Run Like A Diva Race Recap

This past weekend, a couple thousand women (and a few men) embraced their inner Diva for the Run Like A Diva half marathon and 5k races.  I was one of them.

The Hubs, our friend Hurricane Baby and I headed down to Galveston on Saturday late am.  We stopped on the way there at Salata so that I could fuel up with a healthy salad.  We arrived in Galveston, made our way to the house we rented and unloaded the luggage.  From there I went to the expo to pick up my race packet and check out the vendors.

[caption id="attachment_591" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Island Time![/caption]

We had lived in Galveston for a few years, and were excited to see and catch up with our friends that still lived on the island.  For me, that was going to have to wait until after the race.  However, the boys were anxious to meet up with friends and to party, so I offered to drop them off at one of our old haunts while I ran a couple errands and grabbed dinner.

I had a nice early dinner at Riondo's Restaurante on the Strand of Eggplant Parmesan, headed to pick up the boys then it was back to the house to finish getting my things ready for the race the next day and an early bedtime.

[caption id="attachment_595" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flat Vicki[/caption]

3:45 am came really early... I woke up at midnight with an awful headache and couldn't go back to sleep until 3:00 am.  I managed to only hit snooze once and started to go through my morning routine.  Drank my glass of Naturally Calm to get things moving a bit... ate my pre-race breakfast of toast with almond butter and a banana and enjoyed a almond milk-matcha-maca latte.  I taped up my bunions, got dressed and headed out the door a little later than I intended and headed downtown to the start.

I dropped my bag at gear check (I had never checked a bag at the race before... it was very organized and hassle free).  I hit the porta-potty lines which were OMG so long and visited with some of the women in line.  I then headed for the starting line to soak in the atmosphere and get ready to run! I was in wave 2, which was determined by the anticipated finish time we declared when we registered. Once the Star Spangled Banner was sung, wave 1 went off and shortly after it was my time to go.

The race started out downtown, then took a side jaunt through a nice neighborhood with very nice old houses. After that, it was to the seawall for a run along the beach. The water in Galveston is murky... but it is still beautiful.  I had to stop and take a picture of the sun coming up behind the Pleasure Pier.

[caption id="attachment_598" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Nice morning view[/caption]

The weather for the race was absolutely beautiful.  It started out right around 70... and I was a bit chilled, but as the sun came out it did start heating ... and the humidity was inching up too.  We ran along the seawall then turned off to run along some beach front neighborhoods... again, the scenery was very  nice.  The wind really started blowing harder as were were on the east side of the island.

I was feeling really great throughout the race.  My feet were bothering me a little, I think I used a little too much pressure when I taped them, but I managed to ignore the discomfort for the most part.  Once we got back to the seawall headed the other way, we were on our way to the finish!  We turned and went through the Silk Stocking district on our way back downtown to the finish.  Right before the turn to the finish, I found the Hubs and Hurricane Baby holding up their signed and cheering me on... that gave me a lift and I was able to sprint it out to the finish.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of them holding their signs, but sadly I did not.

[caption id="attachment_601" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Me, the Hubs and Hurricane Baby[/caption]

I made it to the the boa and tiara station before the finish, added them to my ensemble and kept up my sprint to the finish.  I was happy to be done and I felt I had a pretty strong race. I didn't even pay attention to what the clock time was or the time on my watch when I finished. I went through, grabbed some water, champagne and headed to get my finisher medal from one of the shirtless hunks.



I met up with the hubs, and Hurricane Baby and we headed to pick up my bag. I plopped down at the first available moment and took off my running shoes and changed into my OOFOS flip flops... boy did those feel good! and started drinking my recover drink.  We headed on to the car to go back to the house, I realized that I didn't have my phone with me. We quickly turned back around and thankfully, my phone had been turned in to the event staff... whew!

I continued with my post race routine at the house... foam rolling, some gentle stretches and a nice epsom salt bath.  It was time to go meet some friends and hang out for a while until the restaurant opened where I wanted to eat my reward meal! Lunchtime finally arrived and we got to Salsa's Mexican Restaurant on the Seawall where I had a margarita and some vegetable enchiladas.

[caption id="attachment_596" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Veggie enchiladas at Salsas[/caption]

I had a really good race... and I did pretty good against my goals for the race:

1. Be confident - achieved


2. Start out slow - achieved... first timed split showed a 10:38 pace, final showed 10:31 pace


3. Time goals ...  C goal - 2:21; B goal - 2:19, A goal - 2:17 - achieved my B goal with a time of 2:18, a little bummed at missing A goal by only a minute


4. Have fun - achieved


5. Execute on fueling and hydration strategy used during training runs - achieved

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I'm linking up with Nicole, Annmarie, Angelena Marie, and Michelle for Wild Workout Wednesday.