1. Name: Heidi
2.Tell us about your race experience: I am fairly new to the running community. 2 years ago some friends asked me to join a relay team and I thought running 5 miles was far. Fast forward to today and I have 5 half marathons and a full marathon under my belt!
3. What race did you run? I ran the inaugural Nike Women’s Half Marathon in Washington DC.
4. Why did you sign up for this race? I was asked to sign up for this race with a group of girlfriends. It was my first out of town race. All of my other races have been local, so it was exciting to travel and stay in a hotel for a race. It is a different experiences having to navigate a strange city the morning of a race.
5. What/who inspires you to run? I love to run for the experience and the running community. I love smiling at other runners and the encouragement and bonding experience from running with a group or in a race. I also love to set goals and stive for them.
6. What is your best training tip? Make sure you take rest days. Your body needs to rest and needs to recover so it is important to listen to your body and rest if it is telling you to rest.
7. Water or Sports Drink? Water for sure. Sports Drinks during a marathon make my mouth feel dry. I do make sure to drink at least one Sports Drink the day before a race and after the race though.
8. Tell us about the outcome of the race: I did not like the corral set up of this race. I am a very average runner and can do a half in about 2:20 but I do not walk unless it is at a water stop. This race however had a huge corral range that was all runners between 10 min-12 min pace. That is a HUGE difference. There were people walking right off the bat and I just could not get moving. I felt awesome and I did PR, but I was disappointed my time did not better reflect how great I felt and how much I pushed myself. The crowd until the 5k mark really slowed me down. My pace at the 5k mark was 11:27 and by the 10k I was up to 10:09 and held that til the end.
9. Your favorite post-race indulgence? Wine 🙂
10. Favorite part of racing in a Sparkle Skirt? The race I ran was a Women’s centered race and was meant to empower women. I felt like the perfect female racer in my hot pink sparkle skirt. I got tons of compliments and felt sassy!
The Traveling Sparkle Skirts are a pair of Sparkle Athletic Running Skirts (one Hot Pink & one Turquoise) that travel the globe spreading the Sparkle Athletic love. Read more stories of the Traveling Sparkle Skirts HERE.