There have been a ton of memes going around about January being several thousand days long. I generally think time flies, but wowza, this month was a long one. At one point I was actually begging for snow, just to add something new to break up the month. Ah well, only one more day! I'm joining Marcia, Deb, and Coco for a little coffee and runfessions this morning. If we were having coffee this morning, we'd be sitting in a hotel room together. I am yet again on a college visit, this time to a school that was barely on the radar and is now a front runner. It's a flight (or long ass drive) away from home, so I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I guess all that matters is how Jones feels about it after this weekend. If we were … [Read more...]
Final Runfession and 2019 in Pictures
This year flew by! I still can't believe we are only days away from a new year and decade. I've been blogging for just over 10 years and this year was nearly the end. I don't know what 2020 will bring for blogging, but I'll do my best to pop in when anything interesting comes up. So, here we go with one last Runfession with Marcia! I runfess that instead of running my favorite half marathon this year, I decided to cheer. A lot of thought went into the decision, but what it really came down to was that my butt still hurt and I had zero interest in walking the last half. Instead, I dressed as a unicorn and cheered on the course. People loved giving me high fives at mile 1 and they were fans of my sign at mile 5! Even better, I got to … [Read more...]
Will work for swag: tales from behind the scenes of a race
Two years ago I took a leap of faith and signed on with ZOOMA Women's Race Series. Originally I was managing the ambassador program, but Sarah invited me to travel to the Texas race in March of 2018. It's been a wild and crazy ride since then, but somehow earlier this month, I took the lead in producing our second Texas race of the year. I know! I don't quite know how I got here, but I'm couldn't be happier. As Sarah said to me one night at midnight as we unpacked boxes, "This is so much fun." So true. I have never had so much fun while working so hard in my life. I thought I'd share some of the crazy, unusual, and "oh shit" moments of this past race season. Random statistics Things I stuffed in my running bra: my phone, my … [Read more...]
And that’s a wrap! Bring on fall running!
It's hard to believe that tomorrow the kids go back to school (never mind that most other schools are already back in session.) It feels like just yesterday that we were celebrating the end of another school year. But we had a good summer and this is a huge year here - Jones (who was 7 when I started this blog!) is a senior this year and Shoo is in his last year of middle school. Seriously, where did my babies go? We managed to pack a lot into this summer! Jones and I visited 7 colleges, 2 zoos, an aquarium, an ornithology lab, and an aviary. Shoo got to visit Beer Geek's family, got bitten by a salamander, built his own road bike, and has gone on a few double digit mileage bike rides. On the running front, I got to run a … [Read more...]
I Hate Summer Training: June Runfessions
Temperature wise, we are in full on summer. This week has been in the high 80s/low 90s all week, sometimes with matching humidity.`Welcome to Virginia in the summer! But mentally, we are barely there. School just ended last week. This week Jones has been in a full time training for the work he'll be doing this summer. Shoo has been lazing, but also just joined his summer activity. While I'm excited for both of them to be doing the cool programs that they are doing, the schedules will be erratic, so I'll be juggling a lot this summer. Which leads me to Marcia's runfessional... I must runfess that I hate having a training plan in the summer. Our schedule during the school season is pretty consistent, but we are all over the board … [Read more...]
5 Reasons to Run ZOOMA Bermuda
Have you heard the news? ZOOMA is going to Bermuda! Mark your calendar for President's Day weekend 2020. Here are the top 5 reasons you should join us... It's a ZOOMA race. All ZOOMA races are women focused weekends. ZOOMA hosts a race (and often challenges with extra races and medals) surrounded by an awesome finish line party and events like yoga. Bermuda will have all that ZOOMA races normally offer and more! And I can guarantee that the medal(s) will be awesome!The weather! The average temp in Bermuda in February is in the 70s. I don't know about where you live, but in February, Virginia is miserable. It's cold and grey and just plain unpleasant. Someplace sunny and warm? Sign me up!Beaches and Forts and Lighthouses. (And … [Read more...]
Runfessing over a cup of coffee
Since Marcia opened the Runfessional late and Deb and Coco are hosting the Ultimate Coffee Date, I've decided to combine the fun into one post. If we were having coffee, I'd runfess that I meant to write this post days ago, but life kept getting in the way. In fact, it took me all day today to actually hit publish. I've been juggling two part time jobs for a while, but recently I started working a regular shift at the library as well as picking up a few other shifts as they need people. I like it and I'm still not working 40 hours a week, but it's taking a bit of adjustment to fit in my non-paid activities now. Speaking of non-paid, if we were having coffee, I'd runfess that I'm nervous about getting in all the miles for … [Read more...]
Runfessions of the shortest month of the year
I have to admit that when I realized today was Runfession Friday, I freaked out a little. I mean, how could it be the end of the February already??? Thankfully we have almost a week left, so I'm not quite as far behind as I thought I was (I just finished sending my tax stuff to my accountant. Pretty sure that's going to be blood bath. Oh well.) So, it's not quite the end of the month, but I'll runfess with Marcia anyways. Because this is how my February has gone... I runfess that I've had a hard time actually committing to any races this spring. I even went so far as to sign up to volunteer for the Reston Half Marathon rather than run it. But last night I got bitten by the race bug and signed up for the local Four Courts race (OMG, … [Read more...]
Race views and ZOOMA challenges
Today's topic for Tuesdays on the Run is "Best things seen at a race". I've seen some pretty amusing things: guys running only in thongs, jogglers, dribblers (literally a guy dribbling a basket ball the whole race), awesome costumes, awful costumes, etc. But, despite running with my phone, I pretty much never take pictures and I have the memory of a gnat, so I leave you with this... Moving right along.. Here are our upcoming topics: 10/23 – Standout Post-Race Food 10/30 – Halloween! 11/6 – Racing Mistakes 11/13 – The Best City I Ever Ran In Is… 11/20 – Black Friday And October 16 at 10am EST, ZOOMA opens its winter challenges. You can join us for the Holiday Challenge - a movement and self care challenge for … [Read more...]
ZOOMA Cape Cod in pictures
This past weekend was incredible! It always amazes me that working so hard can be so fun! I got into Providence on Thursday afternoon and met the rest of the ZOOMA crew for the drive to Falmouth. We headed to the Sea Crest where we met to course director for a drive around the course. I was in the way back of the van, so no pictures were taken, but the course was absolutely gorgeous. Then we headed back to the Sea Crest for dinner and a relatively early bedtime. Friday I popped out of bed before my alarm and headed for a short run along the coast. I was lucky because I managed to get out and back before the rains came. Next up was hours of prepping for and then attending the ZOOMA expo. I got to meet a lot of the … [Read more...]
Race Weekend Runfessions
I'm writing this from the hotel room at the Sea Crest in Falmouth. Which is to say, my views are currently amazing! This weekend is ZOOMA Cape Cod and this is likely my last quiet moment before the wild ride begins. No matter how much planning you do, there are always surprises. The trick is to handle those surprises in a way that does not negatively impact a race. But it's nearing Friday and it's runfession week, so here are a few things that are going on in my life. I runfess that when I woke up the morning after the Clarendon Day Double that I was pretty sure I was going to defer Marine Corps Marathon. Everything hurt! But the deferral window had closed (or I was too stupid to figure out how to do it), so that was no longer … [Read more...]
Tap, Tap, Tap – Is this thing on???
Confession: I completely forgot about my blog this past weekend. I had intended to write a Friday Five post, but I got on the plane Thursday morning and my life became all ZOOMA all the time. I have no regrets. I've always loved being involved with races on the production side. I mean, I love to run them, but working them is even more fulfilling. I got my first taste volunteering at water stops at various races in the DC area. Then I got hired to help manage packet pick up for the DC Nike Women's Race. Since then I've managed quite a few water stops at local 5Ks and at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon - the one year that the weather allowed the race to actually happen. At ZOOMA, I get to put together all of my … [Read more...]
