Good morning, my friends! I hope you all had fun and active weekends. I spent mine in Richmond with my friend Ashley!
Those of you who have been reading for awhile will remember Ashley as my original running buddy – we trained for my first 10 miler, my first half marathon, and lots of shorter races together, too. She’s down in Richmond for grad school and I miss her so!
We started talking awhile ago about planning a Richmond weekend and decided it would be fun to plan the weekend around a race! Ashley recommended the XTERRA trail race series and I was fully on board. We convinced our friend Sokphal to join for the race, too, although she wasn’t able to stay for the whole weekend!
Ashley (on the right) is rocking one of my fANNEtastic t-shirts! 🙂
The race was on Saturday morning – it had been a rainy few days leading up to it and there was a slight drizzle going when we arrived at the race starting area. Not exactly ideal conditions, but we were up for an adventure.
It was a small race, so checking in to get our bibs and hitting the porta-potties was no problem and we were ready to go with plenty of time to spare.
The race had a 10k and half marathon option – we all went for the 10k. At 8:30, we were off!
The race had apparently been rerouted some due to the rain (the more wooded trails would have been too dangerous/muddy), but it was still a cool course and it was well organized – lots of volunteers directing us and water stops, too. Plus, lots of bridges, water, and pretty trails!
Up we go!
One of my favorite parts was this steep climb in a pretty wooded area. It was a little backed up so everyone was walking up it, but we weren’t in a hurry. 🙂 Those steps were STEEP!
When we started the race, the skies were gray but it wasn’t raining, but about 20 minutes into the race the skies opened up and it began POURING.
Within seconds, we were all soaked and having a blast. Running in the rain is one of those things that I don’t do nearly often enough – it’s so fun! Made us feel like kids again. 🙂
Unfortunately I had to put my camera away so it didn’t get soaked and ruined (thankfully I had my trusty waterproof SPIbelt with me to put it in!), but we had SUCH a blast jumping in the puddles, running through the pretty trails, and just enjoying being out and about. A BIG thank you to all the volunteers who were out on the course – while running in the pouring rain is really fun, standing around in it watching other people run is probably not as fun. So thank you – we really appreciated you! 🙂
Near the end of the course we went over a really cool suspension bridge, so I snuck my camera back out for some pictures.
In the picture below you can see the rain pouring off the sides of the bridge!
The three of us finished together, soaked, muddy, and triumphant, in about 58 minutes. What a fun race. 🙂
Instead of a meal, they were giving out these dog tags! Cool.
Thanks for the fun morning, XTERRA!
After getting cleaned up and leaving our clothes and shoes hung up to dry off, the three of us headed to brunch. Thank you to those of you that gave recommendations via Twitter and Facebook! We decided on Millie’s Diner.
We knew from the reviews online that there would probably be a wait, but it wasn’t so bad – maybe 20 minutes. The restaurant was really loud and the service wasn’t great, but the food was as delicious as everyone said it would be!
After much debate, I went for the “veggie mess” – basically eggs, lots of veggies, white cheddar cheese, and some spices all scrambled together and topped with avocado. I had them add some crab to mine, too – love eggs and crab together! It came with some awesome potatoes on the side. Yum.
Other highlights of the weekend included a Friday night yoga class at Project Yoga Richmond:
A delicious dinner of chicken pho and some bubble tea at Pho So 1:
Exploring Maymont Park on Saturday afternoon (it turned into a beautiful day by the afternoon!):
Delicious sushi at Akida Japanese and a movie (we saw “The Internship” – silly but fun) on Saturday night:
And one more delicious brunch on Sunday morning before hitting the road back to DC. We hit up Kuba Kuba and loved it – great Cuban coffee, great friendly service, and really delicious food – I had a fun variation on huevos rancheros. Yum, yum!
I’d never really been to Richmond before and I have to say, it was super cute! Lots of nice neighborhoods and all sorts of great local restaurants. I’m excited to visit it again in November when I’m back for my first full marathon!
What did you guys get into this weekend? Any fun races or good food?
Have you ever run a race in the rain?
