DreamBig 2013 - #13 California

STATE #13 - San Francisco, California
Rock N Roll San Francisco
Finishers: 5,827

April 5, 2013
I arrived late into San Francisco and Cooper picked me up from the airport. This was a big race weekend for me because obviously it was my first race of 2013 and my first race after coming back from my tonsillectomy over Christmas. "You got your tonsils out - big deal" you may be thinking. But coming back from that throat surgery was actually more difficult than I thought it would be. From December 20, 2012 until New Year's Eve, I wasn't able to eat anything and I quickly lost about 15 pounds. For me, that means all of my muscle got eaten and I had to start over from the ground floor. I remember being out in Salt Lake City, UT with Cooper the first week of January and I was trying to run for like 5 minutes on the treadmill and I ended up in a fit of tears on the floor of the hotel gym so frustrated about being weak. But, I used that and this race as motivation to get back on track and to make this year another one for the books. So I trained - a lot. I got back on a strict running and workout regiment to regain strength and stamina and sure enough I was more than ready for race weekend. 

So back to San Francisco. I arrived and Cooper picked me up from the airport and we head to Oakland where he lived. It was the first Friday of the month and in his neighborhood they have something called "First Fridays" where they close down the street outside his apartment and basically have a little street festival with booths and food and music. We had a good time just browsing and getting a few things to eat before calling it a night.

April 6, 2013
We packed up our bags and made our way into the city for the next few days. If you haven't realized it now, I have bad race anxiety and so to defuse any race morning hiccups, I decided to book a hotel near the race start so we didn't have to worry about the commute into San Fransisco from Oakland in the morning. Call me silly, but the BART has strikes a lot. So we stayed down near Fisherman's Wharf close enough to the start line. During the day, we went on several adventures on the street car and bus to go to the race expo and just around town to sightsee. The absolute biggest perk of the day was going to the Cardinals game! 

It just so happened to be opening day for the Giants and because the Giants had won the World Series in 2012, they had a lot of fun opening ceremony events for Buster Povey (who we got a bobble head of) and it was just exciting to be around the game atmosphere of baseball again WITH the Cardbirds also in attendance. As always, I got nachos because nothing says Ashley is a fatty and loves Cardinals baseball better than ballpark nachos. The Cardinals won and we made our way back towards the hotel where we grabbed dinner near Pier 39 getting some seafood pasta -- and picking up some rations for the morning and heading back to the hotel for the night. 

April 7, 2013

The start of the race was about a mile from the hotel but not a bad walk and the weather wasn't all that bad. After some last minute snacking, we head out the door and made our way down to the start of the race which was out on one of the Piers - I think Pier 41. We had some time to kill so Cooper hung around with me while we waited for the sun to come up and watched the cool fog lift off the water. 

Game Time!

Waiting for the race to begin 

#1 Cheerleader

Waiting patiently - more than likely feeling horrid.

Once the race start got closer, Cooper went to get in position and I finished my mental prep on my own. Super excited to get the 2013 kicked off.

Start Line

When the race started, I remembered feeling good from the very beginning. For the first mile or so, I was running behind a bigger guy wearing a shirt that said "Security" on the back so I did my best to stay a few steps behind him in order to entertain myself and pretend he was my body guard. Once he slowed down, I had to say so long. I saw Cooper around Mile 1 and then he ran off to his next viewing area. It was a bit of a surprise because a lot of the first 4 miles were a winding mix of uphills and downhills along the coast on switchback roads. I did good on the climb and I must thank my training for that.

The biggest highlight of the race was obviously running over the Golden Gate bridge. Since the bridge itself is about 1.5 miles all the way across, it took up a large chunk of the race. Cooper saw me as I was about to head over the bridge and the next 30+ minutes I was just in awe. Once we got to the opposite side, we veered off the street and head down and under the bridge before looping our way up and heading back across. When I had hit Mile 7, my phone started to ring so I answered it to find Kali calling to ask when my race was -- um, right now. I am currently on the Golden Gate Bridge and I am feeling awesome. I really was! 

ProPic: By Cooper

We made our way over the bridge and back down to the coastal park where we somehow ended up on a sandy path -- did NOT see that coming. It slowed me down a little bit but nothing to worry about. The end of this race was one where you could see Ghirardelli Square from really far away but you still had a really long way to go. Corner after corner of coastline, I kept my pace and in odd, coincidental fashion "Eye of the Tiger" came on for my last few minutes of hustle to the finish line. 

I hadn't been concerned about setting a goal for my time but I crossed around 2:01 which of course made me start to wonder if getting under 2 hours was attainable in my future. 

I made my way through the snack line and into a field where I basically just had to stand and wait for Cooper to come find me. It's a hidden talent of his -- he can pick me out of any crowd (the hot pink shirt probably helped a little).

OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 13 states down, 37 more to go! #DREAMBIG

Once we reunited and I told him about my race, the next stop was icecream. Yes, it was 9:30 am and I wanted icecream -- that was the deal. We made our way to the Ghirardelli shop where most people were getting coffee so I could get my cone. 

9:30AM icecream cone

After checking out of the hotel and cleaning all of the sweat off, we made our way back down to the Pier where we had brunch at the Pier Market before doing some more San Francisco exploring (aka I spent a ton of money shopping).

Dream Big - but never forget about crayons

Loved this race and it will always be one of my more memorable moments from my goal.

13 states down, 37 more to go! 

#DREAMBIG

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