Surf N Santa 5 Miler AKA Last race of 2015

Surf N Santa 5 Miler

December 19, 2015

Virginia Beach, Virginia

                Surf N Santa 5 Miler was my last race I was registered for the year. It is organized by J&A racing. I have become a fan of this company since completing in Shamrock race back in March. They know how to do races and how to properly treat race finishers.Somehow I signed up for 3 back to back races in December. How did that happen?? This was #3.

                I had heard about the race on Facebook through past participants. I truly enjoy themed races. I kept the race on my radar and kept an eye on the deadline for when the race entry would increase. I signed up for the race a few months ago. Then I reached out to my TIFL sister in Charlotte who is solely responsible for me becoming a fan of J&A racing, Angel Chappell Jonas. I checked to see if she was doing the race and she was. I went ahead and signed up. Now that I think about I may have signed up for this race back in the summer. I remember going to Huntersville packet pick up in Charlotte and running into Angel and we were discussing hotel arrangements. Yowzer I really did sign up early. That’s the real way to save $ on race registration.

                I booked the hotel through Hilton Honors because I am on a SERIOUS mission to earn enough points to stay at the Hilton Oceanfront resort in Virginia Beach during the summer. Hotel is booked. I was in Charlotte last weekend for Reindeer Romp. Angel and I were making final logistics for our trip. We decided since she was driving up from Charlotte. I would drive from Raleigh to Virginia Beach. It really made the most sense. We drove up to VA beach on Friday evening. Our first stop was packet pickup. We arrived at the convention center about an hour before race expo closed. We picked up our packets, hit the J&A store which I truly went into a conniption back in March buying everything that said 13.1 on it lol. This time I had much better control. I only purchased 1 shirt and 1 pint glass. Go me! We leave the expo and head over to our hotel. Siri is leading the way but everything looks completely different at night. Siri is a tad bit slow in telling us when to make the turns. We see the Hampton inn entrance AFTER we pass it. Thanks Siri. I end up turning into the exit instead of the entrance. No cop sees us so no ticket. We check into the hotel. Then go find some dinner.

                The race is on Saturday at 4:30pm. This is my first evening race. I’m so used to having to get up at ZERO dark thirty for races. This is a nice change of pace. Get to sleep in on race day. Where they do that at?? We leisurely get up and thanks to Yelp we find a local breakfast spot. Carb loading at its best with the egg scramble. This decadent breakfast menu item is slowly putting me in a food coma. We make a stop at Walgreen’s on the way back to the room. Then we are relaxing in the room to get mentally ready for the race. Did I mention the weather forecast at race time is 45 DEGREES? Baby it’s cold outside. I’m a southern lady who LOVES the cold. I know go figure. I have brought lots of layering options. We decide to head over to the convention center, the START/FINISH of the race around 3. As we head over to the convention center, we see fellow races walking from their hotel to the convention center. Angel and I are both thinking “once they finish the race, they will have to WALK back to their room” No thank you. We make a pit stop at 7-11 so I can get a water for my camel bak. I’m starting to learn my way around. We park in the lot. Then we make our way over to the convention center. I’m going to say ALL race participants are waiting inside before the race starts because it is a gaggle of folks in here. I make my way to the restroom and based on the line I am not the only one who had this idea. We wait around and do some people watching. People really go all out in terms of costumes. I even see a few Star Wars costumes, yeah!! Some folks are really creative. The one that stands out to me is a guy dressed as Santa in a homemade sleigh with I’m assuming his girlfriend or wife dressed as a reindeer pulling his sleigh.

                The announcer comes on over the PA system. “If you can hear my voice, you are in the wrong place. Head to the start line for the race” We leave the warmth of the convention center and head into the cold that is the start line. We are in corral 5. We line up with our corral. There is a wind whipping through which makes it feel about 10 degrees colder. I’m starting to rethink my life choices at this point. I’m here and there is 5 miles to get it in before I can call it quits. Race starts at 4:30pm. They move us out by corral. Our coral makes it to the start line about 4:41 minutes into the race. When you start a race with the crowd, you can easily get caught up with the hype of the crowd and start off to fast. I have had this happen to me a few times. About 5 minutes down the road, my body tells me to slow it up because this is not our pace. Angel and I are walking together. We are checking out the costumes while we people watch. We get passed by another Santa and reindeer. His sleigh has a sign that reads “Santa and his Ho Ho Ho’s”. Cute. We head down from the convention center and I’m not sure what the distance is but we are almost at the first turn onto Atlantic Avenue. I see the lead cars and cyclists turning to the convention center. We all scream out to the lead guy. Dude is flying towards the finish line. There is 1 other guy not too far behind him. We think wow he’s already finishing and we are just starting. I think of the words Melva Peed told me “your race your pace”. We head onto Atlantic Avenue. We hit mile 1. Right pass mile 1 is the first water stop and wouldn’t you know it, it’s right by our hotel. A part of me wants to make a beeline for the room. The way my bling obsession is set up I have to cross the finish line. Also the Max is parked at the convention center. We turn onto the boardwalk right behind Hampton Inn. As we turn onto the boardwalk, we are starting to lose daylight. They have holiday lights set up on the boardwalk. It is GORGEOUS. I’ve read on the race site that all runners have to be off the boardwalk by 5:45pm. In my head I’m thinking I can’t really enjoy the lights because we have to “fly like the wind bulls-eye” so we don’t get pulled off the course. We pass mile 2 on the boardwalk. I keep an eye out for The Oceanfront Inn because that’s where we are staying for Shamrock. When I see it, I tell Angel “there it is”. We booked it last night. Multi-tasking at its best. It’s right at the finish line for shamrock. You have no idea how HUGE that is. This years’ hotel was like a mile away. You may think that’s not a lot. After you have just finished a half marathon another mile feels like 200 miles. We are coming up on another stop. I see all these folks dressed like gingerbread men. I don’t see any cookies. Turns out they ran out of cookies. Story of my life for being the back of the pack. At this point, I am so ready to get off this … boardwalk. It feels like it’s going on forever. I see the light show is ending. The last light display shows “Living the beach life” I figure I have time to snap a picture. Picture comes out pretty good. We turn off the boardwalk and back onto Atlantic. We pass mile 3. We only have 2 more miles left to go. We head towards the last water stop right by the Hilton resort that I am obsessed with. The water stop is manned by what I am going to assume is college students because they are so HYPE angel and I are wondering what the heck did they have to drink and can we get some of it. We see a cop car head towards us and he tells us to get on the sidewalk. We get on the sidewalk. Literally 5 minutes later, one of the J&A race vehicles pulls up to us and tells us to get on the street because the course is still open. I tell Angel there must be a breakdown in communication because we have been told 2 different things. We get back on the road. We turn on 19^th street to head back to the convention center. Angel can tell my breathing is getting really ragged. She gets my chews out my camel back. I was slipping and not taking my nutrition. I take a few stinger chews and guzzle some water and I get a 2^nd life to make the last mileage to the finish. Angel tells me we are getting close because we can see the convention center. I tell her so close but yet so far. The course has going around the back of the convention center. This reminds of Reindeer Romp last weekend in Charlotte. As we make the last turn, 1 of the race volunteers walks up to us. She tells us she is going to walk us in. She tells us “I’m so glad you all didn’t quit” I tell her of course not this is where the car is parked. She asks Angel if I have been joking like this through the entire race lol. We are coming to the final stretch, the finish line shoot is near and then we walk into the convention center and I see the finish line. I’m so excited that this adventure is coming to an end. It is so cool the finish line is inside the convention center. I hear the race announcer calling our names. There are a few folks hanging around cheering us on. Official finish time is 01:52. My last race for 2015 is COMPLETE.

Reindeer Romp

I had heard about the Reindeer Romp on Facebook through the TIFL Alumni group page. I saw pictures of last year’s race. I noticed the race participants received hooded sweatshirts. I love a hoodie. As fall drew near, I started to google the race and kept it on my calendar. I reached out to a friend who is from Charlotte to see if she was interested in doing the race as well. Then we could stay at her mom’s house. Win-Win. Forward to a week before the race, my reindeer romp weekend partner informs me that she has another commitment and cannot make the race but she has made arrangements with her mom for me to still stay with her for the race. SCORE.

The race was held on December 12, 2015 at the Harris YMCA in Charlotte. I drive down Friday afternoon. I make it to packet pickup at the Y just in time. As I turn into the parking lot, I spy with my little eye a car in front of me with a TIFL sticker. I think to myself well I bet that we are probably going to the same place. I indirectly follow them. I park and then I see the driver of the car is TIFL Charlotte past president Hilary Crabtree. I yell out her name and we head over to the Y. I pick up my packet and Melva’s packet. Once I told Melva we were getting hooded sweatshirts she changed her mind in trying to sell her race bib. Good call.

I checked the weather before I left Raleigh and the forecast at 8am was 55 degrees. In my mind that’s COLD. I opt to pack long sleeve running clothes. Since it’s a Christmas theme race I pack my Star Wars ugly t-shirt. I’m up and at it Saturday morning. I have about a 30-minute drive from Mary Peed’s house AKA Melva Peed’s mom AKA my hostess with the for the weekend. I arrive at the Y about 7:26am. We are meeting at 7:30am for group picture. As I get all my gear out, I see a few TIFL sisters. I have now been designated the Raleigh exchange student. Isn’t’ that special? I will travel for a race. I’m starting to feel warm from the two layers I have on. I didn’t bring anything else to put on. We head over to the race start. Our group is way too big for a groupie pic. We recruit someone to take a real group pic. Geri Hampton Jackson who has been designated the best Southeast groupie photographer gets one with her phone. After the picture, I go “pay the water bill”. I see the crowd has dispersed. I just follow folks and end up at the start line. I’m walking this race as I have done all my races this year. I will return to running soon. I’m lining up with Angel and Tiffany and Alexia in the baby stroller. She has it the easiest and doesn’t even know it.

At 8am, the race starts, we start on a slight incline. We make our way through neighborhood behind the Y. I’m moving along pretty good with Angel and Tiffany. This course has some HILLS. The weather is started to warm up. It’s foggy and humid. I’m sweating like a sinner in church in my too many layers of clothing. We pass mile 1 and we all are like it’s just mile 1. I’m sipping on the water in my CamelBak like it’s the best thing since sliced bread. It really is because I am losing water from sweating like it’s going out of style. The neighborhood is actually nice. We are admiring the Christmas decorations and the panthers decorations because this is Charlotte, home of the undefeated Carolina Panthers. We have just passed mile 2. I see another hill. I’m like come on. There’s a cop out on the course who tells us “This is the last hill”. Angel ask “are you sure” He replies I have 2 weeks left on this job so I would not lie. Strangely enough he was right, that was the last hill. We make a few more turns after the hill. Angel tells me that we are making our way back to the Y because there is a traffic up and head. I’m so happy to see we are headed back to Sharon Road. The right lane is still blocked off for traffic. Our lovely personal stalkers, the race course pickup crew and the sweeper car tell us to get on the sidewalk because they are opening the road up. We get on the sidewalk and cross the intersection. We are about a block and some change from where I parked. We head to the finish; I tell Angel it’s a shame my car is parked right there. She tells me nope we have to make it to the finish line first. We run into Geri and Donella who are leaving. We run into another course monitor who directs on where to go to make it to the finish line. We meander through the parking lot and turn onto the sand and head to the finish line. The very helpful course monitor volunteers try to get us to run it in to the finish line. I’m seriously looking at her like it’s so not happening. I tell her I’m just happy that I made it. We all cross the finish line. My official time is 1:10:23. They hand us what looks like a medal but I am told it is a Christmas ornament. How cool is that? I wasn’t even expecting any bling. I was SOLD on the hoodie. Another 5K is in the books. Back to back 5K’s are done. 1 race left to complete for the year on December 19 in Virginia Beach, Surf-n-Santa 5 miler.