Muddy Buddy Seattle 2013 race!



http://muddybuddy.competitor.com/rock-n-mud-challenge

I wasn't really going to do any mud races this year, since I'm running so many halfs, but then the Muddy Buddy race came along. This is the first year since I think 1993 that the Muddy Buddy series came to Seattle. I only heard about this race because I ran the Seattle Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon earlier this year and the Muddy Buddy partnered up with them. When I went to the Expo for the RNR half, they had a booth there where you can save 50% on the sign up fee and you get an extra medal for running both the RNR and the Muddy Buddy race and I'm all about my race bling, so I signed up for it.

If you haven't heard about this race series, its all about running with you buddy, it could be anyone, but you have to stay together the whole time and cross the finish line together. Now I have to be honest, I don't really have many friends, I know its weird, but its true. I really only know people who I have at one point worked with, so I had asked my great friend K from work to run with me and she agreed!!! I was so excited to finally have somebody to do a race with. It had been a while, we did one last December together. This race kind of snuck up on me, it just happened to be on my sons birthday, so I wanted to run the earliest waive possible at 8:00 to be able to come home and get ready for his party.

Since the race was sponsored by REI, the packed pickup was at their flagship store in Seattle the day before the race. Unfortunately my buddy had a leg injury that needed stiches and she couldn't run with me, so I was worried that they wouldn't allow me to race since I didn't have a buddy and I really did not have anybody else to ask to run with me. I e-mailed the race director and asked if it was possible for me to just get assigned with somebody else who didn't have buddy or if I could just race by myself. The great news was that either was going to be fine, whichever option I chose, so I decided to just run by myself since I was under a strict time crunch.

Once I got there the parking was easy and super close. My original waive time they gave me was 8:45, fortunately I got there around 7:30 and they let me switch my waive times to 8:00AM as I wished. They had a cute costume contest, the winners got a pair of Keen shoes and REI had set up a photo tent for before and after pictures, so I got my before picture taken and off to the starting line I went.

I think this race had about 12 obstacles, I did complete all but one of them. I just don't have the upper body strength to do rope climbing, it did have knots in them, but they were just way too far apart and I couldn't pull myself up, I did try though.. Most of the obstacles were pretty much the same as usual, there were a couple that had to do with working together with your buddy, at those stations they did have a volunteer to help, I had a very nice gentleman who helped me across one of them. It was really nice seeing the buddy's help each other and encourage each other and go all the way to the finish line.
One thing I was disappointed about is the lack of mud, if you are going to call a race "Muddy" buddy the race better be muddy, right? Well, there was only one mud pit at the very end and even then as you can see from the picture, I didn't get very muddy.

I did have five people ask me where my buddy was :( Every time I had to explain the situation, even the announcer at the very end said "is she running herself, where is her buddy at?" Great, thanks for announcing that I have no friends to the entire audience!

I did have lots of knee pain thru the race, I realized that the pain was much worse on the rough terrain than it was on the asphalt or concrete. I'm glad that I ran it, but I'm not sure if I would do it again, maybe if I did really run it with a buddy it would have been more fun.

Keep on running!

Keili

Tinkerbell Half Marathon 2013!!!

I know that this post is super late, but better late than never, right?
If you are interested, you can check out my other blogs from the Tinkerbell Half Marathon weekend, so I'll start this one with the very early wake up call at 4:00am and I later realized this was too late, but more on that later.

I got ready, put my costume on and got my watch and fanny pack :) and off to the hotel lobby I went to wait for the shuttle. There were already a lot of people waiting, so I assumed that the bus was due any minute, but it took it forever to get there and time just kept going by. We thought that we were going to be late to the race, so some people started walking to the starting line. I really did not want to walk, so me and others still kept waiting. Finally the shuttle came, I was super happy, but then it ended up being the longest bus ride of my life. So this was the last shuttle of the morning and it was picking up from 4 different hotels and we were the first ones to be picked up. I guess the good thing is that we got seats on the bus, but it took probably another 20 minutes or so to actually get to Disneyland. We finally made it with 15 minutes to spare. I booked it to the staring line, and I mean I literally ran the whole way from the shuttle drop to corral "A" and I made it with 5 minutes to spare. I could not believe it. Needless to say I learned my lesson and did things a little different for the Princess Half. But wow, I could not believe I made it!

Finally off we went, the course itself was amazing at times, like when running through Sleeping Beauty's Castle and all through out Disneyland and California Adventure. Some of it was just okay, there was quite a bit of running through streets of Anaheim, some people were cheering us on in front of their houses, which was super nice and encouraging. I got a ton of pictures in the parks though, they were very nice at letting me use my own camera, they would actually have a cast member by the characters to just take pictures with your own camera and then a professional photographer. RunDisney thinks of everything, don't they?
I couldn't find anybody by the castle on Main street, so I just asked a guy with a baby stroller if he would take my picture and he totally did, so sweet! As I was coming around the castle to run through it I wanted to get a close up picture so I had my iPhone set on the front camera and was trying to take a picture of myself with the castle in the background and I saw another girl doing the same, so I just asked her if she wanted me to take picture of her and she could take a picture of me and she said "yes", that was awesome and super funny as we are both there trying to get decent pictures we could have just asked earlier :)

Unfortunately I didn't realize that the course ran right by our hotel, once I realized that I texted and called my husband to see if he could come down and cheer me on for a bit, but they were still sleeping and didn't get my message until it was too late. That was kind of a bummer, but nevertheless I kept going strong.

I did not see Mickey and Minnie around anywhere, I'm not sure if I just missed them or they weren't there altogether, oh well, I got some awesome pictures anyway. I had to take a picture of Lightning McQueen and Mater for my son Chase and he is super into Star Wars right now, so when I saw Darth Vader and the Storm trooper, that was another must picture for me. I think I stopped for all but one character picture and it was Princess Aurora and her Prince. I was super proud of my time for this race, considering that I stopped for about 9 or so characters for pictures and few for the castle and I actually stopped and asked an Anaheim police officer for a kids sticker (my son collects them) and it took them forever to find them. I finished with 2:28 I believe, you can check my "Race" page with all the details.

The finish was awesome, they had a marching band playing about a half a mile before the finish line, which got me super pumped up. The last of it was going around a parking lot, finishing with Donald, Mickey, Minnie and Goofy at the finish line. It was an amazing feeling to finish this race since this was why I started my running journey. Truly if I would have never found out about the runDisney races and if my husband would not have agreed to spend his vacation time on my runs, I would have never ever started running. I consider myself very lucky and fortunate to have had this opportunity and hope that my runDisney journey continues with many more runDisney races.

After the race they had runDisney foil blankets and the food boxes and lots of water, Gatorade and ice for you sore legs and knees.

I headed straight to the hotel since we were meeting one of our friends who is a Disney Cast member to let us into the park for FREE! I took a quick shower and got ready, put my much deserved medal on and off to California Adventure we went :)

XOXO
Keili

Neverland Family 5K and runDisney Kids Races 2013

I'm back with the runDisney Neverland Family 5K and Kids Races that took place in Disneyland and were part of the Tinkerbell Half Marathon weekend races.

These were my first ever runDisney races and since I was planning on getting my Coast to Coast medal, I figured that I might as well take part of all the weekend races, since we were going to be there anyway. Check out my other blog posts about the Expo and my videos on YouTube!

Both of these races took place on Saturday, January 19th, 2013. The Neverland Family 5K was at 5:45AM, I had set my alarm for 4:30AM, but I had all of my stuff ready from the night before, so I put my costume on and I was ready to go. I used the same costume that I had planned on wearing for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. Unfortunately I had only bought one blanket with me and I wanted to save that for the Half Marathon, so I ended up using the Tinkerbell half marathon tech shirt that came with registration. It worked out perfect since it was a long sleeve shirt and it was a bit chilly in the morning.

I made my way down to the hotel lobby by 4:45AM, I was the first one there, but there were more people who came as we waited for the shuttle bus. It was nice that they had free rides all through the weekend. The shuttles were running every 20 minutes, so once it came it was a short ride over to Disneyland. I should have given myself a little bit more time, I didn't know how long I would have to wait for the bus, I think I must have just missed it, so I did end up waiting for 20 minutes or so.
The starting line was right by the castle, which was beautiful. It was all lit up purple and later on they had swirly designs playfully scanning across the castle. They didn't really have corrals assigned in this race, although they were calling out corrals A, B and C, we didn't have anything on our bibs. I made my way up to the front though, I though i was going to run it in about a half an hour. There were a lot of kids and families running, and since it was a Family 5K they did not time it. As I waited there they had a stage set up in front of the castle and had a pirate themed hosts keeping us entertained. Once we were almost ready to start they walked us a bit father up to the side of the castle where I could see the actual starting line. Sean Astin was in the front row, running this race as well and then the fireworks started and I was off.

The course was very easy, they had characters on the side of the road, just like I had heard about. They did not however have professional photographers by the characters, so you had to bring your own camera if you wanted to take pictures. They did have them on the course, so I got some cute pictures from the race in addition to my own. At the very end just before the finish line they had Mickey and Minnie waiting for you, I got my picture and to the finish I went.

 

It was still dark when I finished, I got my medal and my food box. They did have a cute Peter Pan reusable bag that you could put your stuff in, which was super helpful. I walked back to the bus stop where the shuttle had dropped us off and there was nobody there. I happened to come across a bus driver who said that the shuttle did not start going back until 7:20 and I was done with my race by 6:15sh. I most certainly did not want to wait there for an hour. I was disappointed in that they did not plan that better, they should have had some sort of transportation going back to the hotels. Oh well, I was a little frazzled by that and didn't really know how to get back, so I put the hotels name on my phone, but it took me in the wrong direction. I walked so far out of my way before I realized that this was not right, so I turned back around and just walked back to Downtown Disney were I knew how to get back to my hotel. It took me probably an hour to finally get back. My husband and son were still sleeping, so I took a quick shower and by that time they were up and off to Disneyland we went.
The Happiest Place on Earth - TRUE STATEMENT!

runDisney Tinkerbell Half Marathon weekend Expo 2013

I know this post is a little late, but being a Mom and having a full time job, doesn't really leave me much time for anything else. Here it is anyway, better late than never right.

We arrived in LA on Friday January 18, we live in Seattle so it was just a quick 2 hours flight or so. We flew into the John Wayne airport in Orange County which was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy more convenient than LAX and it was much closer to Anaheim as well. Definitely recommend that if you are going to Disney. We got in about 10:00am and we had planned on spending some time at Newport beach and just hanging around that are for a little while. My little boy is a beach baby and he loves the water and the sand so much that he could spend all day playing in it and running around. The weather was beautiful and the sun was shining, so we spent a few hours at the beach and then rode the Ferris wheel and played some arcade games. After that we were ready to head for Disneyland.


We stayed at the Holiday Inn Anaheim, I thought the hotel was very nice and clean and much bigger than I thought. We got a great room with a Kings size bed and lots of room for Chase to play. We wanted to rest a bit, so we played some games and I unpacked a little and then I decided to go to the Tinkerbell Half Marathon Expo. My husband and son stayed behind, we were going to meet up at Downtown Disney and have dinner once I was done.

The hotel was walking distance to the Expo, which was held at the Disneyland Hotel. It was not at all crowded by the time I got there at about 4:00PM. I had to pick up my packets on Friday because I was running the Neverland Family 5K and my son was running the Kids races on Saturday morning before the expo opened. They had set everything up very conveniently, I walked downstairs first and that's where they had set up all of the packet pick ups. I picked up my Tinkerbell Half Marathon packet and shirt, then the Neverland Family 5K packet, then the Kids races packet and finally the ChEAR squad packet. That's where they also gave the pins and the necklaces if you had pre-ordered them, so I got all of my things and I headed upstairs. That's where they had the Official Merchandising area set up, the speakers and ton of other booths that sold all sorts of running related merchandise.

 

New Balance was there with their new runDisney running shoes, I wanted to buy them so bad, but they were kind of pricy at $125.00 and I just wanted to think about it and I figured since I was going to the Princess Expo a month later I would buy them from there if I still wanted them.

I looked around the booths, but nothing really stood out to me and I didn't want to spend too much money anyways, but I did want to get something from the official merchandise section. I ended up getting the Tinker Bell mug and the runDisney Mickey Vinylmation with the little Tinker Bell medal and the vinyl Mickey ears magnet.

Once I was ready to leave, right by the doors they had set up a little photo opportunity with the Tinkerbell Half Marathon background. They had cast members there taking your photo with your own camera, which was nice so you weren't forced to buy the photos, you can just use your own.

I had so many bags as I was leaving, I consolidated them all into one and off I went to meet my husband and my little boy. We had an awesome dinner at the House of Blues and went back to the hotel and crashed early. My race was at 5:45am the next day!!!!

 

Mercer Island Half Marathon Finished!

Last Sunday I finished the Mercer Island Half Marathon with a time of 2:21. Not too bad for me, since I had not trained for this since my last half in DisneyWorld 4 weeks ago. My tendon was just hurting me too much and I didn't want to irritate it even more.

Just a quick race recap:
I picked up the race packed at a small expo at the Mercer Island Community center the day before. They had some vendors selling shirts and local businesses and sponsors there. I didn't buy anything while I was there, but did pick up some freebies, like an emergency kit and some tote bags.

I was a little worried about race day transportation because parking on the Island is very limited and they started the half marathon walkers before the runners at 7:00, my race was at 9:00. I didn't think that there was going to be any parking available by the time I got there so I just decided to park at the closest Park and Ride and then take the bus from there. The buses were free for all the runners, which was super nice, so I didn't have to worry about carrying change on me or anything.

Once I got to Mercer Island it was just a short walk to the Community Center where the starting line was. They did offer gear check, but I try not to deal with that if I don't have to since the lines are always so long. They had bagels, oranges and bananas before and after race. Odwalla was a big sponsor, they had a tent set up with free samples and goodies. After that I made my way to the starting line, they didn't have corrals, just different colored flags to stand behind depending on what your pace was going to be. I stayed towards the front though.

Once the race started I was feeling great, I was blasting "This Girl is on Fire" by Alicia Keys on repeat for the first three miles to get me started and it really made get a good start, I think :)  I love that song, its really inspirational and makes me want to run faster and do better. I had brought two packets of energy gummies with me. I had the first pack at about mile 4 and was feeling good and the second pack at about mile 7. They had lots of water stations all thru the course and the best part was that we were running around an island that is mostly residential, a ton of the residence were out in front of their homes cheering us on. Some even had set up their own mini water stations and were handing out candy like twizzles and skittles. Two little girls set up a lemonade stand in front of their home. It was so sweet and it was amazing to see the support from our community.

At mile 8 is where I normally start crashing, I was actually feeling great. I was even thinking to myself, what am I doing different this race that I feel so good that this point, but I could not figure it out. Oh well, I was happy and just kept going, the course was quite hard, due to all the hills there. At mile 5, 8 and the finish were all steep uphill battles, but you always know what goes up, must come down, so there was always a reward of going downhill afterwards.

Overall I really enjoyed the race and I would do it again in a heartbeat. This was the 41st year of the Mercer Island Half!!

See you there next year :)

Oh, FYI they had major discounts for other races in the area after the finish, so I signed up for the Heroes Half in Everett at the end of April. We'll see how I do! I'm officially three for three for half marathons this year (one every month) and now I'm registered for the fourth.

Mercer Island Half Marathon, March 24, 2013

I'm excited to announce that I have signed up for my third half marathon this year!! So far I'm three for three, one half marathon a month so far this year :)

I only have a week and a half to train from here on, I've been really good, but have not ran any long runs since my Princess Half marathon. I'm planning on a 10 miler on Sunday, so I'll let you know how I feel and how it goes. This week I still have to do two more short runs and then next week is the Mercer Island Half. I've never ran this race before, I've read some reviews and people have said that the course is really hard and when I looked at the elevation chart, it looks like its all uphill, with two minor downhill sections. This makes me a little scared, I was going to try for a PR, but now I don't know. I will still train my best and do my best during the run.


The weather should be good, not too cold, not too hot, maybe even raining, which I actually enjoy. I know I'm weird like that, but somehow it makes me be faster and better, probably because I just want to get out of the rain :) I think on the long runs it just feels good when you get hot during your run to feel the rain on your face.

Thankfully this race is close to my house, but the parking will be limited, it is an island with mostly residential areas after all. So what I thought about doing is driving to a park and ride and then catching a bus to Mercer Island. They did post on their website http://www.mercerislandhalf.com that the buses and trains will be free if you wear your bib, which is awesome that they support the race that way.

I'll let you know how it goes and hopefully I'll see you there!!!