2018 MRW Recap

I love this race weekend!  So many fun costumes and so many people I know run it!  The 5k route is one of the prettiest, running right next to the ocean, hearing the waves crash on the shoreline!

Friday night's Sunset 5k started at 7pm so I headed over to my friend Paul's for 6pm.   He doesn't live far from the start line and offered me his driveway...he also said "You may want to avoid Shore Drive...take this route."  Sure Paul.....well I got lost and ended up back on Shore Drive anyways.  LOL

Paul takes pictures of some of his runner friends, and I warned him...you better get one of me. :-) 

I met up with some other BLT Runners for a group shot. 

There were more BLTers running...we just missed them
in this pic

We promptly lined up and were off at 7pm.  Troy of Atlantic Chip is a stickler for being on time....I love that!  The plan was not to race Friday night, and give it a good go on Saturday.  For that reason, I didn't look at my garmin the entire run.  I could feel it buzz at each kilometer, but that's it.  The run felt comfortable, no stress...just running for the joy of it.  At about the 4km mark, I saw a fellow runner that I knew was a bit faster than me...she was just ahead...and I kept on her heels. :-)  Unfortunately she pulled ahead with about 500m left and I couldn't keep her in my grasp.  As I rounded the finish corner I was really surprised to see the clock at about 26.20...which meant my run was a bit faster than that (due to the bottleneck at the beginning).  I kicked it into high gear for the final 100m and crossed the finishline in 26.12....a seasons best!  YAHOO. 

See the guy in the blue BEHIND me...well he started
in front of me at the start.  hehe

There were close to 2,000 people running the evening 5k.  I came 213 overall, and 17/467 in my age class.  I'll take that!   And yes....that picture above is from Paul....he did his job. Hehe .  I grabbed my medal and went to find Jillian who was volunteering at the after race food. 

I got so many compliments on my pirate outfit.  One photographer waved me down as I headed back to my car for pictures....but do you think I can find them...NOPE!  LOL 

Sunrise 5k
The sunrise 5k comes so quickly after running the night before.  5:40am on a Saturday morning...I don't even get out of bed that early on a weekday.  LOL  I quickly text Heather (Girl Goes Running) to make sure she was awake as she has been known to sleep past her alarm.  LOL  I picked her up and we headed over to Paul's again. (the best valet EVER). 

A quick pre-race pic.  Notice the fog....it didn't last!

Again, the race started promptly at 8am.  There is quite the turn at the beginning of the race that causes a big bottleneck among runners.  I told myself to just go with the pace and I'd see how I felt.  My legs were H-E-A-V-Y.  I guess I had pushed them more than I thought the night before.  With the 5, 10, 1/2, and full marathon runners all leaving at the same time, there were so many folks trying to navigate the first 2.5k.  At that point, the non-5k runners kept going, and we turned around.  It was much different than the night before on the way back...at one point I was by myself and wanted to just stop and breathe.  The sun had broke through the fog and the humidity was 200% I bet, making it so hot and hard to breath.  But I kept pushing onward...in my mind I kept saying, it's only 27-28 minutes at the most that you are out here....you can do it!!!

I have to stop here for a second and thank the many volunteers.  On my way out, there was a driver that was giving one of the volunteers a VERY hard time (cussing and swearing at him) to move as she had to get her car out.  I'm sorry lady....but there are over 3200 runners coming through, there is no way you are getting out.  The small town had seen plenty of notice and flyers about the race.  She threatened to call the police, and all the while, this volunteer remained calm and polite.  Without these volunteers...the event would not happen.  so THANK YOU!!!!

Okay...back to my race....rounding the final corner, as I had done the night before, I saw the clock passing 26.30...so much for racing this morning.  I did manage to pull out a smile for Bruce as he snapped my pic...or my pain maybe.

I was so glad I was NOT in costume for the morning 5k

I grabbed my medals....that's right medals...1 for finishing the sunrise 5k...one for doing 2 races at MRW, and 1 for doing the Tidal Race back in June.    And then I went and found the freezies...the absolute BEST after race treat...especially when it is wicked hot!  Thank you freezie passer outers!

a total of 4 medals for one weekend.  WOWZERS!

So much swag...a sweatshirt & race shirt too!

I waited for Heather to come in.  She was aiming for under 44 minutes in her 10k.  I saw her come flying through the finish shoot, just seconds over her goal.  She did amazing (ps...her husband won the 5k....yup....a speedy couple)!  We grabbed some pictures and were on our way...rehashing the morning runs our entire drive home!

After race photo.  Heather could barely stay upright
after her race for a while...luckily she bounced back quickly.

And that completes Maritime race weekend for 2018!  Can't wait to see what next year brings.  Michelle starts teasing us pretty early with medal and swag designs!

Up next?  Valley Harvest 10k.  See everyone there!