Go Far Woman Half Marathon
Finishers: 235
August 21, 2015
Hmm...well...looks like I'm going to North Dakota. There are some states on my list that sound normal in concept (being a 50 state and all) but then when you start planning it and start actually traveling, you start thinking - wait, I'm going where?
Fargo is not cheap to get to but being a state, I had no choice but to bite the bullet and book the trip. I took off work on Friday and head down to the airport via Marta around 8am. Evidently Matt Layton saw me walking on a mission with my backpack and jokingly texted me seeing if I needed a ride to class at Georgia State. I got to the Atlanta airport with plenty of time to do my thing - that being get my #8 from Chick-Fil-A. I was flying on American which is super foreign to me so I actually had to go way out of the way to get breakfast but it was worth it. Duh. I also saw a kid on a hover board going through security. Are Razor scooters not cool anymore?
Backpack - Check - Ready to Walk |
Glad Marta made room for me... |
Can kids not walk these days? It was cool though... |
Good Morning, Beautiful #8 |
My first flight was from ATL to Chicago (ORD) where I had a short layover and made the brilliant decision to get a bag of Garrett's Popcorn and sat at the gate like a little kid with cheesy fingers trying my best not to touch my white pants. The plane from ORD to FAR was super small which makes you nervous no matter how often you fly.
POPCORN! |
Off I go to Fargo! |
Flying into Fargo....seems about right. |
Just 4. |
Cool room, right?? |
Small town baseball is always fun because the community gets so into it. I reserved a seat on the end so I wouldn't have to bother people getting up but for some reason no one was sitting anywhere near me and several people pointed it out "Wait, are you alone?" -- "So you don't have any friends coming". Nope....just me. I stayed for the first 4 or 5 innings but wanted to go get dinner number two, so I went down the street to Buffalo Wild Wings so I could watch some of the Chiefs v. Seahawks preseason game (JMac's first TD of the season!). Why I decided eating hot wings and french fries the night before a race was a good idea - I will never understand but it happened.
I must smell... |
Sitting at the bar, the night before a race...eating chicken wings #carbload |
August 22, 2015
As I said, no sleep made for a very early morning. I got up and down a bunch and then finally decided to get up and get dressed. I left the hotel around 5:45am for a 7am race and hit up McDonald's for some oatmeal before heading down to the race start. The race was at the same place the expo had occurred the day before so it was nice they had indoor, clean bathrooms and a place to stretch and get ready. The weather wasn't horrible in terms of temperature but it was SUPER windy which made things a bit challenging.
66 and WINDY!!! |
Inside Scheels Arena |
Starting to worry...about my sanity |
The entire race was through newer neighborhoods on streets, paths and sidewalks and it was actually really pretty. We had some sunflower fields and little ponds to look at along the way. At Mile 2 I saw a lady with a 50 States Club shirt on and after trying to count the states and run at the same time, I decided to give up and just strike up conversation. She was on #29 and she was projected to finish in June 2016 running 25 races this year. See, I'm not the craziest person out there. We talked about our goals for a while and then at the 3 Mile water stop I bid her good luck and realized that the 2:00 hour/9:10min/mile pacer had caught up to us.
This was only at Mile 2 |
At Mile 7, I made my Snap Chat as always and I was surprised to see how good I was still feeling. Not awesome and my knee was starting to give me a little pain but nothing I couldn't handle. Mile 8 and 9 made loops back through some more new neighborhoods and they had some chocolate energy gel that was awesome - almost like fudge. Fat Kid Ashley almost turned around to go get another one.
Mile 9 we passed a house that had a sign that read "One Free Sprinkle" with a little sprinkler our front that made me laugh. Since the course ran us all through neighborhoods, a lot of families with their kids and dogs and coffees had set up water stations in front of their house. Love with the community get involved -- especially when we are barricading them from leaving their houses anyways.
1 FREE SPRINKLE! 2 and we charge you.... |
Mile 9 - only 4.1 more to go! I kept thinking those were flamingos... |
I knew the arena was close but I couldn't see quite how close until right at like Mile 12.7 when I realized it was basically right in front of me. We ran through a tunnel under the main road and it seriously elevated the volume of my feet hitting the pavement and it gave me that last burst of energy I needed to push up the little hill, across the grass (which reminded me SO much of high school cross country!) and down the finishing chute. The clock said 2:03 and I was thrilled since I hadn't had a good race in quite some time and I really needed that as a confidence booster.
What the finish looks like |
StolenPhotos....
Thank you Firemen! |
SnapChat Check-In |
Official Time: 2:03:49 - 20 minutes faster than Montana |
Official Race Pic! - 44 states down, 6 more to go! #DREAMBIG |
Here is a serious vent: WHO invented vegan all natural 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner and WHY would they ever had it as the main shampoo/conditioner at the hotel?!?! This "Pharmacopia" garbage made my nappy sweaty hair 100x more nappy and sweaty and no joke made it feel like packing peanuts - or like cotton balls - it was so bad I couldn't even brush it and I had to go out with a wet hair, birds nest ugly bun to the store to buy normal, American, chemical induced shampoo and conditioner. Okay, rant over.
Once I was clean, I made my way to the Cajun Cafe who I heard had a killer Crawfish Omelet and Sweet Potato Pancakes. I don't like it, but I am getting more and more used to eating by myself in restaurants. The food fully lived up to the reviews and the waitress was very impressed with my appetite and speed of consumption.
Crawfish Omelet AND Sweet Potato Pancake |
Clean Plate Club - Where's my toy? (Schnucks anyone? Back in the day?) |
Where in the World is Lego JMac (You are all disqualified from playing) |
I had to drop the car off at the airport by 3:30PM so I had some time to kill at Hector International to...well....write this blog =) It started pouring about 30 minutes ago so fingers crossed I get through to Chicago and back to Atlanta at a decent hour. No need to bore the readers with any future travel drama.
44 states down, 6 more to go!
#DREAMBIG
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