I suck at blogging... I will work on that

You may have noticed the many month lapse in my blogging. Life just got in the way. 

My last post was right before I ran my second DC Ragnar. That event was affected by the US Federal Government shutdown. Actually, my legs in particular were affected. Instead of staying on a train until the end for my first leg, I had to run WITH traffic on a busy road that had no shoulder in the dark. It was terrifying and sucked. My third leg was basically eliminated and I got to run across the Wilson Bridge with one of my running buddies. That was nice but it was miserably hot and I had a blister on the bottom of my foot from running 8 miles on a gravel road during my second leg. 

Two weeks later, I ran the Komen Race for the Cure with my gym. I got a shiny new 5K PR from that. 

On October 27th, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon as my first marathon. It was an amazing experience and I got to do it with two of my good running buddies that I talked into running the event with me. 

I haven't done much since then. I had a giant blister and some knee pain after the marathon and basically spent half the next 2 months resting. I need to get back into it because I'm doing the Ragnar Trails Appalachian relay in June. My only real fitness goal for the year is that I want to be able to do a chin-up by the end of the year. 

Happy 2014!

My review of Drenched 5K

I won a free entry to Drenched 5K from Her Happy Balance. I'm glad I only paid for my son's t-shirt. I won a free entry and was highly disappointed in the race and the customer service prior to the race. My code didn't work twice and apparently 48 hours is a "reasonable response time" for an email. The race was not well-organized. The t-shirts are nowhere near as nice as the ones pictured in all of the ads. Parking was a nightmare for those who arrived within 30 minutes of the race. It started late because of the water trucks arriving late. The waves of people should have been more spread out to avoid bottlenecks. The mud and rocks didn't bother me, but I did expect more stations of water things. Where were the misters? We were in the second wave and waited over 30 minutes for the slip and slide, which is the event my son was most excited about. When we reached the finish line, it was chaos where the water balloon fight was supposed to take place. I'm glad we had decided not to participate. All of this being said, my son enjoyed himself a lot and that was the point. I would not recommend this race in the future unless the sponsors became more organized.

I will post pictures later.

My next adventures!

Sunday marks my last race of 2012. It isn't a real race for me. I'm a buddy runner for the Girls on the Run 5K to act as an encouraging running partner for a 3rd to 8th grade girl in one of her first races. The runners complete a 12-week program with a coach prior to the event. I'm excited, but I think these girls will make me look like a fat, lazy blob ;)

I'm planning for next year, too. I entered the lottery for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in DC. If I don't get into that, I want to run the Iron Girl Half Marathon at the end of April. I know a bunch of people who are planning to run it, so that would be a lot of fun for me. Other than that, I am planning on running the Marine Corps Marathon 10K in the fall, but I haven't planned out the rest of my racing schedule. I would like to do at least one more half marathon in the fall, but am looking for suggestions :)

What's on your racing schedule for 2013?

10 Days until Red Shoe!

So, it's only 10 days (including today) until my first 5K. I'm both excited and scared about running with a lot of other people. My goal is to finish without walking, but I'd like to be under 33-minutes.

The Red Shoe Shuffle is a race to benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Baltimore. I picked this event as my first 5K because it is an awesome charity.

If you want to sponsor me, my FirstGiving page can be found here: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/alyssakendall/red-shoe-shuffle

Please help me raise money for the Ronald McDonald House!