DC NIke Women's Half Marathon - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I posted my as I am calling it "Happy Happy Joy Joy" blog of "Thank Yous" about the race because truly I am so happy about the final outcome and my personal achievement. That said I have a lot of commentary about the actual race and not all of it is good. I figure it's only fair to write another blog that's more of a review of the race that really gives you the good, the bad and the ugly about the whole thing. I'll break it down into parts.

The Washington DC Nike Women's Half was my 16th Half Marathon so I've seen more than a few races and can genuinely assess how this one was conducted. (I say this because it's driving me - and many of the others - crazy that people keeping posting on the Nike Facebook page that this was "The Best Race Ever" because I can definitely tell you it was NOT. I suspect that many of these people have never run a race before so they don't know any better.)

I have overall commentary as well that doesn't necessarily fit into any of these categories but I'll save that til the end I think... Let me first give you an overview for anyone who knows nothing about this race and then I'll get into the topics...

The Nike Women's Half Marathon Series (I guess that's what you'd call it now that there are 2 of these) started in San Francisco 10 years ago. The hook for this race is that instead of getting a medal at the end of the race you get a Tiffany Necklace. (I swear this alone gets women who have never run more than from one room to another to grab a ringing phone to decide to run a half marathon!) This year was the first running of this race in Washington DC.

Registration & Communications

The Good

• While I am not always a fan of the lottery system the fact that this race is so popular (due to the Tiffany necklace) I do like that they use a lottery system to even the playing field. 
• You can register as a group. Let's face it some of us do this with friends and we are not interested in going if none of our friends can so I like the group registration.
• Registration is open for quite a few days which is a great thing

The Bad & The Ugly

• College students get definitive entry. I find it absurd that an unlimited number of college students get to have guaranteed entry. I am okay with "X" number but not a free for all that as many who want to can get in. (Frankly if you have $150+ as a college student you've got too much extra money on your hands. For me $150 was probably about 6 months of groceries when I was in college!
• The lack of a website. Using just a Facebook page and not having an actual website makes it difficult to find information and frankly is just unacceptable. 
• Lack of communication after the Boston Bombing. Don't get me wrong I didn't expect them to have an answer about this race immediately after it happened but I did expect some sort of official statement on the race page (which as I've already mentioned was only Facebook) about Boston just like every other race/running group did that said something even if it was just "We are With You Boston"
• Didn't release runner tracking detail until Friday just 2 days before the race

Overall Commentary

Communication is key no matter what your event and Nike just blew it on this one. 

Packet Pick-Up & Expo

The Good

• We went on Thursday right after it opened and there was pretty much no wait for anything (which is why we chose to go then)
• Nice location on the water. It was a beautiful day so we went to one of the restaurants right there and enjoyed lunch outside.
• Lots of great photo opportunities. Loved the "WE RUN" huge "sign" as well as the others signage for the race. 
• Glad they had samples of Nuun there so we could taste what we would be getting on the course
• I love how they put all the names of the participants on the wall at the Nike store. Very cool!

The Bad & The Ugly

• As usual Nike's idea of an Expo is pretty much the Nike Store. I'm really not interested in waiting in line to get my hair done or make-up from Bare Minerals. I would much rather see some other vendors with things I'd be interested in such as charms etc. Yes Nike it is possible to have other vendors in there that are not competitors for your Nike products. I also found it ridiculous that I couldn't by the race shirts etc. at the actual Expo and that we had to go to the Nike Store to get this
• The commemorative shoe release was just awful. The fact that your expo started at noon but you didn't release the shoes til 6:30 and then you released them in a variety of places in addition to where your runners were. If we as the runners of your Half Marathon are helping you launch these shoes you should at least offer the courtesy of offering the shoes to ALL of the Half Marathon participants at the Expo FIRST and then offer them to the general public. This was an EPIC FAIL on Nike's part

Overall Commentary

Nike as usual does a great job with branding. The event "gear" was fantastic and there were a lot of options to choose from (which is always great) but all that said if you are a runner who loves a good expo you will be VERY underwhelmed by the Nike Expo experience.

The Actual Race
The Good

• Great course. The way it was set-up we got to see lots of great stuff and it gave spectators lots of opportunities to move about and see their runners.
• Loved some of the bands that were on the course. The drummers were AWESOME!! 
• Great security at the start area as well as along the course. (Given recent events I think this was appreciated by all.)
• Good Mile Markers

The Bad & The Ugly

• The start corrals were horrendous. We were given wrist bands to indicate which corral we should start in. Upon arrival at the corrals they were beyond full so lots of us were forced to stand outside the entry gate into the corral on the side of the road. Clearly you need to leave much more room in each corral for the people who belong there
• YOU MUST DO A WAVE START! For crying out loud - with 15,000 people how could you even consider not doing a wave start. It's ridiculous. Add to that the fact that the corrals were a disaster many of us were forced to start way back in the pack behind MUCH slower people than our pace so many of us were very frustrated for the first several miles. (My husband will tell you when he saw me at Mile 2 I was downright ANGRY.) Put volunteers with a rope between each corral and do a wave start. 
• They had no official photographers on the course and didn't bother to let anyone know this. If ind this absolutely unacceptable. I've never run a race (including the dozens of 5Ks I've run) that didn't have some sort of official photography. 
• Too many people who don't understand race etiquette such as you don't run 4 abreast and you don't walk in the middle of the road etc.
• Runner tracking could only be done through Facebook. Given that not everyone has facebook they really ought to use a more general tracking option such as texts like other races do

Overall Commentary

I appreciate that this is a fun "unique" race (because of the Tiffany necklace) and as such this becomes a target race for new runners. I applaud everyone who has the desire to undertake this challenge - I just wish they would get some guidance as to how to not be in the way of others by using proper etiquette. I'll catch slack for this but honestly time and time again the Team in Training people are the worst about this. The start was absolutely unacceptable. 

The Finish
The Good

• The Tiffany necklace is absolutely fantastic! LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I have to admit it's nice to have handsome young men in tuxes hand it to us as well!
• Love the finisher shirt. Great color!
• I like that they only sell Finisher's Gear (these are items in  addition to the shirt we got just for finishing) at the Finish. I get really irritated at Rock-N-Roll runs because they sell the Finisher Shirts at the expo where in reality all you've finished at that point is paying a bunch of money!

The Bad & The Ugly

• Not enough people handing out water and not in enough places. I saw people right after the finish but not further along in the finisher's area. 
• No Finish Line Photos :( Very sad. I buy mine for every PR so I am bummed that I won't get to buy one for this PR.
• The line to purchase Finisher's Gear was absolutely horrendous. I waited more than 40 minutes in line. When my friend finished the race the line was even longer than that. You need to have more than 2 lines set-up for this.
• No Family Meet-Up spot. Most races have specific areas tagged to initials etc. but there was no such thing here and no info that there wouldn't be
• (Adding this one later in the week as an edit) - Finisher Gear that wasn't sold out at the Finish Line was moved to Georgetown but for less than a week. I was unable to get out to Georgetown but when I would have been able to (just a week later) they said they had shipped it off to their main distribution center and have no idea where it will end up. You absolutely should have put this stuff online for us to purchase. Frankly you're crazy not to. You're going to send it off to places where people may or may not want this stuff but if you'd put it online I can pretty much guarantee you would have sold most, if not all, of it. 

Overall

I appreciate that this is a highly coveted race because of the Tiffany Necklace but given that it is so prone to first timers I wish Nike would offer more information to them about how to run in a large race properly.

Team & Training
Okay I felt like I had to do an entire bit here for them.... Look I appreciate they are raising money for a worthy cause but in the end I would respect that a lot more if they weren't also raising money to send themselves to places to run and have fun. Given that a not so insignificant chunk of the money they raise for Team in Training goes to pay for their, airfare, hotel and race entry fees I am not a fan of this program. (Oh and to pay for their "Coaches" travel too I believe.) If you really want to do some good raise the money for the charity locally and pay your own way to travel to the race. The Nike races are big Team in Training races and I am not alone in not being a fan of Team in Training. They are frequently the folks that people have trouble with on the course of walking in the middle of the road, stopping in the middle of the road (general stoppage or going from a run to a walk with no notice to the people behind them), walking or running too many people abreast etc. Additionally it seems like their people only support other "Team" folks and don't give a hoot about anyone else. Here's the bottom line - when the average runner (who is not part of Team in Training) sees the purple shirts (That Team in Training always wears) and groans that should tell you what the overall impression of that group is...

BOTTOM LINE OVERALL IMPRESSION & THOUGHTS
While I love the necklace and the course I am left feeling like "Meh - I don't know that I would run this race again." The frustrating parts were very frustrating and given that I like to run a variety of races it's highly unlikely you'll ever see me like the gals who have ever charm from every Nike Half that's ever been run. Given the enormous nature of Nike I was disappointed in how much they fell down on the basics such as communication. Yes I realize it was an inaugural here in DC but they've run this race 9 times in San Francisco with many many more participants so they should know the ins and outs of how to handle a race like this. (That said when I ran the SF Nike in 2006 it was only my second race so perhaps there were as many issues there and I just wasn't wise enough to know.)  I am very happy to have done the race, SUPER happy to have PR'd (though with that start I am still not sure how I managed that!) and thrilled to have been able to do the race with my dear friend Tonya but perhaps once was enough for me on this race... we'll see!

So which race shall I run next?! 

My Post Run "Academy Award Thank You Speech"

Well as most of you have figured out I ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon yesterday in Washington DC. I definitely have some commentary on the race itself (and a lot of it is "not pretty") but today I am still in my Happy Happy Joy Joy mood about my performance yesterday so I am going to continue to roll with that and actually type out the blog I was "crafting" in my head yesterday.

I ran a PR (Personal Record) yesterday and not by a little... by a fairly sizable cut in time so I am super stoked about that! For those of you who are in your 20s or are natural runners I still probably don't run as fast as you but given my abilities I am totally psyched about my time!

So I am a dork but as I was left with some of my thoughts yesterday relaxing I thought of some of these things so I thought I would write a blog about it. As I was thinking many of these thoughts they reminded me of the Academy Awards Speeches so that's what it's become for me :) Yes I am a dork I know! But you also have to understand that as I was thinking it yesterday I was pretty exhausted (definitely didn't get enough sleep the night before and then I ran all out for the race) so my mind was working in funny ways... well funnier ways than usual I suppose!

Thank you to my dear friend Tonya who made the trek from Houston to the East Coast to run this race with me. Tonya not only ran this half marathon but she also did the Go Ruck Challenge in the middle of the night Saturday morning (If you don't know what it is Google it!) so in my mind she was the rock star of the weekend! I so admire her tenacity!

Thank you to the best race course support on the planet - Ken! (Of course it just so happens that he's been off the planet too!) Ken was a total trooper and willing to meet us on the race course anywhere we wanted to grab gear from us. He kindly went to mile 2 to wait for me to dump my long sleeve shirt and didn't bat an eye when I came through in a less than cheery mood at the time. He just said something along the lines of "I love you honey" which was definitely what I needed at the time! He happily hung with us over the weekend pre-race and happily waited with us post-race at the crazy Finish Line debacle.

Thank you to all "my mids" who texted me to wish me Good Luck or who texted after to find out how the race was. I know you all have lots of fun to cram into your weekends so I was touched that you thought of me!

Thanks to my friend Cary for a much needed laugh in the middle of the course. I was starting to drag a little and then one of your songs came on and hearing it made me think of you and how you would just shake your head at me and tell me I was an idiot for running 13 miles on a Sunday morning.. I could totally picture it perfectly so that made me chuckle and helped me keep moving!

Thank you to all the volunteers on the race course who handed our water, had their band playing or handed us food at the end of the race. Without volunteers these races just can't happen and we appreciate the volunteers tremendously.

Thank you Dan (and your whole band) for several of yoru great songs which were on my Playlist. They always keep me upbeat and when I was pretty tired and "Open Up Your Eyes" came on it made me stop thinking about the race (and my tiredness) and think for a bit about the fact that we get to see you guys perform in Atlantic City in less than a week which took my mind off the race for a few which was much needed!

Thank you to all the law enforcement and the many Bomb Dogs we saw out there. While we were not running in fear we did appreciate the visual reminder that we are being looked after.

Thank you Nike for having the class to hold a minute of silence for Boston - Boston was certainly in all of our hearts and minds and it was nice to have a moment together to honor Boston.

Thank you to our wonderful dog Guinness who helps motivate me to go run even when I don't want to. Without this I certainly couldn't have PR'd!

Thank you to the Craft Beer Companies, the Cheese Makers, Great Wineries and the Cupcakeries (Especially Crumbs because I just can't resist you!) for making such deliciousness that I just have no choice but to run because I love to partake in your deliciousness so often!

Thank you to Mel for getting me sucked into the Half Marathon insanity.... a long long time ago in that crazy place known as Russia :)

Thank you Glee for your awesomely fun music! With 3 miles to go I was cratering and then the song "3" came on - the timing was perfect! (Thank you Jenna Ushkowitz!) I was considering walking but while singing this song I got some pep in my step! The last quarter mile I was jamming to Darren Criss's "Last Friday Night" which absolutely helped propel me through the finish. (In case folks haven't figured it out - the only way I can get through 13 miles is with good music!)

Thank you to all the spectators out on the course with funny signs! This helps us take our mind off the run and it helps me get through the 13 miles in a big way! I may have to post a blog of just funny run signs later.... You may think your sign is not a big deal but I can tell you it's appreciated!

And last but not least thank you to my Mom for instilling in me that physical activity is a MUST! There was no sitting around on our butts playing video games, watching TV etc. in our house! We were told to get outside and do something and we did! It's something important that I have carried through my whole life. Thank you Mom!!

How's this blog for total dorkiness? :) Perhaps I still need more sleep....

Why I Run...

When I ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon for the first time in San Francisco (the original location) in October of 2006 there was someone at the expo who was handing out race signs that included the logo and the words "Why I Run." They had markers out so you could fill in your sign with what your personal reasons were/are. I thought this was really cool and not only got one for the race but took it home and continued to add to it. I hung it in our closet so I could see it frequently and use it for motivation. When we moved sadly I decided that the poster was pretty worn (given that it was just poster board and not framed it's not surprising that it was pretty worn) so I didn't bring it with us to Annapolis but it doesn't mean that I don't think about the reasons why I run. I thought I'd share with you Why I Run....

Some of my reasons sound "cheeky" or flippant and I suppose you could think in some ways they are but even those have some seriousness to them. Other reasons are certainly obviously serious. Here goes...

Why I Run...

I run for cheese, chocolate, beer, wine, mexican food, pizza and all the other wonderful tasty things that I love to eat and drink that are not necessarily the most healthy things in the world. (Let's face it while it sounds flippant it's true! I enjoy my food lifestyle and the only way I can continue to enjoy it is to work out and running is part of it.) I run to clear my head on days that I need to just get lost in the movement and I run to get my mind thinking about complexities I am struggling with an answer to. (Yes I know these 2 things are very counter but both can be true depending on the day.) I have run for many a cause to bring awareness or fundraising to it and in doing so I often run for those who can't run for themselves. I run for Guinness! (Yes the beer but even more importantly for my darling pooch who so loves to run.) I run to travel with my friends to see new places. (You may not realize it but running is a great way to see a city. And given that so many of my friends live in different places a half marathon is a great excuse for us to converge somewhere new together!) I run for my health. (Way too many people don't take care of themselves and have so many issues because of it. I certainly do not want to be one of those people. I like to LIVE my life and the best way to enjoy living life is if you are healthy! No I am not a total health nut but I do the best I can from time to time.) I Run... Because I Can! :)

I am sure there are a whole lot of other reasons I run too but these are what I've come up with for now. Do you run? If so - why do YOU run?

Finishing San Francisco Nike Half 2006

Work Outs

When I want to find out the best restaurants in an area I do sometimes use Yelp etc. to find reviews but the first place I go to for suggestions is my friends so I thought why not do the same with my workouts!?!

Lately I've been setting the goal of 3 cardio workouts and 3 weight based workouts a week. (Sometimes pole counts as a weight based workout if it's a tough enough class.) Then I throw in a bit of stretching and call it a full week of working out. I'll be honest it's good to have a bit of motivation keeping me going - I've got 2 formals to go to in a months and over New Year's I'm going to be in a bikini so those things definitely keep me motivated! (What can I say at the end of the day I do sometimes think like a total chick!)

Cardio wise lately it's been mostly running but am hoping to get back on my bike soon. Weight wise I head to the gym here to lift. I honestly prefer free weights and I manage to beat myself up a bit each time I go in. I have a variety of workout options and I like to change it up. That was one of the things I enjoyed most about working out with Rick when I was working to get my back "fixed back up" was that no 2 workouts were ever the same. (By the way for those of you in the Clear Lake area of Texas if you need a personal trainer let me know I'll send you his way - he's awesome!) Likewise since I've gotten here I've tried to switch up my weight workouts and in other workouts I've switched it up too like adding in Pilates (which is all new to me). What I realized though is that my bag of tricks for the weight room isn't as big as I'd like it to be so I figured I would ask you - my friends - if you have any suggestions? What I am looking for is stuff in the gym, not classes like Zumba etc. but specific exercises that you either really like doing or find very effective. (Let's face it they may be ones you hate but are very effective!) Anyone have anything they'd be willing to share? I'm happy to provide my favorites too if anyone is interested :)

Happy Workout Everyone!

Saint Louis Travel & Rock and Roll Race Write-Up

I'll be honest I wasn't real sure what to expect with Saint Louis in general but I really wasn't expecting much. Pretty much the arch was the only thing that came to mind (beside the Cardinals baseball team but being a Cubs fan you know how I feel about them!) I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the city!

I arrived in on Saturday morning and met up with Mel and BJ. We headed towards downtown and on the way needed to stop for lunch.

Imo's
This is a pizza place that is a Saint Louis institution apparently due to their unique cheese provel. (Not sure how you spell it but I am guessing that my guess is close and no it is not provolone.) The pizza is very thing crust - Mel described it very well as like a saltine cracker crust. The pizza was okay but certainly nothing to write home about. I ate it but do not think I would ever go back again.

After that it was off to our hotel to get checked in so we could go to the Half Marathon expo to collect our goods.

Crowne Plaza Downtown
I've already told you all about my affinity for the Intercontinental Hotels Group so the Crowne Plaza was a natural selection for this trip (especially since there isn't an actual Intercontinental in this city.) I had chosen this hotel before the race course was even announced and got lucky that it was about half a mile from the start, finish and expo! Woo hoo! Upon arrival they had a room ready for us and we were pleasantly surprised to find we were upgraded to a suite. Even better - we have an incredible view of the arch and even though we are a few blocks away if there was a baseball game going on we could see into the stadium for the whole thing!

There is a bar in the hotel (which is apparently open until 3am on weekends) but they have a lousy tap selection (just lousy Bud!) and we didn't check the place out because we wanted to go see the town when we decided to grab a drink. There is no hot tub at this hotel which is a bummer but overall this is a great place to stay.

Marathon Expo
After dropping off our bags we headed to the Convention Center for the Marathon expo to pick up our numbers etc. and check out what "goods" they had there. As usual Rock and Roll Marathons do a great job of merchandising. They had some fabulous designs on their shirts etc. and I am happy to report that they (as best I can tell) have stopped selling finisher shirts at the expo. (As we like to say at the expo the only thing you have finished is coughing up some money!!) The expo was a little smaller than I had hoped and pretty packed but all in all not bad. The shirts definitely leave something to be desired. They are very plain comparative to other race shirts.

BJ raved about gooey butter cake (which I had never had but Mel had and said it was fabulous!) so we headed out to Park Avenue Coffee for what some folks claim is the best gooey butter cake of anywhere. Along the way we wandered through a park area with some art which was very interesting.

We had beautiful weather and it was great to see so many folks out enjoying it. There are a lot of really pretty and interesting buildings to check out as well.

Park Avenue Coffee
After a stop right down the street at a very cute pet shop (where there were some cute dogs "shopping" that we enjoyed visiting with we arrived at our destination for some yummy goodness. I have to say they did not disappoint!  We ordered 3 different flavors of gooey butter cake to share: traditional, double chocolate and pumpkin. (We tried to order Turtle but they were out. Bummer!) The traditional and double chocolate were melt in your mouth delicious. I am sure the pumpkin was good too (Mel & BJ said it was) if you like pumpkin but I do not so I didn't even mess with that flavor. We all decided that it was a good thing that gooey butter cake is a Saint Louis thing and not down the street from any of us where we live because we might all be 300 pounds!

Square One Brewery & Distillery
You didn't think we'd spend a day wandering about the city and not find a brewpub if there was one did you?! Luckily this one was right down the street from Park Avenue Coffee. We found ourselves a table in the bar area and proceeded to order a sampler to contain one of each beer they have. This actually meant 3 samplers since each contains 4 beers and that's the number of varieties they had available. These sample sizes were 5oz samples which is larger than the standard size which was just fine with us!

We decided to grab a little snackage and ordered some pretzels, beer cheese soup and a scotch egg. The pretzels were decent, the soup was okay but nothing fabulous and BJ said the Scotch egg was really good though I was not a fan of it in general (it was my first time trying it and I don't think I'll have it again irrespective of where I am eating it.) The beers were really quite good with a wide variety including several IPAs, a pumpkin, a weiss, a stout and a few others. Had they bottled there was one or 2 I would have considered buying to take home with me. Definitely stop here to try the beer!!!

We then wandered back towards our hotel. We walked passed Busch Stadium which, in spite of the beyond lousy company it is named for, is a great looking stadium. I really look forward to coming here some day to catch the Cubs beating the Cardinals there for a game. Obviously the city is very excited with them playing in the World Series and all over town there are signs and such, the fountain is red, some statues have jerseys on... it's great to see so much excitement about America's Favorite Pastime.

Apparently Saint Louis is also the birthplace of Toasted Ravioli so BJ had some recommendations from folks as to where we should go for that. It was Saturday night so lots of places were so packed it was out of the question but we found a great place.

Trattoria Marcela
While this place looks small when you step into the bar and hostess area we found out that it is really rather large with a nice outdoor area as well. Since we didn't have a reservation and didn't want to wait until 8:30pm we opted for a table outside. (The weather was nice enough to make this doable.) We ordered the toasted ravioli as an appetizer to share and I will be honest - I loved it so much I wish I had ordered it as my main course! They brought out some bread with hummus which I found strange. An Italian place serving hummus just seems all sorts of wrong to me. Dinner was quite tasty as well and the portions are huge. But by far my favorite part was the Toasted Ravioli and I would go back just to have that again!!!

Solutia Rock and Roll Saint Louis Half Marathon
While Competitor Group is the official company that puts on all these races the main presenting sponsor of this inaugural race in Saint Louis was Solutia. The first impressions we had in the city of the race was that Solutia had done a really great job of signage throughout the city about the race and wishing the runners luck.

The race was set to start at 7:30am so we woke up way to early so we could all put a little fuel in our bellies and get ready to head out. The weather was about 50 degrees which is always a tough one for me to decide what the heck it is that I want to wear. I was thinking that the race was going to be a really bad one for me so I decided to go ahead and put the long sleeve shirt on underneath the short sleeve shirt I wanted to be showing since I figured that stopping to walk so I could toss my long sleeve shirt and put my short sleeve shirt on wouldn't be a problem. (Tip for any runners out there who are new to this - always check for cheap long sleeve shirts that after you wear a few times you don't mind tossing out. These are great for runs that start out cold and then you can just toss it when you are warm enough. I paid $4 or so for this shirt and had already worn it about 20 times in training runs so I had more than gotten my money's worth. And not to worry - it's not littering. The race volunteers pick up all the "discarded"and generally donate them to goodwill or homeless shelters etc.) Boy did I choose badly! (more later...) And as I pretty much generally do I ran in a tutu :) I chose to wear my Tutus for Tatas attire since I didn't run the Race for the Cure earlier in the month.

We got to the start line and near our corral. (That's one of the many things that the Rock and Roll Series does well - they do a lot of corrals to make sure people shouldn't be tripping all over one another.) They announced the race would start a few minutes late so we just hung out. It was a great area to start in - neat buildings near us and the arch in the foreground. After they played the National Anthem it was time to get started. They started letting corrals go and we started moving forward. Before we knew it we were up and it was our turn to be off and running.

I will spare the gritty details of 13 miles of running but I can tell you that I seriously goofed with my clothing choices because I was roasting by mile 3 but didn't want to slow down or stop to rearrange my clothes til about mile 9!!! The course was a very pretty course - in fact I would be willing to go out on a limb and say in the 15 half marathons I have run overall it was the best course as a whole yet! Good support on the route and lots of spectators which is always motivational! A few more rolling hills than I expected but no ridiculously steep ones which is a bonus. I finished pretty sure that I ran a personal best (we call them a PR) but hadn't worn a watch so I didn't know exactly what my time was. I would have to wait til I got back to the room to check.

After the race there was the usual snacks and photos. There was a beer garden by MGD that I simply could not bring myself to drink no matter that I was thirsty and it was free. The medals look fabulous! And frankly it's all about the bling ;)

Got back to the room and I got my big disappointment. While I was pretty sure I'd run a best when I logged on to look it up the online system didn't have a finish time for me. Apparently there was something wrong with my timing chip :( It logged my start and my 5K split but not my finish :( Mel said she saw me and she is certain I finished in front of her so when we looked up her time I knew I had run a PR because her time was better than my previous best time. Now I just really want to know exactly what my time is so I have that benchmark. They are looking it to it to try and piece it together with pictures etc. I sure hope that works out. On a happier note though all 3 of us (Mel, BJ & myself) ran PRs!!! That was cause for celebration!

Our traditional post race is that we run for shower time meaning first person to finish gets to shower first etc. So we all finished up our showers and headed out for some much desired lunch.

Morgan Street Brewery

Lucky for us this place was about half a mile from the hotel. We wandered in and got a seat right away. Great comfortable atmosphere and a pretty good looking menu. We of course ordered the sampler which included their pilsner, pumpkin ale, Oktoberfest, Honey Wheat and Decades their anniversary beer. All were quite tasty (as usual I didn't like the pumpkin) and we each picked our favorite pint to enjoy after the sampler was finished. The food was decent food nothing to jump for joy over but certainly food I would eat again. I had a burger and they have these unique sides instead of fries called Conniques which are deep fried mashed potatoes. Very interesting and pretty yummy.

After that we decided to wander over right to the arch so BJ could touch it (his requirement for the trip). It was a beautiful day so we were quite happy to be outside! We got some pictures outside and then wandered inside to check the gift shop. We had figured that there was a long wait to go up in the arch so we were okay with not doing that. Well thanks to BJ's keen observation we changed that plan! There was virtually no wait to go up in the arch so we decided to go for it. Tickets for an adult to go up in the arch are $10. The little elevator you get on is really quite small and holds 5 people. This is definitely not a place for someone who is overly claustrophobic. The elevator does almost a stair step movement to get up the arch - it's really a fascinating thing from an engineering perspective. It takes 4 minutes to get to the top crammed into the car like sardines.

At the top there are 16 (I think) windows on each side which offer a nice view. Definitely worth being able to say you did if you go to Saint Louis.

Then came time for our standard post run nap which was must needed at this point. Plus we needed to gather some energy for dinner :)

Mike Shannon's
Lately we have been trying to have a steak after our runs for dinner that night as a celebratory treat. We decided on Mike Shannon's because it was walking distance and had been recommended by someone. (We also try and go to a  local place instead of a chain and this fit that bill.) Walking in there's great decor of baseball bats, balls and photos. Sadly the food and service didn't meet the standards of the ambiance or price. The service was haphazard. For example when our bread was dwindling she came by and asked if we wanted more, when we said yes she took the basket (with 2 pieces left) but never returned with more. The visits to the table were very infrequent to see how we were doing or if we needed anything else. The steak was an average steak but nothing special with very little flavor. The sides we ordered were below average as well - the mac & cheese was plain and boring and the broccolini left a lot to be desired. Bottom line - skip this place and head elsewhere for your money because it definitely was not cheap and it certainly was not worth what we paid for it.

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
We opted to go elsewhere for some dessert and Ted Drewes is another Saint Louis institution - this one known for their concretes (similar to a DQ blizzard). This treat was extremely tasty and very very well priced! I am not a big ice cream fan but I loved my Heath Concrete and would highly recommend that anyone in the area swing by there for a treat!

All in all it was a great trip to Saint Louis and one day I look forward to going back so I can go to Busch Stadium to cheer on the Cubs!!!

Oh what the heck - let's give this a go....

I’ve had several people suggest that because I travel so much I should blog about it… I’ve had people suggest the same thing because of the running in various places that I do… Plus I miss writing (just haven’t really had the time to do it since college)…So I decided to give it a shot…

What can I tell you about my blog? Well I can assure you it will be a random mix of a variety of things… pretty much all over the board (like I am!)… It will certainly feature travel, running, beer, wine, chocolate, food & restaurants, musings about space (as in outer space!) and whatever else is on my mind or I think you might find interesting.

I can also assure you that many times it will be politically incorrect. I do not in any way believe in political correctness so there is no way that this blog will be. I will do my best to start at the beginning of an entry with a disclaimer if it will be a particularly over-the-top entry but bottom line is this point of this is to give you my thoughts generally unfiltered.

I will do my best to write up tidbits of advice for the places I visit as well as reviews for the places I eat, stay, drink etc.

Some days it may be useless information like how darn adorable my dog Guinness is and honestly I am not so sure that’s useless information! I mean, heck a doggie modeling agent might get a hold of this blog and decide to sign him up and then I can live the life of luxury being his well-taken-care-of mom J

I’ll leave you with this thought… how many of you have seen the Hamster Kia Soul commercial? The one where they sing and dance? I LOVE that commercial (and can often be seen doing the dance of the hamsters in the tutus… I think of this blog in that musical fashion (Sing this to the tune of that song on the commercial) “A little bit of this…. A little bit of that…. A little bit of this…. A little bit of that….”

Stay tuned…