The LOVE Run and a Giveaway Winner

OK, let's just be clear from the start.
The LOVE Run sucked.
I doubt any recap you read of this race will say anything different. Don't get me wrong, for a first ever race, they did a decent job. A few glitches that never would have bothered me any other race.
But there was rain. SO much rain. It was cold. I was wet. I.was.miserable.
But let's start at the very beginning. (You know that song will be stuck in your head all day now. You're welcome.)
We woke up Sunday morning, and got dressed fairly quickly. I realized I forgot breakfast, but that wasn't worrying me. I had my Honey Stinger waffles, so I was good to go.
We went downstairs, secured late checkout, and headed out for the race. It was chilly, but not too chilly. Actually, just right. No rain. Holy heck, we were excited! If the weather stayed that way all day, it would be the perfect race! Hooray!
Yeah. No.

We got to the starting area, and found our team tent. We even had our very own team porta potty. It was gloriously sweet smelling and line-free. Perfection. There were many photos taken, and lots of fun to be had.

see the rain in this pic? Weather fail.

What a great team. There are more photos, but I am saving them for Wordless Wednesday. During the photo ops, the rain started. Mostly just a mist. And then it started to full on rain. Oh joy. We huddled under an empty team tent. And then the team showed up. Luckily, it was time to join the corrals. Mine was weirdly ahead of my friends, but I bumped back to be with them. You could barely squeeze in, it was so packed. Race director fail, but nothing too annoying. It kept us warm. Colleen had gone to the bathrooms and never came back,  but right after the anthem ended, she texted me to wave so she could find me. Too many people, and I am short, so we started off hoping she would catch up.

We crossed the start about 5 minutes after the first runners, which wasn't too shabby for the amount of people at the event (about 10,000). My watch was being wonky, and kept losing it's signal. It didn't work properly at all, but I figured it could at least count the time, whether it could find a signal or not.

I planned on stopping and taking tons of pics, but that never happened. The rain was miserable. At first, it was just drippy, and no real problem. Eileen was about a mile ahead of me pretty much the whole time, and I had no music, but I managed a 12 minute mile average for the first 8 miles or so. My first 3 Halfs this year were all over 3 hours, unheard of for me, so I was excited to see that I might finish at about 2:35-2:40.

We hit a very lovely hill at about mile 7 or 8, though, and it all went south from there. The rain started back up after a reprieve of about 3 miles, and it POURED. I was wearing a cotton team shirt, and it was soaked through within minutes. It felt like it weighed 20 pounds. It was stuck to me everywhere. My watch kept reverting back to the home screen, and trying to see my time was a pain, so I just quit on that. Luckily, there was a clock at every mile marker. And water. Plenty of water. Every darn where.
The group of strangers I was running with all whined collectively, and somehow got through the next few miles. I saw Eileen at the turnaround, which was at about mile 10 or so, and knew she was about a mile ahead. Just after I turned, I saw Colleen, and she yelled to meet at the hotel,  and not to wait since it was so miserable! She was about a mile behind me.
At about mile 11, I checked on my phone, which was in my Sparkle Skirt pocket. Still dry. Whew! I pretty much gave up here. My legs were heavy, my heart was heavy, and I was soaked and cold. Colleen passed me somewhere around here as well. I did a run/walk until I hit mile 12. I was dreading the clock, but it said 2:40ish, and I realized I could still finish in under three hours!

Renewed energy lasted about half a mile, though. I was so tired! I finally saw the finish, and they announced my full name, and said I was "Barking Mad" which was rather cool! I finished in about 2:54! My watch had stopped at some point, and it won't turn back on! I know they are water resistant but I think it was just too much water! It isn plugged into the charger now, and the screen came on, but I am not sure what will happen with it. It should not have run out of power before the finish!
As I got my medal, I saw Eileen waiting. We trudged towards the table, and waited eagerly for our mylar blankets. They ran out. The volunteers were wet and cranky, and not helpful at all.
No one was directing us, so we just wandered until we saw a tent marked Athlete Food. Hooray! The race had promised hot chocolate, so we rushed over. We were given Uncrustables, soft pretzels, Butterscotch Krimpets, potato chips, and a banana in a small plastic tote bag. Score.
No hot chocolate though, and we were so tired and grumpy, that we left without it!

The walk back was miserable as well. About 1.5 miles, walking in the rain, clutching our food bags to us to keep the food dry. Ugh. Oh, and I caught every.darn.traffic light.
We got into our room, jacked up the heat, and stripped off our wet clothes. Ewwww. We huddled in robes and towels for a little while before getting dressed. Luckily, the teenie was with us so we sent her to McDs, for chocolate milk and coffee. What a useful little teenie.

It wasn't Nesquik, but it wasn't bad!
We had originally planned for some shopping, and the teenie wanted a milkshake from Max Brenner's, but we were all so miserable that we just left to go home.
Sad but true.
The ride home was wet and miserable. Our GPS has been on the fritz, and it pretty much gave up on us. It kept getting confused as to where we were, and misdirecting us. Luckily, I knew how to get out of Philly, and ignored him (We named it Rory, and it was a Brit, after a character in Doctor Who). We ended up taking a longer route, but it was familiar, and that is just what I needed!
After a warm piping hot shower and a cuddle under the blankets in front of the TV, I felt a bit better. And then this happened.

My birthday is this Wednesday coming up, but the hubs ordered me a cake early, from the greatest place on earth. Confections of a Rockstar. This place is heaven, we get cupcakes there ALL the time. He got me lemon curd filling with lemon buttercream. I kid you not, the angels wept. It was perfection.
Only, there was so much of it left! I made the hubs take most of it to work today, so I wouldn't just chow down on it all day. Because I would totally do that! I just ate lunch, and I am already dreaming about it.
Check out that top pic! He also got me a Garmin! It is the Forerunner 220, and I cannot wait until tomorrow so I can play with it properly! The sun just came out, and I am tempted to just run quick mile before I try out one of the 21 Day Fix workouts!

OK this was long, and you were patient, so I will tell you the winner of the Jillian Michael's DVD Giveaway!

The winner is Lisa Jones! Lisa, email me at Kprytherch@gmail.com with your address so that I can mail it to you!
Congratulations!!!

Did you race in the rain this weekend?