REALLY soaking up that sea air: Spilling over tea/coffee November 2018

~ Chocolaterunsjudy

 teaoct18

You know how they say how will you know someone has run a marathon? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. At every opportunity. Just like I will probably be telling everyone I ran in a Nor’easter for a long. long time. Don’t want to walk the dogs in a little drizzle? Really?

Glad I took the time to walk down to the ocean before the rain moved in

I’d say that I needed lots of tea to warm up afterwards, except that Running Buddy J and I affectionately referred to our room as the Sauna. Cause it was so damn hot. All the time. Even with windows open — even with windows open in a Nor’easter (see how I snuck that in there?).

We were happy with our sauna/room directly after the race, though!

Confessions of a Mother Runner

Pull up chair and mug with Coco and Deborah and me for the ultimate coffee tea date.

If we were enjoying high tea . . .
I would tell you that my title refers to the fact that I ran a half marathon in a Nor’easter, by the ocean. Not that we could really see a whole lot with the constant rain. Although we did see the waves crashing over the seawall. One person said they even had one break right over them. Thankfully that did not happen to me.

By the time I was finished my outer layer must have weighed five pounds. Which leads me to my next point . . .

Don’t you think the heat blanket should’ve dried up my clothes?

If we were enjoying high tea . . .
I’d tell you that my soaking wet race clothes sat in the bag I stashed them in until Tuesday (for the tights) and Wednesday (for the rest of it).

Well, I did have clothes all over the room in an attempt to dry them out overnight before we left, so they weren’t really soaking wet. But they were still wet.  I definitely needed a little rest from my “vacation” (aka attending classes, yoga, foam rolling, 4 hour drive there and back although I didn’t have to drive, and oh yeah a half) on Monday.

Just a few of my new running BRFs

If we were enjoying high tea . . .
I’d tell you that despite the Nor’easter, this was one of the most fun races I’ve ever run. Why? Because it was a part of the Another Mother Retreat and they arranged for us to get a different color for our bibs. It was an out and back race so we were encouraging each other all throughout the race. Without the special bib color we probably wouldn’t have even recognized each other.

And if that wasn’t good enough, those not running the race came out to cheer us on. In a Nor’easter. In more than one location!

Dude, where’d your running mojo go?

If we were enjoying high tea . . .
I’d tell you when I did finally go out for my run (thankfully before more rain hit), it was fine. And then I picked up Bandit for my cool down. I haven’t “run” him in months.

He seemed reluctant to go — is he getting too old to run (he’s somewhere around 10). Once we started he seemed fine, because if he really doesn’t want to run, he lets you know. He also seemed really happy when we turned around to go back home. I only ran with him half a mile.

If we were enjoying high tea . . .
I’d tell you when I first got home I had no desire to run. I could even see myself taking a week off of running. It’s been about 6 months of training for 3 halfs and an 18 mile race and you can stick a fork in me.

Except . . . not quite yet. There’s a 15k next week (haven’t decided if I want to race it or not but need to run if I plan to!). There’s a couple of 5ks maybe. I have been chasing a 5k PR for years . . . except I rarely do them so it’s unlikely. And of course a Turkey Trot if the weather is decent.

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway here for a copy of “Couch to Active” (read my review here)!

Tea? Iced Tea? Coffee? Decaf? Green smoothie?

How do you dry out clothes from a soaking when you’re not at home?

Are you done racing or still have goal races on the calendar?

What was your most fun race in bad weather conditions?

I am also linking up with the  Fridays with Fairytales and Fitness from Fairytales & Fitness.

bfridayfairy

29 thoughts on “REALLY soaking up that sea air: Spilling over tea/coffee November 2018”

  1. I can honestly say that I didn’t have fun in my bad weather races. I was too cold and wet to enjoy the scenery and hang out after the race.

    The retreat sounds like fun. I was talking to Jan about signing up with her next year since I won’t be going to France.

    I have one more half in a few weeks. It should be interesting because I only ran 5 last weekend and have a 15k and 5k planned. Oops. No long runs?

    And yes. You deserve a break. Relax.

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    1. If I had run the race by myself it would no doubt have been a very different story. And I don’t think Mr. Judy would have enjoyed his sherpa duties much. Then again, he wouldn’t have had to be out there for hours. And the weather was lovely most of the rest of the weekend.

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    1. Maybe if I’d draped the clothes over the radiator, but I was afraid to do that!

      It did, however, do a nice job of melting my chocolate caramel that got a little too close. I ate it anyway, of course. 🙂

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  6. Coffee always
    My clothes drying is the same at home as on the road — although at a hotel I can make use of the table/desk to lay flat vs hanging them in the shower
    My mom thought she was going to need to stay with me one night this week and I made special care not to have (too many) running clothes hanging from the shower rod.

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    1. Since I was sharing a room, we only had so much space to put out all our wet clothes. 🙂

      I never do think to hang my wet clothes (with the exception of swimsuits) on the shower rod, but we have a lot of hooks in the bathroom, too.

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  7. Glad to hear that you made the most of the race despite the conditions. I think the one race I remember having fun but it rained the whole time was the Atlantic City 11k a few years ago. I have one race I am signed up for on Thanksgiving and hope to to a Christmas race as well.

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  8. Wow on running in a Nor’easter. Have waves crash over you (not YOU, but the other runner) sounds pretty dangerous! I’ve had fun running in the rain, but I don’t think I’ve ever raced in really heavy rain. So glad you had fun. I wanted to do the AMR retreat but I had a work thing … that got canceled. Maybe next year.

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    1. That’s too bad you were’t able to do it this year! My friend can’t wait for next year. My life is just a little up in the air at the moment, so I can’t commit.

      However, it sells out REALLY quickly, so if yu want to do it, you have to sign up right away. Like the first or second day.

      It would’ve been so much fun to meet you!

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  9. I have done the same as you did with the wet clothes – I figure they are going in the wash soon anyway!

    I wasn’t planning to be done with races for the year, but….I think I will still manage at least one, but with the knee still recovering I won’t be trying to run fast.

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    1. This is my favorite time of year to race, but mostly just the shorter races. I won’t lie, my body is a bit tired right now, and Thanksgiving (I host) tends to make me a bit crazy.

      I probably should take a racing hiatus . . . oh well.

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  10. I have gotten creative with my wet running clothes…draped over the headboards and backs of chairs (while in hotels). When we were in Philly, my sweaty stuff was laid out over the back seat/head rests of our rental car LOL…we had a 2-hour drive to the airport, and every little bit of “air time” was utilized.

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  11. so you had a bit of bad weather I guess? Hahahahaha!

    is it possible to have run in shitty weather? I don’t know. I can’t recall any of the really bad weather races being “fun”. I was just a spectator in Boston and I was soaked and frozen to the bone. I can’t imagine what that was like for the runners. During the Ragnar Relay this summer the weather was also horrible, but we laughed a lot about it … afterwards 😀

    wet clothes are always tricky when travelling. and I sweat like a pig in hell so no matter what my clothes are rank.

    I’m going to Las Vegas for the 5k and Half (but not racing, for sure, just doing it for fun) and I have a 15K in December. For the rest I don’t know. I’m kind of winging it right now!

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  13. You have upped the ante with running a half in a Nor’easter which totally puts you in the badass runners camp! Congrats! I love that the “mother runners” had a special bib color so you could identify each other. That’s genius!

    My marathon PR is from a race where it poured buckets from start to finish, so I guess that even though I was drenched, I was having a great time since I was feeling so good with my pace, etc. Also, Ragnar Trail Appalachians in WV was a very fun experience even though much of our later runs were in ankle to shin deep mud and took us twice as long to run as projected.

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    1. The special bib color was definitely genius & really a game changer!

      Well, it definitely wasn’t a PR though. Some day the stars will align again to give me some better weather for a half! Weather-wise it was a tough racing year this year.

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  14. At home, there is usually at least one very sweaty sports bra draped over the end of the bath (we have a separate shower cubicle so don’t really use the bath much). Sometimes I can pop it on the top of the dirty clothes in the basket and put it straight on to wash, but that doesn’t always happen. You did so well in that race: brag away!

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