Venice Florida St. Patrick's 8K!

I'm on vacation in Venice, FL and I thought it would be FUN to run an 8K while I am down here.  I had come down around the same week last year and had seen the "shark paint" race route markings on the ground and decided that I wanted to try it for myself in '11.

The Venice YMCA St. Patty's Day 8k race is sponsored by the local Venice FL YMCA and it was very well organized.  It was on March 19th 2011, race started at 8:00am, weather was around 60 and sunny...definitely FELT HOT.

Again, another GREAT EXCUSE TO DRESS UP IN NEON GREEN!

I won 1st place in my age group with a time of 36:27, which is a 7:20 pace.  I was 3rd woman overall.  The race was pretty small, but it was larger than the 4K that I had done the previous weekend, but it wasn't a huge race.  Can't find the total number of participants, probably around 300 if I had to guess.

I made a big mistake...the day before the race I ran too much (and in 80 degree weather that was too hot) and my muscles were tired at the start of the race.  I had wanted to do a "recon mission" of the course on Friday, but I really should have just done it on the bike.  I had even tried to go super slowly on Friday and refueled with lots of milk and water, plus stretching throughout the day.  Oh well, lesson learned.

Sharky's on the Pier was the start and finish of the race.

My mom, dad, and our family friend Gary all came to support me, I loved it!  Gary used to do a TON of biking and running, he understands the whole competition thing.  My parents are just amazingly supportive and nice.

Here are some pre-race shots:

stretching!

pre-race yuck feeling

our friend gary came to watch!

gary and my dad

had to take a picture with the skull flag for Tappan of course

The course was a loop course along the intercoastal waterway and back up along a road paralleling the beach...just a sand dune between us and the ocean.  The entire course was BEAUTIFUL.

The end of the race wrapped around a beautiful lake next to the ocean at Maxine Barrett Park.

My mom, dad, and Gary were waiting for me at the finish line and got a great race photo.

After the race, we hung around and waited for the awards ceremony.

my parents at the finish line!

Beautiful ocean!

They had prizes 6 deep in each age catetory and I got a BLUE RIBBON medal for my win.

They had GREEN BEER:

If I'm in Florida again at this time next year, I definitely would like to do it again!

After the race, we went back to Gary and Susan's house and the whole group went for a bike ride.  We stopped at the Jetty in Venice for a photo:

Shamrock Shuffle 4K

I've never run a 4K before, so I thought I'd give it a try.  Why not?

I learned about the Shamrock Shuffle 4K from an e-mail a week or two before the race.  So I signed up, thinking this would be a fun excuse to dress up in my favorite color (NEON GREEN) and get some practice with races since I've really only done two races before.

I also know that any race with the word SHUFFLE in its title is supposed to be relaxed, so I figured it'd be a good race to get some experience with.

This was a small race (not sure how many people were in it.)

Here I am hamming it up before the start of the race:

Here's the start of the race, I look like I'm trying not to fall over!

I finished in 17:25 (which is a 7:00mile).  Shockingly, this was 1st place for women (9th overall including men.)

The race participants then went to Palani Drive (a DELICIOUS wrap place) afterward to get some free breakfast and beer.  There were some great egg wraps and mashed potatoes.

http://www.palanidrive.com/

For winning 1st place women, I received a $15 gift certificate towards a future race sponsored by the group that organized this race.  Hmm...Ok...

Regardless, it was a fun small neighborhood race, I would definitely do it again.

Picasso at the VMFA

I went to the Picasso exhibit at the VMFA last night with some of my friends, it was AMAZing.

I literally live less than one block away from it, it was so easy to just walk on over.

We first met at 6:30 for some drinks at Amuse, which is the super cute restaurant upstairs at the VMFA.  It was not too stuffy, it was not too casual, it was a good balance.  I can't wait to go there during the summer when it's warm so that I can sit out on their floating balcony!

They had a drink list of special "Picasso Inspired" drinks, which a couple of the adventurous girls tried (I'm boring when it comes to trying new drinks fyi.)

We went down to the exhibit at 7:30.  Tickets are $20 but since I'm a member of the VMFA, my ticket was free (great deal.)

I'm NOT a big art person, but I thought the exhibit was out of this world.  It showed the way that his art evolved and it included pieces of his early art, more modern art, photographs, sculptures, and more.   Cameras weren't allowed in the exhibit, so here are some images of some of the pieces of art that we saw:

Celestina (The Woman with One-Eye), 1904

Two Women Running on the Beach (The Race), Summer 1922

Reading, January 2, 1932

The Goat, 1950

Here are my friends and I in the lobby of the VMFA:

The random lady who took our photo was short and she held the camera around her waist (have no idea why...) so we all appear super tall!

After the VMFA and Picasso, we all went over to The Bamboo Cafe for a late dinner:

It was delicious and had a wonderful cozy atmosphere.  It was my first time there but I am certainly going to return in the future!