sure had the best stuff. We got really nice canvas beach bags, nice flip flops, nice towels, and then the t-shirts were pretty basic but everything else was awesome!

As it started getting late, I decided to call in a dinner order to Cyril's Fish House across the street and then make the dangerous trek over there in the dark along a dark road. So basically just walking through the ditches trying to dodge Jaguars and Audis. I enjoyed my fish pasta at the condo and then went to bed -- got to try them all out first to figure out which one Goldilocks liked the best.

September 28, 2012
Race morning! I had scheduled a service with the race for a raceday pick up. So I was up super early waiting outside of the main office with a few other runners waiting on the same service. We picked up a couple other runner along the way to the race before they dropped us off at a small school where we all waited int he gym. 

I was excited to kick off race #10 because being in double digits just made the goal seem real. Validity that I was actually going to commit to these races and progress was being made. I had an expectation that this race was going to be a running tour of a bunch of super nice homes but I was mistaken.

We started off running on the side of a tree shaded wooded road with not much around, aside from the aggravated passing traffic. We stayed on this road for quiet some time and then turned down another quiet, tree lined shaded long stretch of road. The variety of things to look at was really lacking. Every now and then we would pass a driveway but you weren't able to see much past the trees. Probably the point of it.

At one point we were running through what looked like farms and those had some really nice homes and orchards or something that looked rich. We turned back onto another sort of gravel type path where the marathon and half marathon split and ran on that for a few miles that took us back towards the road we started on. At this point, I think a lot of my pain was coming from the fact I was bored and had nothing to look at to entertain me. Other than that I was just ready to be done.

The last few miles sort of came and went out of nowhere because I just eventually turned my brain off. I made the last little sprint to the finish and then found a little kid sitting on the hood of a truck playing a Nintendo or something and asked if he would take my photo.

OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 10 states down, 40 more to go! #DREAMBIG

Post race I took the shuttle back to my condo and just chilled for the rest of the day since the weather was a little gross and I didn't exactly have much way of getting around. No one can dislike a chill day.

September 30, 2012
I woke up early dressed like a homeless person in all black sweats and got a cab to the train station where I hopped a train back to New York. I made it back in time to drop my things at the hotel and then meet Felicity from brunch and a walk on the HighLine to round out another race weekend!

Purse Umbrella - smooth Felic.

10 states down, 40 more to go! 
#DREAMBIG

DreamBig 2012 - #9 Rhode Island

STATE #9 - Providence, Rhode Island
Rock N' Roll Providence
Finishers: 3,607

August 18, 2012
I had been feeling a little under the weather and fighting a sore throat but nothing super horrible -- until I woke up Saturday morning. I am very used to having sore throats and strep and just issues because of my abnormal large tonsils (RIP 12/20/12). 

So when I woke up in NYC, I realized I had zero voice. None at all! Sounds like the perfect health condition to run a race. So I packed up my things at the hotel and head over to Penn Station to catch my train up to Providence. I had never taken the train out of Penn Station and I had no clue how it all worked with waiting to see which track is yours etc. I got there a little late and got very stressed and ended up canceling my ticket and booking a later trip because I had no voice to ask anyone for help. 

As always, I had a few people come up to ask me questions at the train station. To whom, I had to make a motion of "can't talk" which probably looked like I was choking. Once I finally got settled on the later trainI again had a friend fellow sitting next to me who despite my notions to explain I had no voice, still continued to ask me detailed questions that required more than just a nod. So I pretended to fall asleep with my headphones on. 

The ride was about 3 hours where you travel all through Connecticut before reaching Rhode Island. Providence was the last stop before Boston so the train was still fairly full. My hotel was in walking distance from the train station so off I trotted down the street with my huge suitcase. When I checked into the hotel, I got upgraded to an awesome corner room suite with a bathroom fit for a dance party and 2 walls of windows. Too bad I wasn't going to be there longer.

The convention center was also walking distance from the hotel so once I got settled, I made my way down the street to pick up my shirt and bib and wander the booths a little. Downtown Providence is actually really cool. I wandered up to the giant mall in the afternoon and got take out from one of the chain Italian restaurants and then went and chilled in my awesome room for the rest of the night. I knew I needed to get better which meant rest. 

One thing I did get to see which is fairly rare is the WaterFire along the Providence River which goes right through downtown Providence. It is a bunch of gas braziers in the water they only turn on for special occasions. They turned them on the night before the race which I was able to see from my window.

August 19, 2012
For August, it was a surprisingly cool morning. I had not run at all because of being sick so I did a few striders just to make sure I could breathe and decided I would survive - maybe. Once the race kicked off, I decided I would be just fine. 

The first few miles headed out of town into the historic and pleasant East Side where we passed Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University. You could tell all of the houses were super old and I could only imagine what type of history I was running through. Once we went up and down a few old school blocks we zipped down along the Providence harbor passing scenic Seekonk River heading north past Blackstone Park and including Blackstone Boulevard.

The race wound along the north side of the Swan Point area before returning to the downtown and more architectural and historic gems. It was a gorgeous course with a perfect mix of nature and history. Once we got back into the downtown area, it felt like we were on a running freeway because we did a bunch of crossing back and forth with different sections of the race. I never mind crossing paths with the faster/slower runners because it give something to look at and cheer for.

Towards this part of the race, I was still feeling good and started to entertain myself with all of the cameras along the course. Once we finally started heading back towards the capitol, we ran along the Providence River once more before, as always, heading uphill towards the finish. Always an uphill.

I finished strong and then used all of my audible words to ask a stranger to take a race pic for me. I then literally ran back to the hotel to change and get a flight back to Atlanta for a Deloitte event. Another wonderfully executed Rock N Roll race!

OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 9 states down, 41 to go! #DREAMBIG

9 states down, 41 more to go!
#DREAMBIG

DreamBig 2012 - #8 Wisconsin

STATE #8 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Summerfest Rock N Sole Half Marathon
Finishers: 3,223

Friday, June 22, 2012
Let me tell you a little story about a friend named Kali. Kali and I met around Feb. 22, 2012 while working in New York City on a ginormous Deloitte project. We often did seat rearranging as they needed more space and the most recent seat change put Kali and I across the aisle from each other. We didn't talk much at first until I went on a juice cleanse and was craving food nonstop. On several occasions during these 3 days, I would awkwardly ask Kali if I could smell her lunch just to pretend I was eating. And sure enough, we became best friends after that. Kali is from Omaha and I have spent many weekends there where I have slowly gotten to know her family and all of her friends. 

So back to the story - Kali obviously knew about my goal and had planned on running a race with her sister, Shari, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since I didn't have a set plan of races yet, she invited me along so I could check Wisconsin off my list. Gotta start somewhere. It was fun because Kali and I would train together for this race in Central Park and around the streets of New York - a very unique experience.

When the weekend came around, Kali had actually just recently transitioned off our New York project in early June so I was excited to reunite with her. I flew into MKE and rented a car and spent some of the day cruising around Milwaukee, picking up my race packet at the Veteran's Center and then driving some of the course. I also went to an outdoor mall and for no reason bought new wedges and new turquoise jeans. I am a pro impulse buyer. 

Kali's parents dropped her off later that afternoon once they rolled into town and she stayed with me at the Aloft. When it was time for dinner, Kali and I walked down to the Hyatt to meet up with her family and I met the first of many aunts and other family members of Kali's. Since Shari lived in town, we decided to do something easy for dinner and met up with her and a few friends at Olive Garden for dinner and then hung out at Shari's apartment before heading back to the Aloft to relax the rest of the night. 

Welcome gift at the ALoft - aka the key to my heart...cheese.

David Ahner - emergency contact who was out of the country

Saturday, June 23, 2012
We hadn't planned out race morning all that well but Kali had purchased me a new Nike shirt to wear so that we matched - she's the coolest.

We ate a little in the room and then the parents picked us up and dropped us off at the start. We had a bit of commotion in the car as it pertains to directions but I just tried to stay calm and let them all figure it out. Eventually, we just jumped out of the car and made our way to the start line. Kali decided to run with Shari and told me to go ahead up front since I had been training (this is always a constant theme over the next 4 years lol). After snapping a few photos, we said our farewells and decided we would see each other at the finish.

Ash - Shari - Kali all ready to Rock N Sole

The course took off and went about 2.5 miles out along I-794 which is basically the highway that runs along the Milwaukee Bay. Taking into account that it's pretty much a bridge over the water, we had some nice strong winds blowing and your normal inclines and declines that you would get from any bridge. Once far enough out, we hit the turn around point and basically just ran back the way we came to start the second part of the race.

The majority of the next part of the race was also along the water but had some MAJOR hills through the coastline parks and up into the neighborhoods. Climbing like it was my job. Along Lincoln Memorial Drive and through the Marina before turning back towards the start again around Mile 9 in Lake Park. 

It had gotten awfully toasty at this point and after starting out pretty strong, I started having leg pains and my body was just dragging. Just keeping going young grasshopper. We made our way back past the Marina along the coast and then down a lot of what seemed like either bike paths or sewer systems, either way - they were not your normal sidewalks.

I saw Kali's parents and younger sister, Bridget, around Mile 11 and gave them a goofy face and thumbs down to show how much fun I was having. We finally spit out on the other side of the fairgrounds under the highway and ran through the deserted, hot backroads before rejoining civilization and winding our ways to the finish.

I didn't have my phone so I found Kali's family in our meeting spot and waited with them until the girls had finished and we all regrouped for several photo opps.

OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 8 states down, 42 more to go! #DREAMBIG

We hung around the fairgrounds for a while and listened to music before going to clean up.

Race #8 for Ash - Race #3 for Kali

Kali.... my poor child

All of the runners in our extended group

Meh...not my best...but I'll take the state!

Later that night we met Kali's family for drinks and dinner and then met up with Cooper who now lived in Milwaukee and his friends for a night out on the town which ended by shutting down the bars while singing Whitney Houston and grabbing some late night dinner around 2am at an all night diner.

8 states down, 42 more to go!
#DREAMBIG

DreamBig 2012 - #7 Oregon

STATE #7 - Portland, Oregon
Rock N Roll Portland
Finishers: 11,036

May 19, 2012
One of the biggest adventures about the beginning of this race was picking places in the country I had never been before, picking a weekend and a race that worked, and just going. I never had much of a reason to go to Portland, Oregon but I had always heard great things about it. I knew they were very green - literally and environmentally. I knew they loved beer and had a lot of breweries. I knew people liked to ride bikes and you actually get taxed or something for driving your car to work. So I knew I was in for a treat.

I flew into Portland from NYC and the fly in was unbelievable. I had flown over mountains before, but flying into Portland was what I can only imagine it would feel like to fly into Narnia. I don't even really know what that is a reference from but it sounds very green and magical. 

I hadn't booked a car or anything (because I'm so green) so I hopped on the light rail and took it the one or two stops down to where my hotel was at the Portland Airport ALoft. I had already plotted out the rest of my trip and I knew I could around every where I needed to go on the lightrail so I booked my hotel based on value.

Once I had gotten settled in my room and put my bags up, I got back on the train and head in to the city towards to expo. Since I was by myself, I sadly didn't do much exploring and this was one of my first solo trips so I wasn't used to being solo adventurous. I went to the expo and picked up my packet and then honestly, did not walk around, and got back on the train up to my hotel.

I regret this and need to go back to Portland.

My hotel was nearby a pizza/pasta place so once it got late enough (so like 4:30pm) I ordered some food and walked to pick it up and then spent the rest of the evening watching movies in bed and resting the legs.

May 20, 2012
It was a little drizzley when I woke up but not cold or anything. I didn't know too much about the timing of the LightRail this early in the morning so I just went ahead and got dressed and made my way outside early so I wouldn't be cutting it too close. I ran into a lot of other runners and as we made our way to each stop, more and more runner boarded the train.

This part is always fun to me because you get to do a lot of eavesdropping about where people are from and what their goals are, etc. I'm sure I dropped the 50 states interesting fact but when you are at #7 no one really takes you seriously.

Once we made our way to the downtown stop, it was sort of a cattle herd to find the start line. We all were just weaving up and down streets looking for any type of direction with the blind leading the blind. I think I finally got a map pulled up on my phone and just verred off to find my way on my own.

At this point I realized I was super early, but at least there. 

As intriguing as it can be to read about all of my accounts of putting one foot in front of the other for 13.1 miles, I will spare you the details mainly because I for real don't remember much of this race or the scenery until the last 2-3 miles.

I know at that point it was still raining pretty hard and we had to cross the Steel Bridge and it was really slippery before we started getting towards the finish. This was around Mile 12 so I successfully have forgotten the entire race. I do remember that once we crossed over the bridge, it was a long downhill and then an uphill towards the finish and I was done. Easy peezy!

I got my medal and had a passerby take my photo before heading back to the lightrail to get cleaned up at the hotel.

OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 7 down, 43 more to go! #DREAMBIG

I didn't have anything better to do so - no joke - I went and sat at the airport for like 10 hours. 

I vow to go back to Portland, Oregon.

7 States Down, 43 more to go!
#DREAMBIG