Monument 10k Race Recap

Final results are in!
Official:
Time: 55:48
5k time: 29:08
Age place: 150 out of 881
Sex place: 2232 [not sure how many females total]
Place overall: 7076 out of around 37,000

Very happy with the official results!

 

The race was amazing!
Christina and I woke up around 7:20 and started to get ready.  I brought some instant oatmeal and two bananas with me because oatmeal + banana = my pre-race go to meal.  I had the cinnamon bun oatmeal.
 
While she was finishing getting ready, I took some pictures around her apartment for the blog.

The couch were I slept.
 
The kitchen.  I LOVE her apartment.  I’m really disappointed that I forgot to take a picture of her bathroom because it’s amazing!  A shower with a glass door & a bathtub/shower combination on the other side of the bathroom.  It was huge too.  About the size of her bedroom!
 
There’s even a balcony overlooking some of the high rise Richmond buildings as well as the river. The picture definitely does not do it justice.

Then my dad picked us up and it was off to the race!

There were porta potties lining the street in front of the starting line!

The race had already started by the time we got there so I’m not sure how bad the lines were at the beginning; however, I can’t imagine them being too bad with all of the porta potties available!

This might be TMI, but I could not force myself to do “my business” before the race started.  I had to go on the way to the porta potties but failed once I got in one.  Then, Christina and I ran around the block trying to get me to be able to go, but again, no luck.  I went ahead and just gave up and hoped that I wouldn’t have any bathroom issues during the race.  Luckily, I ran the whole thing without having to go at all! 

Pumped and ready to go!
We started walking up to the starting line looking for the “PB” wave group and didn’t see the sign for it!  Well, that was because they were doing the countdown for it as soon as we got up there!  We were actually on the other side of the fence though so we had to go around and squeeze our way up to the starting line.  For a few seconds we stood there wondering if we should just wait for the next wave to start, but we decided to just go when some other “PB” runners got up there and went for it.

It actually worked out great!  We didn’t have the whole shuffling thing to deal with trying to weave in and out of people because everyone in our group had already left.  It was clear sailing running for a while.


It wasn’t long before we got up to the crowd and had to start weaving through people.  I actually really like starting in the back because it’s so empowering to pass people rather than being passed!

Gonzo told us that her outfit wasn’t giving her any troubles, but she said that she thought that “the animal” was struggling with his costume!  I would have been too!

One great thing about this race, there were people cheering you on EVERYWHERE.  I don’t think there were any blank spaces on the sidelines!


There was a line of trees that had these signs posted up cheering on some of the runners!
 
Not so sure what that means… lol.
 
Fun cheerleaders! 
 
This running duo actually got 2nd place in the individual/duo costume competition!

This squirrel chasing an acorn took first place in that category!  I’m sad I didn’t get a better picture of his costume 😦

I’m getting the hang of this whole “running while taking a picture of yourself” thing!

Loved these shirts!

I thought this was interesting!  When I passed them the first time, I didn’t have a chance to take a picture so I made sure to the second time around!
 
The first time we went by, there was a little girl meditating in the flower, but unfortunately she was gone when I took the picture!

Dorthy & the tornado from the Wizard of Oz!  I actually didn’t even notice Dorthy until I looked back at the picture after seeing her with the tornado on the costume page of the race website!  I was happy that she ended up in the picture too, even though I didn’t plan it :)  I believe they got third place for the duo/individual competition.

I felt great during the race.  It didn’t really get challenging until I had to keep up with Christina at the end!  My foot, thankfully, didn’t hurt at all during the race.  There weren’t any points where I wanted to slow down.  All I was thinking the whole time was “faster, faster, faster!”  Every time I looked down, my pace was faster than the last time I looked.  It was great motivation and gave me the goal to keep up the negative splits!

The weather prediction for Saturday morning was saying 31 degrees.  I definitely dressed way too warmly!  My jacket came off right away and I tied it around my waist so I wouldn’t lose it.  The gloves ended up coming off as well and I carried those in my hands for the reminder of the race.  All that did go back on after the race though!

I’ve never been to a race with such an amazing energy and audience.  This is definitely a race that I want to start doing every year!

There were about 5 water/powerade stations.  I believe I took 4 of the waters.  The powerades were given out after the line of water and I didn’t take any of those.  Partially because I forgot to wait for the powerades at each station and partially because I didn’t want to get powerade all over myself.
I was actually really surprised with all the drink stations!  Normally, I expect just 1 at a 5k and 2 at a 10k.  It was nice having a lot!

 

After Christina and I passed the finish line, I stood over by one of the fences to recollect myself (and not puke!)

We ran into this fun duo and I had to stop and take a picture!

That must have been hard to run in!

Sweat-e!

We saw these girls early on in the race, so we asked to take a picture with them when we saw them after the race.  What a fun costume idea!

We thought having the “Runner’s Food” sign behind us would be perfect for the blog!

The “Runner’s Food” tent contained about 4 different areas to walk through with people handing out powerade, a plain bagels and bananas on either side of the walkway.

The bagels were alright; however, I heard that they more flavors available in previous years.  It wasn’t a disappointment for me because there were tents everywhere giving out free samples!

 
I love free stuff!  There were also containers of yogurt given out. 
 
Best picture I could find.  Liberte Mediterranee Strawberry yogurt.
It was AMAZING.  Seriously.  The fat content was a bit much but the flavor and texture was divine!  It was extremely creamy and definitely something I would try again!

Obi-Run-Kenobi actually had people waiting to take a picture with him! We just had to get in line and take a picture too!


I actually took two pictures of this guy.  He asked me to take a second one because he wasn’t doing “the face” during the first one! 
 
Funny story about this stand.  It was a cheese stand where they were handing out stickers.  Also, they had cards to fill out with your information because someone was going to get picked for a large amount of free cheese!
Well, Christina came up to me and told me that the guy gave her a cheese sample.  He told her that it was his last piece but he would give it to her.  She walked away to get some bags to put our swag in and the man asked gave me another sticker and told me that I needed to put it on my bib so I would remember the cheese!  I took it and responded by saying that I keep all of my bibs so I would definitely remember.  Then he came closer and, in a secretive way, handed me a cheese sample and said that it was his last one!  I told him that he already said that to my friend and he said “I say that to everyone!” haha

I love cheese 🙂

 

I can’t wait until next year!