After work on Friday Manfriend and I headed down to Long Island to visit my college roommate, teammate and best friend Miss D and her husband Greg. Saturday, Dani and I drove to get our bib numbers. We ended up buying coordinating tank tops to wear with our sparkle skirts the next day. The expo was a decent size for the race and not overly crowded. I will say that our bibs did not look very clear, they were kind of pixel-y in the logo area. I would expect that such a large race would have a better quality image for printing on the bibs. Oh well. After our expo adventure we went out to lunch with our guys and their kid before deciding to chill at their house for the afternoon and eat junk food and watch movies.
Early the next morning we got up and headed over to the race. We left her house at about 5:30 since we had to be in the park by 7am. We spent almost 45 minutes in traffic waiting to get into the park and watched as the police car came up to close the park entrance. We were able to sneak in but it was already 7:15 with our race starting at 8. Not ideal but we managed.
It was a chilly morning but we didn't remember any "throw away clothes" so we just kind of sucked it up. We knew that once we got running we'd be ok and we didn't have long to wait. There was a lot of pink at the start--neither of us are really big fans of the color but being October and Breast Cancer Awareness month we just let it go.
I did not plan on running a fast race and figured we'd stop for photos along the course and take walking breaks. Well Miss D had a time goal in mind and was reluctant to stop for photos until about mile 8 (which I explained is the half marathon suckfest part). Suckfest is the part of the race where it gets hard for a few miles and you just have to get through it for the good part-- the last mile or two before the finish.
They had a total of 3 inflatables on the course and no other "photo opportunities" that we felt the need to stop for. There were quite a few spots on the course with music playing and water stops with cheer leaders and volunteers that were very supportive/cheering loudly for the runners.
I will say that I was impressed by the amount of water stops on the course and the volunteers at those stops. While I carried my own bottle for the race it is nice to know there was plenty in the event that I needed water.
I ran ahead of Miss D a little bit so I could take a photo of her running with the Islanders hockey arena behind her. As we got further into the race I took my Salted Caramel Gu (delicious) and offered some to Dani. She declined and then a little while later it was suckfest time-- but in all honesty her knee was bothering her and she wasn't able to do the training but didn't want to disappoint me so she was truckin' along.
When she sat down to have her photo at the last inflatable a medial guy asked if she was ok and we kind of laughed and were like, yeah, we just wanted to take a photo. Apparently other people were not stopping for photos.
I was bummed when they did not offer up any Gu's on the course. I was hoping to try a new flavor and see how my stomach handled it in a non-competitive race for me and one that in all honesty wasn't on my radar other than a really good reason to see a friend. We got our feather boas and tiaras with a mile to go.
I offered walk breaks several times but Miss D would not have any of that. She was a trooper. At the finish we were given our medals by some models in fire gear.
The medals spin in the center where the jewel is. I am really surprised they didn't have a second jewel on the other side of the spinning part. The medals are really nice and quite large. The bling did not disappoint.
After getting our medals we were given a single rose by a man in a tux. Um, they are really pampering us gals with this finish line. We also were handed a glass of champagne with a Diva's sticker on it (that apparently someone put all those stickers on upside down).
Our boys were at the finish line and both wearing black Adidas hoodies. I mean, if us gals are coordinated dressers I guess it's only fair that our boys also coordinate when they dress up.
Overall, I had a great weekend with my best friend and getting to run her first half marathon with her. I also qualified for half fanatics with my finish at Diva's so it was a really great weekend. Now I am busily looking at half marathons so I can "moon up" (move up to a higher rank with # of races and date proximity).
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