Rock n Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon

Gigi and I hit the expo at about noon on Saturday.

We had entirely too much fun at all of the booths! They had Wheels of fortune at a lot of the booths so that you could win prizes!

We got those reusable bags from Geico! 

Gigi won a phone case! 

There was a lot of swag to be had! Eileen arrived and we left to have lunch and then Gifgi went back to her room and we went to ours.

We walked around the Broad Street area and found this delicious cupcake store where of course we had to have a cupcake. Then we went back to the hotel to wait for Colleen so that we can all go to the Melting Pot for dinner.

After that it was bed time so that we were rested for the race! 

We met Gigi and her friends at the Love Sculpture for some photo ops.

It was SO humid out, and we hoped it would burn off quickly! 

We strolled to the start and took a LOT if selfies. Sad but true.

And then we all separated. Gigi and her friends were in corral 23 and were going to be taking their time. Colleen stayed with us until the start and then she ran ahead. Eileen and I had a goal of 2:45. We went to our corral and noticed that no one was even checking. There were corral 23 peeps in corral 10 so we walked to 16, which was 2 ahead of me, and settled there.

We decided to run the first five miles without stopping and then we would run/walk after that. It was hot, humid, and I am sorely out of shape after my 6 week haitus due to injury!

I love the scenery at this race! I wish I had taken more pics but I was concentrating on not dying out there! At around mile 7 I remembered Mr Incredible from two years back and hoped he would be there again!

Love him! I also remembered the bridge. I.love.this.bridge. It is at mile 9 or so, and it's so beautiful. I have a thing for bridges!

 We stopped for a bridge selfie, too.....

Crossing that bridge meant that the race was almost over! I was glad because I was exhausted. My legs were tired and my feet hurt. I was so ready to be done.

 

Almost done! The last 5k was mostly a repeat from Saturday's race. Which meant that hill again. Ugh. The mile 12 water stop had ice in the water though. That was sweet. I made those cubes last!

And then we were done! We didn't hit our goal but we came close.... 2:52 which made me happy. I haven't finished under 3 hours in awhile, so this progress was nice.

This was just about all there was at the finish. There was some bland cereal, and Power Bars, but they had mint chocolate which I don't care for.

I hobbled over to medical to ice my foot, mostly preventative, a little soreness.

Aaaahhhhhhhhh

I got my bonus medal and we headed back to the hotel.

Overall I love this race! The expo is great, the scenery is amazing, but the food at the finish was a disgrace! I am hoping for better at future RNR events! 

Flat Mama Friday, Zooma Cape Cod Edition

Today I start the drive to Cape Cod for the Zooma Half Marathon with my friend Eileen and her friend Carol. 

Rock n Roll Philly 5k

On Friday night I drove to Philly at the last minute so that I could run the Rock n Roll Philly 5k with Gigi. I parked in the Convention Center parking lot, thanks to panda parking.com, and headed right to the expo to register for the 5K.

The registration process was superquick, and before long I had both of my bibs, my cheesy plastic backpack, and my tech shirts. 

I walked over to the Marriott where Gigi had her room, and we hung out for a little while until it was time to go to Chinatown for dinner.

After an amazing dinner at Rangoon we walked around Chinatown for a little while and then headed back to the parking garage to grab my stuff.

We got up at about 6:30 for the 5k, and were out the door by about 7:00. We walked the 1.5 miles to the start and stopped for some pics.

The race would start at Eakin's Oval and run towards the zoo and back. Not a super exciting course, but not bad either! The race started on time and we started about 6 minutes after the elites.

The runners spread out quickly and were running in the lane made for the return trip. Someone was riding his bike along the course and trying to get people to stay to the left, but he was pretty much ignored! Of course, when the fasties came before we even hit mile one, the truck leading them was honking and the men were waving and people finally moved over. The winning men finished under 14 minutes and I believe the lead woman was about 18 minutes! Wow!

After the turn around I snapped a few more pics. I was taking my time because I knew I had to run 13.1 the next day! At one point, the road was quite slanted, and it made for some uncomfortable running, but it didn't last long!

I finished in just over 36 minutes, noting the hill at the end, and knowing that I would feel so much worse on Sunday!

The only  food at the finish was a lot of bananas which I cannot eat! I ended up buying peanut butter sliders from the food truck by the bag check. I was disappointed in there lack of food! We were told that there were pretzels, but non were to be found!

We walked back to the hotel to shower and hang out before it was time to really hit the expo!

I will write about the expo in my next post!!

Have you done a race weekend challenge?

Wordless Wednesday, Philly edition

I spent the weekend in Philly for the Rock n Roll Philadelphia Remix Challenge with Gigi from Running on Candy. I am still writing my posts about the weekend, but here are some pics that I took around the city.

The last two were taken and altered by my friend Eileen.

Have you ever been to Philadelphia?

Fitness Motivation with The Fitness Games App

**** This post was sponsored by The Fitness Games through my partnership with Fit Approach as a Sweat Pink Ambassador. I was not compensated monetarily, but was provided the Platinum Version of the application for review. As always, all opinions are my own****


It's no secret that I lack motivation to cross train! I have been doing pretty well with PiYo, but even that doesn't get done every day, and I am a few weeks behind!
I am also competitive. I LOVE to win, just ask my kids! The Fitness Games is the perfect app for me.

The app provides you with workouts, and you can upgrade for 99 cents and get even more workouts! Once you do the workout, you can challenge your friends or even strangers from all over the world. You also earn points for your workouts, and you level up. Right now I am a rookie, but just give me some time, and I will level up.

You can enter your own workouts as well. When I do PiYo, for example, I enter the basics. Each segment of the DVD has a title (squats, lunges, stretch ands strength, etc) so I just add the basics of the workout. Once it is entered, you can start the timer and begin the DVD. When you are finished, you can challenge someone to do the same workout.

Totally missed a segment when I entered the workout, but you get the idea! You can also post pictures, workout updates, cheer on your friends through your feed, and finish it off with a nice, sweaty, post workout selfie.

With the upgrade, you can also do your training runs and races. You can set a goal time, and see how many miles you completed when the time is up.

There is also a monthly tracker that shows you how many days a month you have worked out.

I am really enjoying this app, and I cannot wait to try all of the workouts that they provide! They have abs, full body, circuit training, bodyweight, and so much more. Plus, there are workouts for every level!

The app is available for iPhones and on Google Play. 

Did you get the app yet? Look me up, I am BarkingMadRun!

Flat Mama Friday, Rock n Roll Philly edition

This weekend I am doing the Rock n Roll Philly 5k and half marathon. Bonus bling!

5k outfit, Gigi and I will be matching for this race as ambassadors.

Half marathon, cannot wait to race in my special edition Sparkle Skirt! 

Are you racing this weekend?

ROC Race 5k recap

Saturday morning, the hubs and I left a little early to drive to Brooklyn for the ROC Race. Ridiculous Obstacle Challenge!

 The sky was looking a little ominous! We didn't hit any traffic until we got to Flatbush Avenue, but even that moved quickly.

We were directed to a spot pretty quickly, and we started to get out of the car but we were then told to leave that lot and move to the main lot. I was annoyed at first, but we ended up parking three cars in from the event! Score!

Packet pickup was fast and organized, I breezed through and then we went to the car to wait for Gigi and her friends!

Once everyone was assembled we took the obligatory before pictures!

We were quite the motley bunch! We entered the chute for our wave. And then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Our noon wave started just shy of 1:00. 

SO frustrating!

We finally started our wave and ran to he first obstacle, tightrope walk! What fun we had! I will never remember the order of the obstacles, but I will remember the Tarzan Swing for sure! It was one of the first few, and the one where I jammed my middle finger. It swelled right up and still hurts! Ouch!

The Giant Balls were fun! I failed epically but it was still fun! Very few of our group of 14 made it very far and I think only one got to the end! 

There were lots of fun obstacles and we started each obstacle together! Many of us ran from one obstacle to the next, some walked, some did a little of both. It was awesome!

There were slides, a slip and side, walls to climb, balance beams, monkey bars, and the giant ball swing. This was near the ends and the two balls swing like pendulums and you have to try and avoid them. I fell right in, a few of our team made it more than halfway! According to the scantily clad emcee only 5% make it across! Crazy!

The final obstacle was a super high water slide! It was crazy scary fun! While the team made their way through it, I ran to the medical tent for ice. They were super funny guys, and good sports when I showed off my social finger injury!

We all posed for our finisher photo and then ran to the starting area where the foam was.

These photos are by Gigi and random strangers helping us out! 

Running besties!!

My favorite picture!!

Group finisher photo!

Overall it was an amazing time! The volunteers were awesome! There was music on the course and some obstacles had emcees which was fun!

The tube slide was really fun, and one of my favorites!

I cannot wait to see the official photos!

The wait at the start was frustrating, but we did very little waiting at obstacles. Only a few had lines! That was a nice bonus.

I felt rushed at the ball swing, but I doubt I would have done well regardless, so it's no biggie!

I would definitely recommend this race to friends and families!

Other than my silly jammed finger, I have very few bruises. Score!

What is your favorite obstacle race?