Running... beaches, Florida and TSA!

I went to see my BFF + College Roomie in West Palm Beach this past weekend and wouldn't ya know it, it was grey skies and gloomy weather the WHOLE time. Literally, it actually poured down rain on my last 2 days. Bummer, but we made the best of it and relieved some of our fun college days:

tower of beer

Soul Bowl

I didn't get a lot of beach time (read: any) but I did get to check out West Palm and Sunny Isles beaches. Both of which were gorgeous. I also didn't get to run on either of these guys, my work outs were limited to the gym in Sarah & John's condo. I'm still feeling the one I had on Saturday morning though, so it must have been good, right? "Pain is weakness leaving the body." 

Now, I am a beach girl, at heart. Swansboro, NC to be exact on where I left my heart. It's been my "home" since I was 15 and I get a serious lead foot when I see signs for the town. Almost home. Something about that place is just so perfect and Southern lovely, that I have an obsession. Doesn't hurt that one of my best friends lives there. The beach is my fun place, my getaway place, my rest & relaxation place, my 100%, absolute FAVORITE place on earth. There are some others that I love too: Wrightsville Beach in Wilmington, Folly Beach in Charleston, the beach on Coronado Island in San Diego, OBX... the list goes on. And soon to be added to it is Jekyll Island, Georgia when we go for a week later this month (holy cow, it's MAY!). I love, love, LOVE beaches and I love finding races when we travel so that we can explore the beaches and get a real feel for them. We did the Battleship 5k in Wilmington, the Mullet Run in Swansboro, and we're doing the Turtle Crawl 5k in Jekyll on May 19th (5th Race of the year!) 

As for TSA... they are my least favorite part of traveling. I think this is why I love road trips so much. Packing, unpacking, rushing through airports that are overcrowded and understaffed... not fun. So the TSA lady in WPB was awful as I was trying to get to my departing flight. My 1.5 ounce bottle of shampoo had fallen out of my zip lock baggie and was in my carry on... along with my dry (not liquid) spray sunscreen. I had an inkling of a feeling that she wouldn't let me take that through, but I figured I should try anyway. She started yelling at me about taking shampoo in my bag, obviously it fell out, which I politely explained. Then she told me I couldn't take the sunscreen and she promptly tossed both in the trash. I asked her for the shampoo back - which I didn't really need but she was just so rude! She asked if I really wanted her to dig around in the trash... "yes." 

Best part, I had 2 razors in my make-up bag, but clearly, sunscreen is much more dangerous. Heaven forbid I protect someone from the sun instead of using a razor on them. I'd much rather be sprayed with sunscreen than cut up on a plane. Makes no sense, but I made it through the security check point and back to NC safe & sound. 

Running... Cooper River Bridge.

We finished! Yay... what a RELIEF to cross that finish line. And then go an extra .2 to find water. My official time was 1:03:14, and although I'm usually one that hates excuses, let me explain why...

We woke up at 5 A.M. Pumped! I was running the race that 44k other people also wanted to run. I was running with one of my very best friends. And my boyfriend, who loathed running when we started dating, was going to run his very first 10k with me. I was stoked to get out there, get it over with and have a Blue Moon in my hand by 9:30 A.M. (It's legit if you've run a race and are drinking at that time, otherwise, you may want to review your priorities).

The bridge is closed down to allow the buses to transport runners to the start line. We get there at 6 AM to stand in a 2 mile long line. We figure this is the norm with 44k people running the race and waiting their turn to be taken over. So we wait... and wait... and wait some more.

It really wasn't bad waiting, we were with good company. However, we started questioning how they were going to stop running the buses at 7 A.M. if all of these people were still waiting? Surely they couldn't NOT take us over to the start line... could they? So we continued waiting... finally finding a bathroom (which of course also had a line!) I went, and came out only to find that our position in the never-ending line hadn't progressed much. Disappointing. And it was 7:08 at that time. One of the race coordinators made an announcement that the buses got lost?! We're not sure if that's really what happened but if so, all of those drivers should be fired! How do you get lost doing the same thing 20 times? Don't you do this EVERY year? Hasn't the race been a success in the past?

Finally, shortly after 8 A.M. we were loaded onto a school bus and taken (most of the way) to the start line. It was at least a 15 minute bus ride, if not more, and then they dropped us off more than a mile from the start line. So before I even started the race, I had walked 2 miles to stand in line and walk back to the front and then another mile to get the the corral I was  starting in. I was supposed to be in "D" but as we were passing "K" they mentioned the race was starting in 2 minutes, so we hurried up and ran to "G" and hopped in. Here we GO!

Nope. That was corral A that was getting to go.... at 8:56 A.M. Almost an hour delayed. For those of us corralled in "G" ... we started at 9:21 A.M. At this point, I had been up for almost 4.5 hours, had a banana and 1/3 of a Cliff bar and my GU gel. My water had been finished while standing in the longest line ever. My mouth was dry and all that excitement I had at 5 A.M.... also gone. I literally did not want to run the race. And it showed... my friend Liz caught up with me at mile 2 and asked if I was okay? Nope. Struggling. Need water. And not the hot water that was offered at water station 1 before mile 2... then I found out, the next water station was beyond mile 4. I was kicking myself for not enjoying the bathwater they offered at the first station.

We finished. And my sweet, amazing boyfriend finished in 1:10 which is INCREDIBLE for someone who had never run more than 4.3 miles before, someone who is not a "runner" by definition and someone who would have rather been sitting on the porch of the condo having his morning coffee than weaving through 44k people on a bridge with an average incline of 4, which covered mile markers 2, 3 & 4. I am SO proud. We felt fine after the race, although there was not a Blue Moon waiting on me. Disappointing. There must have been lots of complaints about the race, they have issued an official apology.

It's definitely not something I will do again. Once was enough and now it can be taken off the bucket list. I just signed up for my 4th race of the year, the Elizabeth 8k in Charlotte, NC. First official 8k I will be running, just hopeful for a better experience than the Cooper River Bridge Run.