Tuesday, August 10, 2010

SkirtChaser 5K

Reposted from active.com.

I'm aiming for short and sweet on this one. Ha!

Saturday I did the SkirtChaser 5K in Vancouver, WA.

I left my home in Southern Oregon pretty early so I could stop on the way up to buy some new running shoes. I'm so excited to take the new ones out on the road and see how they feel!!  I also picked up my cheerleader on the way, and we hurried off to Washington - but first got a little lost with an accidental downtown Portland detour.

Basically this was a total win for me, and a total bust at the same time.

Run wise it was horrible. I was feeling amazing. I was on pace for a new PR and feeling fantastic. Then, for the first time since junior high, I was hit with the dreaded side stitch that nearly buckled me over. That was around the half way point. Fortunately it was a really scenic course, so I tried to distract myself with the view. In the end I had to walk a couple of times just because of the stupid pain. Bye bye PR.    It didn't help that it was so dang humid and I have the weakest stomach ever. I came around a final corner and was hit with the smell of Thai and a seafood restaurant. - NOT good. Great - almost lost my lunch right then!

Coming around the corner to the 3 mile mark I saw Maryalicia (who totally smoked me at mile 2 with her stroller, by the way! ), and she cheered me on to the finish. I pretty much always muster up energy to run through to the end as fast as possible. This was no exception. BUT, and I can't believe I'm admitting this and am excited about it...  after getting my timing chip removed it happened. For the first time ever, I was the person basically dry heaving at the finish line. Ah, its the little things that please me. That was actually a highlight!

In the end I finished about 3 or 4 minutes slower than I had expected, so that wasn't too great. But the whole event was so much fun. I went home with oodles of swag .... a running skirt, pint glass, new 3/4 sleeve jacket, visor, beer, chips, samples of tons of things, free socks that I caught - and then the granddaddy of 'em all, sort of.  During the awards section they had the "Getting Lucky" award. Well in my head I thought that should totally be mine because during check in my friend and I were giggling about my bib number. Sure enough, the award went to bib number 1069! Woohoo - I won a $15 gift certificate just for having 1069. I can live with that!

Definitely a fun time and I will surely do it again next year if they come back to the Pacific Northwest!

Here are a few more pictures from the event!
Running along the Columbia River
 Running with Maryalicia for a little bit -- until she left me in the dust! ;-)
Reenacting my finish line moment.
Jessica and I with our new socks!
Check out our beer can necklaces! 
Attempting to be the SkirtChaser model. Needs work.
 
I forgot to mention we finished off our night at the Grilled Cheese Grill for dinner ..... soooo yummy!!!!


6 comments:

  1. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Um, that is a lot of swag you got! And you were a lucky prize winner, how fun. Love the beer can necklaces :)

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  2. Good job on the race, too bad that you didn't PR but you did get all that great stuff so it kind of makes it okay. Hopefully there will be no side stitches in your next race. :)

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  3. I'm doing the skirt chaser in Denver in a few weeks! It's my only short race of the summer - plus... how cool is it to get a new skirt!

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  4. The skirt is a cute one, too! I haven't tested it out, but I only wear SkirtSports skirts, so I'm sure it will be just as comfy as the others!

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  5. So jealous! I want to do a Skirt Chaser so bad! Hopefully they come by me soon!

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  6. Oh no! The dreaded side stitch has sidelined me many times too.

    Great race report! Looks like you had a blast.

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