Sea Girt 5K Recap

As some of you know, I am currently on vacation at the Jersey Shore (no jokes please!). During my time here, Snookie has been arrested and Seaside Heights Beach was shut down due to a Blue Shark swimming up to the shore. Also, while I've been here I've had a chance to visit with family and attend the annual Fireman's Fair in Manasquan, NJ. I went to this on the last night which just happened to be the night before the Sea Girt 5K. Which, of course, I had decided from the comfort of my apartment in Georgia would be a great idea to run. After a night of tequila and Coors Light.... not so much.

But, I'm a trooper. Plus, it was my dad's birthday and we were running it together so at 7 am I dragged my hungover (possibly still drunk) ass out of bed and headed to the 7 eleven for a banana and some water. Then I drove to my dad's place where we hopped on bikes and rode over to the start line (roughly 2 miles away from his apartment). It was a gorgeous day out and I felt great in my UGA outfit. Weirdly enough, UGA became the number one party school shortly after my race. Hmmmm, clearly I learned a thing or two while I was there. Anyway, the race was VERY well organized with tents that had prerace food and drinks, businesses represented at tables stationed around the start/finish line, plenty of portapotties, a band and tons of activities for the kiddies. The 5K started at 8:30 am so my dad

and I wandered for a while and picked up our t-shirts. Then we got ready to start, before we even crossed the start line I ditched my dad (he said to!).

The course was FLAT. By far the flattest course I have ever run. It was hot out but no humidity so it felt incredible to be out there running. The heat got to a lot of runners but being from Atlanta, the day felt like a perfect run day. I'm telling you I would run so much more if I lived back in my hometown again. I felt alright running b

ut that was because I went out SLOW due to my condition. My iPod died after one song so I pretty much ran the race "naked"- no watch, water or iPod. The borough had opened up various fire hydrants so there was lots of spray. Two water stations at mile 1 and mile 2.5. The course was beautiful, winding through neighborhoods, past the army base and up to the beach. All the families living in the area were out cheering in full force.

There weren't any mile markers so I just kept running and praying it would be over soon. At around mile 2.5 or so, there was a clock telling you what your time was. Other than that, it just felt like a nice morning run. I sprinted all out for the last hundred. And literally crossed the finish line and almost threw up ALL OVER SOME POO

R LITTLE 10 year old IN FRONT OF ME. I mean, if anyone looked at me, they saw me struggling to swallow my throw up. Imagine, not only is that kid sweaty but now he's covered in puke. Puke consisting of tequila, Coors Light and funnel cake. However, my time was not that bad considering I was feeling so poorly!

Out of 1733 finishers, I finished 860th overall. Of the 875 women racing, I placed 290th. In the age division of 20-29, I placed 57th of 127 runners. The average time for women in this age group was 31:31 so I beat that by almost two minutes!

Finishing time: 29:32.28

My dad and I post-race