Event weekend came, and event weekend went.

Run on Friends!

Just kidding…I can’t leave you all hanging like that.  Time for some details!

So we got up NICE and EARLY for our flight out of Liberty International Airport (EWR) aka Newark on Friday morning.  Nice and early = 4:30.  Fun fun stuff.  Quickly got through security, and sat and waited for a plane.  Surprise, the flight wasn’t delayed.  Well, I mean, we did sit on the run way for about a half hour, but we did get on the plane on time.  The flight itself was pretty uneventful…pretty sure I slept most of it.  None of us really got to sit with each other though…we were pretty spread out.

Upon arrival at Norfolk Airport, I was very impressed with the airport.  Probably the nicest I’ve ever been in…and I’ve been in a lot.  Things went smoothly there, hopped in a van, and took off for the hotel.  The van’s AC didn’t work, and we were packed in there…very uncomfortable ride.  But we got there quickly…and our room wasn’t ready yet!  Luckily it was maybe 20 minutes later…but I just felt jaded since everyone else’s rooms were ready.  We stayed at the Cavalier Hotel, but luckily not in the haunted building.  I did not want to stay in the haunted building.

Off to the Expo.  Got our race numbers, free shirts (coolmax type material, bonus!), goodie bags, and visited all the booths.  Signed up for a bunch of stuff, tried some samples.  Gu now has chewables…they were really good.  Snickers endurance bars are always good.  Tried some other fruit stuff and some vitamin drink, both not bad.  The Penguin was there giving a clinic…caught about 5 minutes, but at that point we were ready to head back to the hotel…once our shuttle got there 20 minutes later.  Later that night we caught some dinner (I got fried pickles as an app, and they tasted fantastic!), and then saw Boyz II Men in concert on the beach.  Good show.

Next morning we did a warm up run, then went to Pocahontas Pancakes…the food was incredible.  I had banana covered french toast…so good!  The rest of the day was spent loungin at the pool.  The water in the pool was SOOOOO cold.  But, we went swimming anyway…they had a diving board…I had to jump in!  Later that night was the pasta party.  Good food, with GINORMOUS cookies…those were good.  Then…team meeting, where we got yelled at for violating fire codes, and then off to bed.  Usually I cannot sleep the night before a race…that night I slept like a champ.

Race day.  Up at 4:15/4:30.  Felt awake, alive.  Ready and down to meet everyone by 5.  At the starting area by like 5:30.  Still dark, with a full moon still out.  It’s such an amazing feeling and sight…thousands of runners meeting before the sun even rises to all compete in the same event.  It’s just an incredible feeling.  I took 2 trips to the porta-potty…usually never do.  So then we headed to our corral, and slowly inched our way to the start line, one corral after another.  The elite men went off at 7:00 a.m.  We started at around 7:40.  I got a few looks because my bib number was 5653 and I was in corral 23 with my girlfriend, but it was ok.  Finally, the start!

The race went alright.  2.5 miles in we took a detour into the woods…pit stop #3 for me…I was definitely drinking too much.  The weather was warm, not hot, and a bit humid, but not insane.  Things were going well and on schedule for about 6 miles.  Then, at mile 8 we should have taken our gels/shot blocks, but instead we skipped.  And my girlfriend, at around 8.5, started to cramp up.  Can’t believe we made that mistake.  One of the coaches caught up with us, but did not have any salt with her, so she had to battle it out until 10 or so when there was a water stop.  After a rough couple of miles, we were able to gut out miles 12 and 13, and had a nice sprint for the last 0.1.  You can watch us cross the finish line by visiting http://www.rnrvb.com/videoreplay.html and typing in bib number 5653.  It’s pretty cool, go check it out.  Don’t worry, I’ll wait…

Ok, you back?  Excellent!  So we headed out to the Team in Training tent to check in, got our snazzy 13.1 finishers pins, and headed back to the hotel.  Luckily we caught a shuttle pretty quickly, because we were definitely tired.  Instead of just napping, we changed and headed to the ice cold pool to take an “ice bath” in the water.  I definitely think that helped in our recovery.  We met a few other Team in Training people from our team down there, and hung out for a while.  One of the people, Tony, and alumni, ran a debut half marathon of 1:37…pretty snazzy.  After that we headed back up to the room to get ready for the victory party.

Enter victory party.  Not gonna lie, it was pretty dead at first. I guess that’s what happens when you arrive at 2 for a 2:00 party.  But, we were starving so we hooked up the plates and chowed down.  After that there was a DJ with some decent music, then he held this beer related relay.  We had a team…our team lost.  Of course, both of the other teams cheated, but we won’t get into that (you know who you are).  Since we had no interest in seeing the Black Crowes that night, we headed back to our room and pretty much crashed out.  We did order some room service (food was ehhh and overpriced), but otherwise slept.

Monday morning had some breakfast, than kinda just hung out because it was rainy outside.  We did go and get some ice cream once it cleared up, but that was about it for our adventures.  Back to the airport, back to the plane, back to Newark, back to NJ.  And so we’re home.

Collectively, our Team raised over $50,000 for LLS for this event.  Not too shabby.  I believe overall all TNT chapters for this event raised $500,000 or there abouts.  Can’t complain about that.  If you didn’t make a donation and still want to, you can by clicking the “Donations Welcome” image on the side bar of the screen.  Any amount is welcome!

Well, that’s about it.  Hopefully will be heading out for a run sometime this week…gotta get ready for Hartford in about a month.  So I’ll be writing again soon.  Until then…

Run on Friends!!!