19 | August | 2014 | chocolate runner girl

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen a few pics I posted lately with race bibs. I was looking at all the races I have done before 2014. Since 2009 I have done a number of races and it ended up being 33 races! I realized that in 2014 I will be doing 33 races! It has been a little nutty, but a lot of fun too! Each race this year holds an especially dear place in my heart because I know I am running more than I ever have! And I was inspired to do all these races this year by my amazing friend Lauren!! She ran 30 races last year for her 30th birthday and inspired me to run 33 races for my 33rd birthday!
Anyways, back to race bibs! So I have a wall in my office with my race bibs from all previous years, and I wanted to make a new wall for this year! Sadly my office walls are pretty much all taken up with furniture, art or pictures.

After putting off for the past few weeks I finally decided to place my bibs from 2014 above my closet. So far I think they will all fit 🙂

I am missing a few bibs from races that for some reason did not have a bib. Not really sure why that happens sometimes…anyone want to fill me in?!?
Anyways, I am so thankful I figured out where to place these bibs…and that no one was injured in the process of hanging them!!

So I have another bib to add after running race #19 this past weekend!

I woke up Saturday morning and forgot where I was. We have been house sitting in several different houses this summer so this keeps happening to me…waking up and strange times and freaking out a little cause I am not in my bed!
So back to Sat morning, I got up and ready for my race. My tummy was not super happy with me so it made me a little nervous, but was hoping for the best.
I left where we were staying and headed to the race. It was a small local race so I was not really sure what to expect. I ended up missing my exit due to GPS not working right! Boo. It added about 10 min to my trip and I was going to be cutting it SO close to the close of packet pickup. I arrived to the location with 3 min to spare and could not find a place to park. Then had to walk more than a quarter of a mile to get my bib and shirt. There were no signs anywhere, so I am glad there were some other people to follow as the race booth and start line where behind the building I had to park in front of.
As soon as I got my stuff I hustled back to my car to put away what I did not need, get my bib on, get my water, energybits (code: RUNCHOCOLATE for 25% off) and phone case. As I started walking back to the start line I realized that if I did not go to the restroom right then, it would NOT be a pretty sight. But where were the bathrooms?!? I asked around and found them in a field house near the race start. The race was so small that they did not have timing chips, just a start gun and stop watch for timing. I am not really sure where the start line actually was since I was in the bathroom when the gun went off! OOPS!!
I hustled over to the trickle of walkers and hustled into the back of the running pack. It was another HOT day here in Houston (shocker), but thankfully most of this course was in the shade, unlike last weeks race!
I did not even try a 4:1 interval like last weekend, but went back and forth between 2:1 and 3:1. with most of it being 2:1. I really did not want to have any fainting issues like in previous races!

The first mile was alright. I felt pretty good, and actually had a few faster running intervals. It was nice to not have all the runners fly by be since I was at the end of the runners and ahead of the walkers. I ended up going passing one lady who was doing intervals like me. After we passed each other a few times we chatted and decided to finish together. It was nice to have that bonus motivation as the last half mile was all in the sun! And the last little part was on the high school track! Brought back so many memories from 18 years ago!!

Besides the tummy issues at the beginning, a lack of signage and an unmanned water station, the race was alright. So thankful to have another race in the books, and the yummy watermelon at the end of the race!

Did you race this weekend?
Ever been late to the start of a race?