Fit Foodie Run Weekend Recap

This weekend was the Fit Foodie Run in Fairfax, Virginia.  For the second year, I’d been asked to be an ambassador and was excited for the events, including the race.

Friday was the Fit Foodie VIP Party. I was excited to see my fellow ambassadors as well as to check out the awesome food selection that we’d get to try. Despite rush hour traffic, I made good time getting to the Fit Foodie party at Mosaic and was able to stop and pick up my race bib at packet pickup . (Very quick process!)

Fit Foodie VIP Party

Then I headed to the party!. This year it was held on the patio outside Gypsy Soul, who also provided the food. It was a lovely venue and I immediately ran in to Salt as I walked up. We chatted a bit and then Kathryn and her friend arrived and we headed in.

Source: Eat Pray Run DC

First stop, of course, was beverages.  They offered wine, prosecco, and a few vodka drinks. I enjoyed a glass of prosecco while I checked out the food. Sadly, unlike last year, there were no placards explaining the food, but it was still quite tasty. There was a lovely shrimp appetizer, red pepper soup with BACON, and a charcuterie table, with my favorite Sartori cheese.  It was a lovely event with a raffle and an exiting bag full of Sartori cheese. I was psyched to get another selection of my favorites.

Saturday dawned super humid and warm.  I planned to use the race as a speed trial for my marathon training, but OY, it felt like we were about to run in soup. Race day logistics were a piece of cake. There was no traffic on the way and plenty of parking in the open lot on the outer edge of Mosaic. I’m sure there was even more parking at the Target, but I prefer the smaller lot.

Fit Foodie 5K

Source: Mar on the Run

I quickly ran into my favorite Fit Foodie ambassadors and we chatted before the race. I made it a goal to stick with Courtney for as much of the race as I could. Then it was time to race! Unfortunately, the start was a mass start with no organization by pace, so the first quarter mile involved a ton of weaving. I much preferred last year’s wave start, so I hope they implement that again in the future.  Once I finally broke loose, I was able to maintain a pretty steady 9 minute pace, despite a couple of longish hills. The course meanders through Mosaic and loops around twice. Unfortunately, this meant running through a gag worthy alley twice. Thankfully, the second time meant you were nearly at the finish line.  My pace was all over the place in the last mile, thanks to the humidity, but somehow I managed to pull out a 28 minute 5K, which is the fastest I’d done in a long time!

Then came the fun! The best part of the Fit Foodie Weekend is the finish line festival. And I have to tell you, it did not disappoint.  There was an official food tent where you could get drinks and food, but I spent most of my time wandering around the vendor area. Of course, the sponsors (Rove, Sartori, Canadian Maple, and Evamor to name a few) were there and had wonderful offerings, but there were also quite a few others.

I got lots of tastes and talked to South Block Juices (love their new juice that I tried) and Sweetgreens and Rove for a bit. I also got to spend a little more time with my ambassador friends.  While the race itself definitely needs a bit more polishing to be a good race, the finish line makes up for the minor issues with the race.

The rest of our weekend was about family and friends. We had a mini kid crisis going on and the other kid has a wicked summer cold, so I spent the rest of Saturday being mom. It was a rough day, but we made it through mostly intact.

Unfortunately, that meant that on Sunday I had to skip the yoga/barre event for Fit Foodie. I just needed to stay home. Such is the life of a mom.

Sunday afternoon, we had a bittersweet get together with another family. They are close friends and have boys that are the same age as ours (which is unusual). We hosted them for dinner because sadly, they are moving. This was our last chance for our boys to spend some time together before they are no longer just down the street. Luckily, they are only moving about two hours away, so we’ll be able to see them a few times a year. All of us our sad, but Shoo is having a particularly hard time as he and Z have been friends since before Kindergarten and Z’s dad was Shoo’s soccer coach.

So, lots of highs and lows this weekend.  On the running front, I’m happy with my 5K time and this morning kicked off my Marine Corps Marathon training. I ran a 4.5 mile tempo run since I didn’t have time for a 6 mile easy run.  It felt good and will hopefully set the tone for the training cycle.

I’ve also joined Sweatpink in their #1MillionMinutes challenge.  You should join me! Sign up, log your minutes and help them hit 1 million! The challenge lasts from June 21 through August 21 and you can win prizes for participating and sharing on social media!  My goal is to hit a minimum of 3000 minutes. I should hit more than that with marathon training, so I may adjust my goal when I have time to really sit down and estimate.  I have 45 minutes so far! (I didn’t count any yesterday as I didn’t do a specific workout. I just #wycwyc’d my way through the day as I attempted to get ready to host our friends and then take my boys to visit my parents.)

Don’t forget! Tomorrow is #TuesdaysontheRun and we want to hear your tips for running a “challenge race” like Dopey or some of the others out there.  Never run one? Tell us which one you’d like to do or just link up a running related post.  Can’t wait to hear what you have to say.

I’m linking up with a bunch of people this morning:

Tara

The Weekly Chase: My goal this week is to hit all of my runs for my first week of marathon training and hit at least 400 minutes for the #1millionminutes challenge.

Weekend Snapshots