Some of my favorite headlines from the 2022 Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon returned on Patriot’s Day this year and I have loved seeing everyone’s social media posts from the race (whether they were running or spectating, it looked like a fun day!)

While I didn’t get to watch much of the race due to a very busy day at work, I enjoyed reading all the stories from after the event. Below is a roundup of some of my favorite headlines and stories from race day.

Why this nurse ran the Boston Marathon in scrubs — and broke a world record

The Best Photos from the 2022 Boston Marathon

‘We are so touched’: Runner gifts 2021 race medal to Spencer the Boston Marathon dog after stopping to say hello

Boston Marathon Bombing Survivor Adrianne Haslet Crosses Finish Line Alongside Shalane Flanagan

Owensboro’s International Bar-B-Q Festival 5k and food recap

On Saturday, I ran my first race of 2019! Every year my hometown has an International Bar-B-q Festival and it’s two days of food, live music, mutton eating contests and so much fun! This is my second time running the 5k race (my first was back in 2010!) and it was so much fun to be around the local running community. So many people come out for the race and the energy was off the charts (even on a chilly Saturday morning!)

The course is super simple and just makes a big loop through downtown Owensboro. While there is basically no crowd support, there are so many runners that you are never alone.

I’m actually pretty happy with my time. Lately, I’ve been running around 11-11:30 pace but I knew being around people and being outside would be a little faster. The first quarter mile was a lot of weaving in and out of the crowds and I had to walk once for 15-20 seconds to adjust my ponytail.

After the race, I came home to finish up some work and shower before heading back down to the festival with my brother to get some lunch. We had lots of samples, but finally decided on a mutton sandwich, lemonade shakeup and some fried cookie dough (so rich, but so good!)

The only crazy thing my brother wanted to try was the deep fried cookie dough. We have all of these insane fried festival food booths every year and I never give in (mainly because most of it sounds disgusting) but decided what the heck and we split the dish. Best choice ever! It was so good! 10/10 will get next year.

Does your town have any crazy festivals/celebrations?! I would love to hear about them in the comments below.

Deciding on my next race

So this winter has been filled with lots of hot yoga, spin classes and some treadmill miles.  After getting some spark back, I have decided on my next race — the International BBQ Fest 5k!

*I’m in the white t-shirt on the right — I ran the race with my high school xc teammate Lauren, who pushed her bestie Karlie during the race*

I’ve run this race in the past and it’s always so fun. Lots of community support and great food afterward! I’m excited to work toward a faster pace — such a change from last year’s marathon training.

If you’re local and want to run sign up here!

A few thoughts on the 2018 Chicago Marathon

Happy Monday! I hope your week is off to get a start already!

This weekend was pretty low key – but still involved lots of running. On Saturday, I covered a cross-country race for the news organization I work for. I love watching college and high school kids compete in a sport they (and I!) love.

On Sunday, I woke up early to watch the Chicago Marathon! I was cheering for Gwen Jorgenson, but love watching all the Americans do their thing.

But overall, I was disappointed. The announcing/commentating SUCKED.

This tweet from @em_kertsez sums it up well: Another World Majors Marathon, another stream with barely any women’s race coverage. I don’t have any jokes about this I just wish there was more coverage of the women’s race as well.

The announcers also slammed the non-elite runners by talking about how much they would suffer during the race.  Like we all know the conditions weren’t ideal, but geez.

They also seemed to go with a less is more approach. SO MANY AWKWARD PAUSES. They just seemed to lack knowledge of running, racing, and marathons.

Some good from the race:
Best signs from the Chicago Marathon.
American women place four in top 10 at the Chicago Marathon.

Oh well, there is always hope for TSCNY Marathon, right?

A runner’s guide to Seattle

In preparation for RnR Seattle and in collaboration with Brooks the team Bib Rave and Rock N Blog created the Infinite Energy Seattle City Guide! The guide was created to give folks participating in RnR Seattle (on June 10) ideas of places to check out and things to do!

The guide will help you make sure you #runallthemiles, #eatallthefood, and more. From the best Seattle treats to post-race brunch, all of the recommendations come from runners with your race weekend in mind.

Also. Don’t these Top Pot Doughnuts look AMAZING?!

Seattle is one of my top places to visit on my travel bucket list. I hope everyone running RnR Seattle enjoys the weekend, the views and the race! Hopefully one day I can join you!

Wishing I was going to RnR San Diego next weekend…

For those of you running RnR San Diego next weekend … I AM SO JEALOUS. What a great opportunity to meet and run with some of the best in our sport!

For those who haven’t registered, there is still time! Registration closes Sunday night.

Friday
1 p.m. – Meet & Greet with Des Linden at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Booth
2 p.m. – Featured athletes, race officials and government representatives will take part in a public press conference inside the Expo
3 p.m. – Meet & Greet with Meb Keflezighi at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Booth

Saturday
7 a.m. – Synchrony Rock ‘n’ Roll 5K presented by Brooks with appearances by both athletes
1 p.m. – Meet & Greet with Des Linden at the Brooks Merchandise Area

Sunday – RACE DAY
6:15 a.m. – Meb Kelflezighi will start with the 1:30 half marathoners
6:15 a.m. – Des Linden will start with the 2:00 half marathoners

Officially a marathoner — RnR Nashville race recap

I received a free entry into this race since I am a member of Rock N Blog. All opinions are my own.

First thing first, I AM OFFICIALLY A MARATHONER.

Okay, okay. Now to recap RnR Nashville race day. Ryan (my wonderful husband and cheerleader throughout this whole process) and I stayed at the Renaissance in downtown Nashville. We were just a few blocks away from the VIP setup and from the starting line.

After grabbing some fruit (I brought my normal breakfast bar from home) and using the restrooms, I started to get restless so we made our way toward the corrals. I was in corral 13 and had some time to kill before things really got going.

Once we sang the National Anthem, the St. Jude rockstars got to take off first and then each corral about every five minutes. Before I knew it, I was off and running! The crowd support was amazing throughout the entire race. I know I probably started off faster than I should have, but I was so excited to be racing AND for my first marathon.

I also got to see Ryan at the start! He got a video of me running and I love it so much!

Honestly, I tried to “be calm” (my mantra) and enjoy the race. I knew this might be the only marathon I ever run (more on that later) and I wanted to remember it all and enjoy every step.

BUT HOLY HILLS. I knew the hills in this race would be killer, but I didn’t really realize it until I was in the thick of the race. My quads were killing me about 1/4 of the way into the race and I knew I was going to have to earn the title of marathoner. I started walking up some of the hills and made lots of friends along the way who were doing the same thing.

Oh yeah. This also happened at around mile 9.

The wall at mile 20 is a very real thing. I was in so much pain and was ready for the race to be over. I tried not to wish it away since I had worked so hard to get there, but my feet were in pain, I was chafing and I could my shoulders getting burnt.

But like I said, the crowd support was amazing. That’s what helped keep me going. The cheers, high-fives, puppy power, popsicles and orange slices were so appreciated. People were even giving out shots of beer and jello shots. It was awesome.

The best feeling was when I got to mile 26. I KNEW I could finish. There was a bit of a downhill and then you make a turn into Nissan Stadium. Once I saw the finish line I almost started to cry.

I did it! I was about to become a marathoner!

I definitely didn’t run the tangets and ran a couple miles over the 26.2. But I stopped my watch at 26.2 and I’m so happy with the results!

Three days later and I’m still in shock that I ran a marathon.

This was 16 weeks of blood, (I fell off the treadmill once) sweat and tears. Training for a marathon is physically, emotionally and mentally exhausting. There were so many moments of doubt during this process.

My biggest takeaway from this experience is WE CAN DO HARD THINGS.

So thanks for the memories, Nashville. This was a day I won’t soon forget.

RnR Nashville expo

I have so much I want to say about this weekend, so I’m going to break it down into two posts — expo and race day.

I mentioned last week that the days leading up to the race were crazy. I had to travel for work, so I had lots of driving, flights, workshops in Florida, more driving, more flights and then got home at 2 a.m. Friday morning, only to return to Nashville 12 hours for the expo.

Let me also say, that the biggest race I’ve ever run in had about 250 runners. RnR Nashville had about 30,000 participants. I’ve also only been to two race expos before and they were both rinky-dink. So this was all amazing (and new!) to me.

The first thing I did when we got to the expo was pick up my bib and change my corral since training had gone better than I expected. There were basically no lines and everything went really smoothly. I was so impressed with the organization!

I made sure to get lots of pictures and lots of free samples! I also bought a pullover, long sleeve technical tee and a tank to commemorate my first marathon! *Also, now I was even more determined than before to finish the race. I was not going to wear a finisher shirt unless I did the whole thing!*

One of the coolest things we did at the expo was trying the Rapid Reboot recovery system. It felt great on my legs (especially since they were a little wonky from traveling and being a plane for the two days prior to the expo.)

All in all, we spent about two hours at the expo. We walked around Broadway for a bit before deciding on Margaritaville for supper. Then it was off to the hotel for a quick shakeout run and stretching sesh before going to bed!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a full recap of the race! Check back, you won’t want to miss it!

The fear of racing again

It’s been almost four years since my last race.

WOAH. Doing the math made me realize it’s been a long time since I’ve toed the starting line.

Am I ready for this? Am I ready to race again?

It’s not that I meant to let so much time pass in between races, but life happens. Weeks after my last half marathon in 2014, I graduated college, moved to a new state with my then-fiance and we started new jobs. Three months after we started those jobs, a better opportunity arose and we moved again.

At that point, we were one month away from our wedding, starting new jobs and enjoying life as soon-to-be newlyweds. After our honeymoon, winter came and I only ran every now and then. Plus there aren’t many races in small-town living and definitely none in the winter. By spring, we were moving again (to my hometown — which is where we still live).

Once we settled into life in Owensboro, I wanted to start racing again. Owensboro has a pretty good running community and I knew I would have more opportunities for races. In the spring of 2016, I signed up for the Owensboro Half Marathon that fall. 10 weeks into training, the race got canceled due to lack of interest.  I was pissed and honestly just took a break from running for a bit. I had busted my butt all summer for nothing (yes, I know it was good for me, but my sole purpose of the training was for this specific race).

For Christmas 2017, my husband (who really is the absolute best) surprised me with a treadmill. I still didn’t have a race in mind, but at least now I was motivated to run more.

When I got the opportunity to join the Rock N Blog team in December of 2017, I jumped at the chance and signed up for my first marathon. Go big or go home, right?!
Disclosure: I am on the 2018 Rock n Blog crew and was given a Rock n Roll Tour Pass 10-pack. The opinions expressed in this post are my own. 

Now I’m 40-something days away from race day and I am so excited (!!!) but also starting to freak out a little.

Can I really run a marathon? Ohmygosh, I am going to be so slow. Is all this pain worth it? What if I fail? What if I DNF? (<– nightmare) This might be only chance to run a marathon (let’s be honest — they are expensive!) I don’t want to mess this up. What should I wear?

I’m trying to not the fear of racing again overwhelm me. I run for me and no one else. So no matter what happens on race day I know I will be proud of what I’ve accomplished so far (like running 15 freaking miles on Saturday!)

So thank you, Run Rock N Roll for helping me (hopefully!) accomplish a dream. (Thanks for the tourpass, too!)

Interested in running a RnR race next year? All your Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series questions: answered.

Run Rock N Roll improvements

Disclosure: I am on the 2018 Rock n Blog crew and was given a Rock n Roll Tour Pass 10-pack. The opinions expressed in this post are my own. 

My first marathon is 82 days away! I am so excited to not only about the race, but also to run my first Rock N Roll event! Lots of my friends (in real-life and online) have run in RnR events and I knew I had to join in on the fun this year!

For over 20 years, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series has made running fun by infusing each course with live bands, cheer teams, entertainment, and more.

Check out the new and improved racing experience.

Here are some of the changes I am looking forward to in Nashville!

MORE MUSIC
Rock ‘n’ Roll Curated Playlists: Search Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series on Spotify or click here for playlists customized by BPM. You can train all year long and get excited for what you’ll hear on race day!

I love finding new music and this was a fun way to find some new songs to add to my playlists. Have a favorite running song?! Share it with me in the comments!

MORE PORTAPOTTIES
At the start line and throughout the course. This is obviously a huge plus since having to wait in super long lines to go pee is the worst. Also. I have the bladder of a pregnant lady and have to pee 672 times a day.

MORE GELL STATIONS
One of my favorite handouts during races are the gels! Half marathon and marathon participants will have more chance for free fuel throughout the course to help them make it their best race yet!

Although, I do suggest not trying a new flavor on race day — I’ve had some disgusting gels and it really messes with your mind and your stomach. Stick to flavors you know!

OTHER CHANGES
• New, illuminated starting corral markers
• Improved visibility pacer signs
• More community & spectator engagement
• New bib-tag timing technology

MARATHON ZONE

Are you planning on running a RnR race this year? If so, comment on this post or email me at mileswithmeghann@gmail.com! I might have some good news for you 😉