Fargo Race Review

Hello!  How's your Thursday going? 

Anyone else feel like this has been the loooongest week?

 

my thoughts exactly...all week

 

 

Ok, so I said I would be back with a race review.  Not a ton of new stuff to report since last year, but since the start and finish were different I've got a few thoughts.  So there were two main differences this year, and it was the facT that all the races (with the exception of the 5k, which was the evening before), all started at the same time.  Also, the fact that the start the end location were moved from the Fargo Dome to downtown Fargo.

 

But let me start at the beginning.  We took the shuttles to the athlete village/bag drop.  Getting to the shuttle was easy peasy, but our poor bus driver didn't really know where he was going, and ended up dropping off the marathon runners at the wrong spot, so we had to turn around.  He had a good sense of humor about it, but I could tell some people were annoyed.  I think the change in location left a lot of people confused about where they were supposed to go and the signage for everything wasn't the greatest.

Getting to the bag drop and start was pretty easy though.  I was thinking that because everyone was starting at the same time that it would be really congested, but it actually wasn't too bad, and we were able to line up pretty easily.

The course this year was great.  A few more "hills" than last year, but honestly, it's Fargo, when I say "hills" they are basically just bumps in the road :)  I loved starting on the bridge with everyone and finishing right in downtown.  The crowd support again was great this year.  Bands pretty much every mile, and SO many entertaining signs and people.  I think my favorite was an old man dancing on a piece of cardboard to Blurred Lines - the best.

The water/sports drink/GU stations got a little congested towards the end, but nothing too bad.  Part of me wished that those who chose to walk through the water stops would stay to the sides - I almost ran smack into someone, but really, it wasn't horrible.

The one thing that bummed me out was that they advertised that there would be a jumbo screen at the finish so you could see yourself run in (just like last year), but when I turned the corner to the finish, there was nothing.  The screen wasn't until you came through and got your medal.  Now, I'm not that vain (wait....yes I am), that I need to see myself on the big screen, but it was SO COOL last year that I was excited for it.  So really, that was my only thumbs-down about the race.

So it's super obvious that Fargo holds a special place in my heart, and while I really liked how they moved the race back to downtown for the 10th anniversary, there is just something about running into the dome, with tons of people cheering, that just cant be beat.  So I'm hoping they move it back there next year.

So if you made it to the end of this, congrats, sorry I'm so boring, and before this gets any longer here are my official results....

 

 

And now,  commence the 3 week freak out until MPLS...

 

Fargo Half Marathon weekend!

Hey guys happy Monday! 

I'm going to get right to it since I have LOTS to talk about!  Also, just a warning,this may get long and there will be lots of pics :)

 

 

packed the essentials...obviously

 As you know I spent my weekend in Fargo for the half marathon. We left Friday afternoon and picked up Emily on our way. With our car loaded up we made the 4 hour trip to Fargo.

on the car ride up!

We headed straight to the expo when we got there to pick up our packets and shirts and also meet up with some friends of Emily's who were also running the half/full marathon.

 After the expo and meeting up with friends, we checked into our hotel and got ready to head to dinner.  I made reservations for our group at an Italian place.  I figured with a group of hungry runners, pasta and pizza would be the best choice.   We hung out at the restaurant for a while then all headed back to our hotels to try and get some rest.

Our alarms went off at about 5:15 that morning, and we got up, had some breakfast (2 mini bagels and a banana for me), and made our way to the shuttle buses.

on the bus

met up with some of the group before heading to the start

on the bridge, ready to go!

Since this year was the 10th anniversary of the marathon the route was different so we could end in downtown Fargo instead of the Fargo Dome like last year.  This was pretty cool because we got to run right now the main street of downtown and it was absolutely packed with people. 

Emily really wanted to get close to a 2 hour time, so we made a plan to start out at a 9:30 pace and work out way down from there.  We started out and felt great.  We were easily keeping a 9:15-9:20 pace for the first 8 miles, and the miles seemed to just fly by.  I'll get to the detail of the race in my race review post, but again, crowd support was SO great, which helped the time go by really fast.  

At about mile 8ish we met back up with Emily's friend Angela who joined us for the rest of the race.  Ang and myself are pretty similar pace-wise, and knowing Jake and Em were running well together, we decided to pick up the pace.  I was still feeling super comfortable and Ang was looking great so we gradually took the pace down to about 8:20's and kept speeding up from there.  My legs felt great for the race.  No shin or ankle issues at all, and it finally felt like a nice and easy long run.  It helped that the weather was pretty perfect too.  I ended up with a 1:56:30 (Garmin time), and Ang came in with a 1:58:xx.  Em came in with Jake at about a 2:04:xx which is a 19 min. PR for her!  For real, 19 minutes?!  That's crazy-sauce and she did so awesome.

We hung around afterwards and waited for other peeps to finish, had some chocolate milk, stretched and layed in the grass - it was glorious.



 

 After hanging around for a while we made our slow hobble back to the hotel where we showered and decided a beer was in order.
 





and they were some mighty tall beers!

 

We then made our way to find some food (none of us were super hungry right after the race), and we ended up at a great Mexican place - but lets be honest, after running 13.1 miles, no food and a huge beer, I'm pretty sure we would have eaten ANYTHING.  We got back to the hotel and I'm confident we all PR'ed in lounging, complete with naps and doughnut-eating.  After a few hours we rallied, cranked up the tunes and got ready to go out and meet the group.  We ended up at a bar that had $1.50 beers...what?!  Only in Fargo :)  It was such a blast to just kick back and have fun for the rest of the night.

 

 

 

 



 



The next morning we got up, had some hotel breakfast and said cheers to a good weekend one more time before hitting the road.

 

nothing like champagne in a plastic cup

 

Two years in a row of this being the best day ever?? I would say Fargo is slowing getting the reputation for having the best half marathon - but I'm just a little biased :)

 

 

 

I'll be back with a quick race review, and then it's the final push to MPLS.  Just 3 more weeks!  YIKES!



Things I'm loving Thursday!

Hooray!  I'm back for my favorite type of post.  Here's a list of things I'm currently loving...

 

 

 

*Pharrell Williams - Come Get it Bae....on repeat, 24/7. 

 

 

 

Pharrell, I love you and your Smokey the Bear hat that you wear.

 

 

 

 

*e.l.f Jumbo Lip Gloss Stick

 

my hand looks ginormous!

 

I first heard of e.l.f products a few months ago from a makeup blogger that I watch on You Tube.  They are incredibly inexpensive and surprisingly good quality for a drugstore option. But up until recently none of my local drug stores carried the brand.  A few weeks ago though I spotted a display at my Target.  Hooray!  I grabbed a few items like brushes, an eyelash curler, eye shadow pallet and these awesome lip crayons.  They glide on super smooth and aren't at all thick or sticky.  I like how they are in the crayon shape to keep application fool-proof.  I chose a nude shade in 'In the Nude' and a pinky shade in 'Pink Umbrellas'.  I don't wear a ton of color on my lips so I like that these are subtle enough to wear for daytime but you can layer them up for more color.  I think they were like $2 each so if you get a chance to try them, you should! 

 

*Vasque Grand Traverse

 

 

The company I work for manufactures this brand and a few weeks ago my department had a meeting about the new styles for this year, and the Grand Traverse was one of them.  As soon as I saw it I knew I needed to get a pair.  I don't do a ton of hiking, so I knew I didn't want your typical hiking boot, and this one is perfect for what I was looking for.  It is designed to perform more like an approach shoe (hence the laces going all the way to the toe like a rock climbing shoe), and to be able to hike over a mix of terrain (ex. slick rock, wet/dry trails, ect.).  The other thing I love about them is that they are casual and comfortable enough to wear as everyday shoes.  Plus they came in my favorite color :)

 

*Spring nail polish colors

 

 

I kind of made a pact with myself that I would start to look like an adult, so I figured it was time to keep up with the beauty trends.  First step was new nail polish.  The goal here is to paint them often enough so I don't walk around with ugly chipped nails like I used to, and with fun colors like these it makes it really easy!  There are a TON of fun spring colors out right now, and I picked up two of my favorites a few weeks ago.  I love them, and plan on getting a few more as we go into summer.  So now at least my nails will look good when I decide to wear sweatpants all day.

 

 

* RIP fitness class

 

After some convincing from a friend (Hi Sam!!), I finally tried this class at my gym, and verdict is....I LOVE it!  I've been pretty good about doing strength workouts on my own, but this class forces me to do an hour of it two days a week.  After my first class my arms were shaking so bad I had a hard time washing my hair the next day!  I've been going twice a week for the past 2 weeks and its a great addition to my workouts.  Plus the music makes me want to dance :)

 

 

So that's is for my favorites this week!  I'll check in after this weekend - hope you guys have a great one!!

 

 

crawling out from under my rock....

Holy smokes!  It's been a long time since I've been here. Turns out when things arent going my way I throw a tantrum and crawl in a hole.  I was on such a roll too.....oh well, such if life.  I do owe you guys a recap of my last race, but I'll warn you now, it's wasnt a great day, and to be honest, I've had a rough couple of weeks dealing with some stupid injuries.

 

But I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to talk about FARGO!!!

 

 

 

As I've mentioned before I'm headed back up to Fargo this weekend to run the half marathon.  I'm super excited about this because I'm running with one of my bestest friends.

 

 

Hi Em!

 

I'm going to help pace her for the race and I just know shes going to crush it!  Plus its the 10th Anniversary of the Fargo Marathon, so it's just going to be one big, running party!  I'm just hoping that with my lack of running lately I dont get left in the dust, but even if I do, I'll have about 20,000 of my friends to run with :)

 

We are heading up Friday afternoon to check out the expo and get our packets.  I'll take pics a long the way, and if it's anything like last year, it should be a blastie, although, those are some big shoes to fill :)

 

oh, and speaking of shoes, I got some sparly new ones!

 

Wave Sayonara!

Although, it might be a good thing I'm not running as much right now, because they are a lighter than the Wave Riders and more of a "race" shoe, they will take some getting used to, so I'm trying to ease my way into them.  My plan is to have them as my race shoe for MPLS in June.

 

 

 

Ok, thats all from me for now.  Oh!, and if any of you are going to be up running Fargo let me know.  I'll be representing TNC in my bright pink!