Month of mayhem, part 2: the Kauai marathon.

This is what running in Hawaii looks like. Sigh. 

I have been back on the mainland for a little over three weeks now, and I am finally adjusting to not being in Hawaii. Now that the longing has receded (a bit), I can tell you about one of the highlights of our trip: the Kauai marathon.

Andrew and I actually planned our honeymoon around this race. We decided early in our wedding planning not to go on a honeymoon right after the wedding, for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that we both prefer adventurous vacations, and we knew we would be too tired after the wedding to go on a trip like that. Of course, the problem with postponing a honeymoon is that you can keep postponing it. A few months after the wedding, we still had no honeymoon plans. We both knew we wanted to go to Hawaii, but we didn't know when, which islands, or what to do there. Finally, I started looking for Hawaii marathons, and struck gold. The Kauai marathon was far enough away for planning, training, and saving money. Kauai- known for beautiful scenery and outdoor activities- looked like a perfect fit for us. Best of all, I found it less than a week before a price increase, which forced us to make a decision. After a couple days discussion, Andrew signed up for the half-marathon, I signed up for the full marathon, and we started planning.

Given the 6-hour time change and (slightly) different climate, I knew that I wanted a few days to settle in before the marathon. So, we decided to start our vacation by visiting my friend Katie on Oahu, and then head over to Kauai the day before the race. So, on a lovely Tuesday morning, we set out for Oahu. Trying to save money, we booked a flight with two long layovers in the middle.

Toasting to our honeymoon in the Minneapolis/St.Paul airport.

By the time you factor in the time difference, we wound up travelling for about 23 hours on the trip out. I have a terrible time sleeping on planes, so I stayed up pretty much the whole time. By the time we landed in Honolulu, I couldn't care less that we were in paradise. I just wanted to sleep. We got our rental car, drove to our 1-night hotel in Waikiki, and crashed.

The good part about staying up through a marathon of travel? Minimal jet lag. At a totally reasonable time the next morning, we woke up and took a walk around our hotel.

Not bad.

Now, it could sink in: we were in paradise. After hitting the hotel gym (go us), we spent the morning checking out Waikiki beach, and then drove about 30 minutes to Kailua to check into a micro-house we rented for out Oahu stay.

Welcome to our tiny home.

We found this place on AirBnB (you can see the listing here.) Its an 8x10ft. mini-house which our hosts built in their backyard. It was truly tiny, but had everything we needed and was in a great neighborhood right near the beach. As an added bonus, our hosts Denise and Henrik were super-nice and turned out to be runners and triathletes themselves. We spent a great happy hour with them swapping race stories and they helped us find a perfect local running route (see photo above).

Not counting the night we arrived, we were on Oahu from Wednesday-Saturday. During that time, we ran on the beach, ate at a famous restaurant for our (dating) anniversary, visited Pearl Harbor and a really cool museum, and checked out some of downtown Honolulu. Most importantly, we got to spend a day with Katie, my former roommate/running buddy (often featured in this blog) who moved to Hawaii 3 years ago. Knowing that I had a marathon coming up, Katie took us on an "easy" hike to see a waterfall:

Climbing. There was a lot of that.

Andrew and Katie at the waterfall.

Our "easy" hike was certainly scenic, but it involved a LOT of climbing. Knowing that I had a hilly marathon less than 2 days later, I freaked out a little. As we climbed, I mentally reviewed everything we had done so far and did not find much resting. We probably walked 5 miles in the course of our sightseeing, plus our run in Kailua, plus the hike. I tried to put it out of my mind and enjoy the visit with Katie, but I was worried.

On Saturday, we said goodbye to Oahu and got on a plane to Kauai. En route to the airport, Andrew and I kept exclaiming over the beautiful mountain scenery and lamenting our short time on the island. It was truly beautiful and Kailua had a laid-back, outdoorsy vibe that we both enjoyed... But then we saw Kauai.

After we landed at the tiny Kauai airport, we picked up a shuttle for the 30-minute drive to our hotel. We told our driver we were running the race, and she pointed out parts of the race route for us. It was spectacular. Here is just one tiny example, taken from the marathon's Facebook page:

This is called the "tunnel of trees."

We got more and more excited as we drove along... and then we got to the hotel. The host hotel for the marathon was the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa. Andrew and I consider ourselves more "micro-house" people than "grand resort and spa" people, but we got a discount for doing the race, and we saved a ton of money by doing AirBnB on Oahu, so we decided to splurge.  GOOD DECISION. This hotel was literally breathtaking. Our first view when we walked in was a cavernous lobby, open on one end with a perfect view of the ocean:

"We get to stay here???"

We also got the full "lei treatment" for the first time, which left us both fairly giddy:

There was a slight problem getting our room ready, so we went straight to the race expo. It was small, but very nice and friendly.

Very happy to be doing the half.

Gulp.

I don't usually buy things at race expos, but when were we going to get back to this one? We both picked up some t-shirts and a few things we forgot to pack (electrolyte tablets, earbuds, etc.). After the expo, we checked into our amazing room and took it easy for the rest of the night.

This is where we had dinner our first night in the resort. Amazing!

The next morning, we got up very early to catch a 4:45am shuttle to the 6am start. We took a short ride to a well-organized and friendly start area. The announcer told us that 1700 people were running that day, but only a little over 300 of us were doing the full marathon. At that point, I got VERY nervous. I was already intimidated by the course, which features 2,205 feet of climbing, much of it in the later miles. Now, I realized that I would probably be running those later miles with no company. Gulp.

At 6am, the gun went off and Andrew and I headed out together. While he and I usually run at our own paces, we had decided to run together for the first 11 miles, where the half and full marathons run the same course. For Andrew, this meant slowing down. He could have handled a faster pace for a half, but I did not want to risk going out too fast. We decided to do 10 minute/2 minute run/walk intervals and enjoy the scenery as much as possible.

It was beautiful. Andrew tells me that the first 11 miles were hilly. Looking at my GPS, I see that he's right- we gained over 600 ft. of elevation in the first 7 miles in a long, slow climb. Somehow, though, I don't remember any of that. I think the remaining 15 erased all of those memories. I do remember how beautiful it was. Andrew and I didn't stop to take pictures because we didn't want to load and unload our phones, but we did slow down to take it all in more than once. The early miles were all about beautiful trees with mountains in the background (see above). We also had one brief downpour, which helped with the 80+ degree temperatures.

Back when we were training, I asked Andrew to do me one big favor during the half: not to countdown the miles. I knew it would not be good for my mental state to hear him say "only 5 more miles!" when I still had 18. He did exactly as I asked. Later, he told me that he was really tired toward the end of the half and ready to be done, but I had no idea. The only time I got reminded of how far I had to go was when we ran through a neighborhood at mile 9. Some very nice people who had set up a full cheering section on their lawn yelled "Only 4 miles to go!" I yelled back "I have 17!," and they groaned sympathetically.

All too soon, we reached the spilt at mile 11. Andrew gave me a kiss and headed downhill toward the finish. I turned and headed... uphill... alone. Of the 50 or so people who hit the mile 11 mark with us, only myself and 2 others headed for the marathon course. To add insult to injury, another downpour started just as I headed up the first big hill. I think I actually said "Really?" out loud.

At that point, I did something I pretty much never do in races: I put on headphones. I generally consider it rude (not to mention unsafe) to wear headphones in big races, but I always carry them along with an IPod containing an "In Case of Emergency" marathon playlist. In three previous marathons, I never needed it. This time, though, I was headed uphill by myself, missing Andrew and the crowds. To make things worse, I was heading into a long out-and-back loop, which meant I faced a steady stream of runners headed back. They were approaching mile 23 and I was only at 12. I needed a little boost to keep me from turning around and heading to the finish with them. The music definitely helped me re-energize and forge ahead. I do have one regret, though: a few minutes after I put on the headphones, Dean Karnazes (otherwise known as "Ultramarathon Man") ran right by me. He is known for being really nice and encouraging and he looked me right in the eye and said something... which I couldn't hear. I appreciated it anyway.

Off to tackle the big hills.

Shortly after Andrew and I separated, I started losing track of the 10/2 intervals. I think the music gave me some steam because I actually ran straight through a couple of walk breaks. This turned out to be no problem, because my planned intervals became irrelevant somewhere in mile 12. Mile 12 was totally uphill, with an elevation gain of a little over 200 ft. Mile 13 was a little downhill break, and then the real fun started. Miles 14-16 were literally straight up hill. We gained over 400 ft. of elevation in those two miles, with 300 ft. of that happening in mile 15. Picture one long hill, getting steeper and steeper for 2 solid miles. Every time we turned a corner, I thought I might get a break, but instead it just kept going up. Even better, I spent the whole climb watching most of my fellow runners coming down. For this whole stretch, I ran when I could and walked when I had to. There was a lot of walking.

(This would be a good time to note the awesome crowd support in this race, which was one of only things making the hills bearable. Because of the heat, the race directors put a water stop nearly every mile in the marathon loop, and almost every stop had musicians or dancers. In addition, it seemed like everyone who lived along the marathon route came out to cheer and stayed out to the last runner. I was on the course for over 6 hours, with only 20 people behind me, and I had people cheering me the entire way. That says a lot about the people of Kauai!)

Finally, at the 16 mile mark, I reached the top of the climb. The course leveled out on top of a ridge. I ran by a clearing in the trees and was greeted with a breathtaking view:

The picture doesn't do it justice. I could see all the way down a beautiful valley, with mountains at the top and the Pacific in the distance. It was awe-inspiring. I might even say it was worth the climb! We were treated to this view, and some steady downhill, for the next 2 miles. I started skipping my walk breaks again and just running through. I also started passing people, which felt awesome. By mile 18, when we hit some more hills, I had joined a small group of fellow runners who were walking the uphills and running everything else. I resumed my 10/2 intervals until I got through those hills, which (thank God) were the last big ones.

By mile 20, I was feeling fairly good. Going into this race, I was really worried about a total breakdown like the one I experienced in the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon. Once I hit 20, I knew that danger had passed. I felt really proud of myself for toughing it our through the long, slow climb of the first 7 miles and the shorter, brutal climb of miles 12-16. I also felt ready to be done. As my coach Susan always says, the last 6.2 miles of a marathon are finished on mental strength alone. That was never more true for me than in this race. My body was pretty much done and it was only the thought of crossing the finish line that kept me going.

Waving was a major effort at this point.

At mile 24, I passed the place where Andrew and I had separated and started a 2-mile downhill "sprint" to the finish. At that point, "sprinting" translated to "not walking." Once I made the final turn, I started running toward the resorts of the southern beaches and saw the spectacular ocean in the distance. It was so hot that I wanted to run right into it!

I always get a little teary when I see the mile 26 sign in a marathon. As an added bonus for this race, that's where Andrew chose to wait for me. As soon as he saw me, he started running next to me and tried to get me to do a sprint, but I explained that a fast jog was the best I could do. FINALLY, 6 hours and 15 minutes after I started, I crossed the finish line!

Into the chute!

DONE.

Andrew and I got our finish photo taken, and I started telling my war story.

Craziest honeymoon ever!

Almost immediately, a fellow marathoner overheard me and said "Please don't talk about mile 16- I'm still traumatized." We had a little chat, which was my introduction into the "Kauai marathon survivors" club. Over the next few days, I had several chats with fellow marathoners of varying ability levels. Some had finished in under 3 hours, others (like me) took over 6, but everyone agreed that it was the toughest marathon we had ever run. I also had a lot of conversations with half-marathoners, which all seemed to include the phrase "You ran the whole thing?" One of them even high-fived me. So, even though this was my slowest marathon by a decent margin, I wound up feeling really proud about it.

The best part of running a super-hard marathon in paradise was that, once it was over, I was still in paradise. Andrew and I spent the next two days relaxing and enjoying the resort and the rest of the island. When it came time to leave, we were talking about our favorite parts of our vacation and I said "As sick as this sounds, I really loved running that marathon." Andrew just rolled his eyes. I'm hopeless.

Toasting my finish at a post-race luau.

Done and done!

 

Summer craziness.

It seems to happen every year: my June gets so crammed with fun events that it winds up being totally nuts and I can't wait for July. Weddings, birthdays, races, travel, preaching- its like my whole summer gets crammed into one month. This has been going on for several years now, but this year is the craziest ever. When Andrew and I married each other, its like our calendars got married too, and gave birth to more and more places to go and things to do. Here's the run-down for this summer so far:

May 24-26: Andrew went to KY for a bachelor party. I went to NC to see some seminary friends. While I was there, I visited the US National Whitewater Center, which is basically a massive outdoor adventure playground for grownups. Amazing.

May 31-Jun 2: Andrew and I were scheduled for my first tri of the season and his first tri ever, with his parents visiting to cheer us on. Those plans went a little awry when I injured my foot May 30th, but Andrew was triumphant! (See two posts ago.)

June 5: My birthday. For the second year in a row, I didn't have time for a real party because my birthday was surrounded by weddings, but Andrew and my family still made it nice.

A "cake" made of flowers, which Andrew sent to my office.



Best card ever from my niece.



 

June 7-9: Andrew and I went to Richmond, VA for an awesome wedding at a camp, featuring a bluegrass band and lots of friends from my Yale Divinity School days. Bonus: I managed my first workout post-toe injury.

June 15-16: Andrew and I went to another great wedding, this time for two of his friends in Washington, DC. The next day, we got up bright and early to run the Striders' Father's Day 10K. Not the strongest showing for either of us, but it did get us closer to IronMan awards for 2013.

June 21-23: I did my 4th annual stint volunteering for Camp Forget-Me-Not/Camp Erin DC, while Andrew spent the weekend going to my nephew's 13th birthday party and having breakfast with my parents. Who has the best husband?

Andrew teaches my family his unique photo stylings.

Which brings us up to the craziest of crazy weekends:

June 28-30: Two parts of this weekend were planned out months ago. I've known for a long time that Saturday was the first day of the Striders' 2013 marathon training group and also that Andrew's parents would be coming to visit and celebrate our mothers' close-together birthdays. As if that weren't enough for one weekend, Andrew and I made a last-minute choice to add some craziness. When I had to back out of the Rock Hall tri on June 2nd, I signed up for the Annapolis Tri Club's first-ever sprint tri on June 30th.  Even though he already had one tri under his belt for this month, Andrew gamely signed up too.

In previous years, I've gone easy on the first few weeks of marathon training and jumped in closer to the fall race season. This year, though, I'm signed up for the Kauai Marathon, which is a mere 8 weeks away. So, no skipping the early long runs! With that race in mind, Andrew and I got up bright and early Saturday morning and headed out on our first 10-miler since April. It wasn't easy, but we got to see lots of friends from the Striders and we took a lovely coffee-and-scenery break during the last 3 miles.

When we got home from the run, we took quick showers and set about cleaning the house and prepping food for the mothers' birthday party. Then, we drove down to southern MD in the afternoon to watch my nephew win 2 baseball games (yay!) and back home to host said party. We had a great time, until we looked at our watches and the drinks in our hands at 9pm and remembered we were doing a tri first thing in the morning.

At 5am on Sunday, we got up and packed our tri gear. The race was just a few minutes down the road inside the beautiful Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. From the moment we arrived, we started seeing friends: people from our gym, Striders, members of the Wonder Women tri group, even members of my high school and college classes. Andrew and I still can't get over the fact that all of our local friends are athletes, and we're thrilled to be part of that group! The sign-in and gear set-up, like all aspects of this race, were low-key. We didn't even have assigned spots on the bike racks, which was nice because we got to be next to each other and our friends.

When I signed up for this race, my brain somehow confused "low-key" with "easy." Big mistake. This race was far from easy. The swim was a pretty basic 1/2 mile out-and-back in warm, calm water. It would have been lovely, if not for the jellyfish. I got stung once, which I thought was a big deal until I chatted with people post-race and realized that most of my fellow athletes (including Andrew) were stung at least 5 or 6 times. The bike course was an easy 10 miles (two 5-mile loops), which I made hard by not training. Then came the run. It was billed as a trail run. In my experience, this often means "a lot of road and a little bit of trail." Not this time. This was a true trail race: mud, tree roots, steep climbs, and slow finish times. Beautiful, but very challenging.

I finished the race in just over 2 hours with a distinct feeling that it had not been my day. Just a couple minutes later, I watched Andrew cross the line, and realized I was witnessing a first. Andrew had started two swim waves- or 6 minutes- behind me. He crossed the finish line about two minutes after me. Thus, for the first time ever, he beat me in a race. When we got our official times, we learned that my math was spot on. I finished in 2:02; Andrew finished in 1:58.

Savoring his well-earned victory.

After the race, we finally got to relax. We spent the afternoon eating, napping, and going to the movies. Good thing, because we need to rest up for the rest of the summer. Events still to come: the rest of marathon training, 5 more road races (for both of us), 2 more tris (for me), a family trip to PA, Andrew's birthday, the removal of my wisdom teeth, and finally our honeymoon to Hawaii!

I'll sleep in September.  

The right company, pt. 2: more photos!

In my last post, I wrote about how my friends are helping me get through my runs this training season. Since then, I have taken and recieved a few more photos from recent runs.

First, a couple that I took this morning on my weekly run through Quiet Waters park with my friend Jen. Both the scenery and the company make being out at 6am tolerable, and often enjoyable!

This is the dock at Harness Creek, a favorite spot to pause and take in the scenery. In the summer, the birds, crabs, and fish put on a quite-absorbing show.

Another great thing about Quiet Waters is deer! If you run early or late, you almost always see one or two. This sign is clearly well-placed.

Now, a few more photos from my trail-running adventure of last weekend. Enjoy!

Gathering around for the pre-race course talk.

Off I go! Krista should be a race photographer.

Pausing for a photo op by the lake.

Walking through slippery mud. This is not the worst of it.

Shimmying through a narrow gate, which was part of the course.

Another odd part of the course- it went over a guardrail! Several people missed this on the first lap. I can't imagine why.

According to Krista, this is the mud build-up at mile 14. It got worse!

The right company...

...makes everything more pleasant, even your longest long runs! I have been very fortunate to have great company for many of my runs this training season, and I definitely cite this as one of the reasons my training has been going so well. My gym buddy Jen has kept me motivated for my weekday runs (a big change from last year). My Striders friends, especially Val and Noreen, have kept my mind off my long Saturday runs. Then, this weekend, I had the opportunity to travel and do a long run with my good friends Krista and Ray, whom you may remember as the couple who had the triathlon wedding.

A few months ago, Krista contacted me about participating in a 40-mile ultra race/relay put on as a fundraiser for a no-kill animal shelter in Hanover, PA. Her husband, Ray, was planning to run the whole 40 miles (!) and she was looking for a friend or two to join her in a relay team. We are both marathon training, so I suggested that we just split the distance in half, doing 20 miles each. At the last minute, we changed our plans and decided to sign up as individuals so we could run together. We planned to do 16 miles (the race was in 8-mile loops) and then assess whether we could go further.

I was a little apprehensive about this race because it is almost entirely on trails, which makes for a very different (and harder) experience than road runnning. My apprehension was not eased when it rained cats and dogs (no pun intended) the entire day before the race. I kept thinking back to July 2010, when I tripped on a trail run and wound up on crutches. I set out for the race Saturday morning with several changes of shoes, socks, and clothes, fearing both mud and tree roots.

Fortunately, the race turned out to be low-key and fun. The trail was challenging (and full of mud and tree roots), but Krista and I were not worried about time, so we simply walked when things got too treacherous. We were able to laugh it off the few times we got turned around on the crazy race course (Krista commented that it seemed like they let an animal loose on the trail and simply marked where it wandered).  We even stopped to take some pictures:

We ran by this spectacular lake several times.

A little over halfway through lap 1 and still smiling!

This was my first experience participating in an ultra, and I definitely noticed some differences. The field was small, people were friendly, and the aid stations were unbelievable. When you intend to run for hours, you need a lot more in terms of food and gear. The aid stations were stocked with a staggering array of delicious food and supplies, to which we added what we had brought ourselves. Between laps, we made leisurely stops to eat, visit the restroom, and swap out wet shoes and socks:

Shoes and socks #2. Yuck!

Midway through our second lap, Krista and I began talking about how far to go. I was starting to have some aches and pains. I was sure I could go to 20 miles, but less sure that I should. When we finished the second lap (16 miles), we met up with some friends, including my sweet boyfriend Andrew who drove to the middle of nowhere to watch me participate in this craziness. After some discussion, Krista decided to attempt another lap. I still wasn't sure I should go along, and I wanted to show Andrew the park, so I asked if he was up for walking a half-lap of 4 miles. He agreed, and we all set out.

Taking a little break by the lake. Happiness.

At first, my victory lap/hike was a lot of fun. It was great experiencing the park again with Andrew. It was even better that he appreciated the challenge of the hike and, therefore, realized what a badass I am for running 16 miles on those trails. By about 2 miles in, though, the fatigue had set in. We tried some short cuts back to the car which didn't quite go as planned, and I started to worry I would be walking forever. In the end, though, we made it out. The sight of my car was one of the greatest things I have ever seen. Making it even better was the fact that Andrew agreed to drive home and bought me Five Guys for lunch. Krista, who is way more of a badass than I am, got all the way to 24 miles!

All in all, a wonderful way to do a long run!

Suitcase Adventures, pt. 1

Hello, readers! This is the longest I have ever gone without posting, mainly because I have travelled almost every weekend since early May. A brief review of recent happenings:

May 5: My last day of classes at Loyola.

May 7-9: I was in Houston for my friends' wedding.

May 13-15: I was home, trying to train through a sinus infection.

May 20-22: Loyola graduation festivities.

May 24-26: Romero Center Conference in NJ and food poisoning.

May 27-29: 10th Bryn Mawr Reunion in PA and residual effects of food poisoning.

June 3-4: VA Wine Country Half-Marathon and vineyards trip.

June 5: Practice tri and birthday.

June 10-12: Volunteering at the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing's annual grief camp.

June 16-18: Trip to NY to visit YDS classmates.

June 19: Father's Day, including a Father's Day 10K.

As you can see from the links, I have blogged my way through the May and early June events, but I started getting behind after my birthday week. So, now that my suitcase is unpacked, its time for some catch-up posts! I'll start with this past weekend:

From Thursday-Saturday, I was in Irvington, NY for an annual reunion with some of my YDS (Yale Divinity School) classmates. These reunions (for which much credit is owed to my friend Mindy) are always a highlight of my year, and this year was no exception.

We chose Irvington because my friend Nora is a pastor there and her parsonage is so enormous one can get lost going to the bathroom. It has a huge kitchen (ideal for a weekend of snacking and gossiping), 5 bedrooms, and 4 living rooms which can serve as extra bedrooms. Irvington has an additional appeal for me: great running routes, including one truly stunning quarter-mile hill.

See that white truck? Right about there, the hill suddenly becomes an almost sheer drop.

The picture does not do it justice. Starting from the top, its so steep that you really can't run down it, and even walking makes you feel like you're going to fall end-over-end any second. As a little bonus, the final .10-.15mi stretch drops off even more sharply. Running up this thing is like climbing wall.

When I visited Irvington last summer, I did not even think about running this hill. This year, though, I had the upcoming Dreaded Druid Hills 10K to think about. That race is June 25th, and I have not done nearly as much hill training as I should have done by now. So, I decided to make up for some lost time with the Irvington hill. Both Friday and Saturday, I warmed up with a 3-ish mile trail run, walked to the bottom of the hill, and headed back up. It was brutal. It only took about 5 minutes to run from the bottom of the hill to the top, but my heart was pounding by about 20 seconds in both times. In fact, my pounding heart and shortness of breath were actually bigger issues than my legs. San Francisco runners, I tip my hat to you!

I got home from NY late Saturday night and got up early Sunday to run the Annapolis Striders' Dawson's Father's Day 10K. I had moderate expectations going into this race. Thanks to all the travel and eating away from home, I am currently up about 5 pounds, which is enough to slow me down a bit. Also, I was tired and I had consumed a decent amount of wine and beer in NY. Despite all of this, I actually had a really good race! I finished in 1:01:37, 3 minutes faster than my previous best 10K. I think I probably could have shaved another minute if I had started further up in the pack. Many runners have a problem with going out too fast. I have the opposite problem: I start too slow. So, the next time I am looking to run a fast race (not the Druid Hills), I will start closer to the front. 

I've had many wonderful adventures over the past few weeks, but I am so happy to be home for awhile! Coming soon: a report on my second time volunteering for the Wendt Center grief camp.

Best Week Ever, pt. 1: The Virginia Wine Country Half-Marathon

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of birthdays, particularly my own. As far as birthdays are concerned, my philosophy is "You're going to get older anyway, so you might as well celebrate." (Feel free to adopt this for yourselves.) I also believe in planning one's own birthday celebration rather than waiting for others to do it. This avoids the unpleasant relationship strain that occurs when one's family, friends and/or significant others fail to provide a satisfactory celebration. Does anyone really need another special occasion on which to be mad at people? Don't we have Valentine's Day for that?

This year, I started my birthday planning super-early. December, in fact. I was thumbing through that month's Runner's World when I spotted an ad for the first-ever Virginia Wine Country Half-Marathon. I love going to vineyards, but I had never been to any in Virginia. I also love half-marathons, and the race just happened to be the day before my birthday. I was sold. I signed up right away, deciding that it was a sign of maturity that I would make a birthday plan without knowing if anyone else would go along with me. I told myself that, if I could not recruit anyone else to run the race, I would go alone and still have a great time. Secretly, I was hoping desperately that someone would go along. Thus, I was happy and relieved when Katie C. decided to join me.

All weekend long, Katie and I kept up a running ranking of this inaugural race, giving "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" to the various components. So, here are our rankings, in chronological order:

1. Cost of the race: Thumbs down. The race cost $95, which would be reasonable for a full marathon, but is a lot for a half. In addition, most of the events which participants could add to their race weekends involved additional fees. So, you didn't feel like you were getting much for your nearly $100.

2. Official hotel selection: Thumbs up. The race organizers made deals with what seemed to be every hotel within a 30-mile radius of the race course. People with money to burn could stay at resorts or B&Bs close to the course. Cheap people (like Katie and I) could get more modest and inexpensive rooms near Dulles airport. We paid only $75 for a suite at one of the Marriot-brand hotels, and it was lovely.

3. Race expo: Thumbs down. For such an expensive race tied to such a luxurious idea (wine country), I expected a pretty good race expo. Instead the expo was a disorganized mess, held at what seemed to be the poolhouse of a large resort. Also, we got no race goodie bags and the shirts were just okay. There was a free wine tasting at the expo, but Katie and I were too tired and hot to enjoy it.

4. Pre-race dinner: Thumbs way up! When we signed up for the race, Katie and I both paid $55 for an official pre-race dinner at a local vineyard. After the expo, we got worried that we might have wasted our money. Thankfully, our fears were unfounded. The dinner was hosted at Bluemont Vineyard, a very elegant, somewhat off-the-beaten-path winery. The scenery was spectacular (see below), the food and wine were excellent, and the event was small enough that we were able to have great conversations with several fellow racers. Katie had never really been to a vineyard before, and she declared Bluemont her new favorite place about 5 minutes after we arrived.

Sunset over the grapes.





Happy pre-racers!

5. The race start: Thumbs way down! The race start was, by far, the least successful part of the whole weekend. This was a point-to-point race, meaning that it started at one place (a vineyard) and ended at another (another vineyard). Thus, depending on where they parked, racers would need transportation either from finish to start before the race, or from finish back to start after the race. The race organizers put together an elaborate shuttle scheme, involving multiple pick-ups spots and departure times, starting at 5am and scheduled to end at 6:10am (the race was supposed to start at 7).

Katie and I decided to park at the finish because we needed to make a quick exit after the race. We left our hotel before 5am, which should have given us plenty of time to park and catch a shuttle before 6:10. Unfortunately, we got lost finding the finish vineyard and did not arrive until about 6:15. When we got there, we saw a line of more than 100 people waiting for shuttles, and a steady stream of cars still arriving. Over the next hour (which we spent standing in line outside with no port-a-potties), we learned that the shuttles were getting caught in the police barricades already guarding the course. As a result, people were stranded at pretty much every pickup location, and the race start had to be pushed back, first to 7:15 and then to 7:30. So, the organizers wound up with grumpy people waiting at the pickup locations wondering if we would ever get to the start, and grumpy people waiting at the start line wondering if they were ever going to run. Not good.

6. The race: Thumbs up. Once the race got going, the drama of the start was basically forgotten. Virginia wine country is a beautiful place, and that makes for a very scenic race. Also, a large portion of the course (especially in the beginning) was flat or downhill, making for a fast and relatively easy course. Three highlights from the race itself:

At mile 10, a local vineyard set up a station distributing 1.5oz samples of their apple wine. Katie and I both said "what the heck" and drank. Terrible idea. I felt the alcohol hit my stomach about two seconds after I drank and was nauseous for the next mile and a half. Katie had the same experience. So, take my advice: no drinking on the race course!

During mile 11, we reached a stretch of about .2 miles where the organizers could not arrange for a necessary road closure. The solution: we ran through a cemetery! That's right- we ran along a paved path that took us on a little tour of the local cemetery. This was amusing for about two seconds, until we saw that the cemetery was full of hills. It turned out to be one of the toughest points in the race. Still, this did not keep Katie and I from making jokes like "This crowd is dead!" and "Look alive, people!" and laughing so hard we almost threw up our apple wine.

Just before mile 12, I looked at my watch and saw that we were at 2:06. My half-marathon PR is 2:18 and Katie's was 2:22. Thus, I knew that we could beat Katie's PR easily and we might even beat mine. We gave each other high-fives and kicked it up a notch. Naturally, mile 12 turned out to be a relentless series of hills. We realized pretty quickly that we were too beat to really push it on the hills, but we still came in somewhere in the 2:18 range (still waiting on official results). So, a PR for Katie and a possible PR for me! Not bad for a race neither of us really trained for.

7. Post-race activities: Thumbs way up! Katie and I did not participate in the official post-race activities, many of which involved additional fees (thumbs down).  Instead, we raced back to our hotel, did a quick change, and then met my friends Julia and Elizabeth for an afternoon of wine-tasting and dinner. We visited three vineyards: Doukenie, Hillsbourough, and Notaviva. We had three totally different tasting experiences, but it was all lovely. Its hard to go wrong spending a beautiful day in beautiful places with great friends!

With Julia at Doukenie.

At Hillsborough. Julia brought me some cupcakes, but they had a little accident!

The tasting room at Notaviva.

We ended our day at Grandale Farm Restaurant, a farm-to-table restaurant right in the middle of the vineyards. I found this place online a few weeks ago, and have been salivating over their ever-changing seasonal menus ever since. Everything was as good as I had expected: amazing food, a beautiful setting, and great friends!

The outdoor dining room.

Pork belly and shrimp with gnocchi, corn, and tomatoes. Yum!

(Very) full and happy!

 After the restaurant, Katie (God bless her!) drove us home. I was both completely happy and completely exhausted. I was also a little apprehensive as I anticipated the next day and the second half of my birthday weekend: completing a practice triathlon and hosting a party! More on that to come in "Best Week Ever, pt. 2." Stay tuned!