First of all, thank you thank you thank you for all the support you all showed regarding the Fitfluential Ambassador application! It really means the world to me! Thank you!

But today is all about my weekend at the Virginia Wine Country Half Marathon. Team Challenge training finally reached it’s peak and it was go big or go home time.

I wasn’t really sure how to approach the recap, as it’s really hard to put into words the emotion and effort that goes into race weekend.

So since I am always honest on the blog, I thought I’d give you my own personal coach’s perspective. A completely honest and raw recap.

Despite it being my first time as a Team Challenge coach, I was 100% confident when the Vegas race came around this past December. I was healthy and confident in my training. But this time was completely different.

First of all, I was terrified of how my IT band was going to hold up. Second of all, I was terrified because I hadn’t been training because of my IT band injury. Could I even run this race and keep up with the participants? Thirdly, I had come down with a horrible sore throat/head cold the Wednesday before we left. This left me totally questioning my coaching abilities as we drove to Virginia Thursday morning.

I’d like to say that as soon as we got to the hotel and started running into our teammates that my self doubt quickly disappeared. I had my game face on, but my head was constantly questioning my coaching. I remember looking around at the coach’s meeting Friday morning and seeing one of the coaches with a Boston Marathon jacket on. I doubted myself even more and almost cried. I kept thinking that I didn’t have any business being a coach.

I even ended up at the CVS minute clinic Friday afternoon due to my sickness. Talk about bad timing.

But I didn’t have any time for self pity. This weekend was not about me. It was about these amazing people who donated their time and efforts into training for a half marathon (with some of them never even running a 5k!) in order to raise money to help cure crohn’s and colitis. It was time to man up and get the party started. Half of the job is making sure the participants have a good time and that race weekend is an “experience”. Luckily, I genuinely care about every single one of them so they made this part of my job pretty easy.

Besides the actual race, my most favorite part of the weekend is the inspirational pasta party the night before the race. I get to be silly and cheer on participants as they enter for the party.

I’m really good at this part of the job. It’s easy bein’ cheesy.

Plus, we got to hear about the amazing fundraising that took place (2.3 million dollars this season – hollaaaar!), with the top 3rd fundraiser actually coming from our team! It’s quite the experience and a great way to get the participants (and coach’s!) revved up for race day.

I left the pasta party feeling energized. When the coach’s were recognized as a whole, our team gave J and I a standing ovation. I can’t even put into words the emotion I felt at that moment. It really put everything into perspective. I was going to do this. And I was going to be good at it. Period.

I went to bed that night nervous, excited, worried, and almost sick to my stomach. But having this guy…..

(bahahaha!!!)

……at my side (and a little help from some Nyquil!), helped calm me down and I slept like a baby. Things were looking up.

Big race day post coming tomorrow!!

Do you ever doubt yourself? If so, do you fake it til you make it like I do??

Hey guys!! I’ve missed you!!! It feels like I’ve been gone forever!

I feel like I’m so behind in blogs (350+ in my google reader!), Twitter, and Facebook. Has anything exciting been happening??

My weekend was a life-changing experience.

I never knew how rewarding coaching could be. What a weekend. In order to avoid boring you to death with a super long post I figured I’d break it up a bit.

Friday was great. After checking in and sight seeing (i.e. shopping!), the night started with dinner at a mexican restaurant in Mandalay Bay. I’ve never been a fan of guacamole, but the gauc this place had was amazing. I think it changed my opinion guacamole forever! Add that to the 2 pomegranate margaritas I had, and I was one happy girl when we left the restaurant.

Nikki and I thought there was no way we’d be able to stay up and have some drinks, but we were troopers and ended up having a great time!

Which led to this on Saturday morning:

Hehe.

But I still managed to get up for our 7:00 Team Challenge easy run. Every chapter from across the country met Saturday morning for an easy 2 mile (or less) run or walk to just get our legs moving. I couldn’t miss it. And then after the run I had to be at a Coach/Staff meeting at 9:00 for an hour or so. I had a busy morning because then my Team was meeting at 11:00 to head over to the expo together!

One of the highlights of my weekend happened when we were walking out to the shuttle to take us to the expo. There was another bus when we walked out of the hotel and WuTang was standing right there!!!! My sis noticed them first (and we knew they had been performing at the hotel) so I couldn’t let the opportunity pass without asking for a picture.

Ummmmm…….hello, Method Man!!!! OMG, how freakin cool. The guy taking our picture loved my peace sign and then Method Man and I fist bumped (and exploded!!) before I had to get on the shuttle to go to the expo. So random, and so totally fun!

The expo was good, but just so crowded. They did provide some fun photo opportunities, though:

We didn’t stay at the expo too long, though. It was seriously insanely crowded. I felt like there was so much more to see and do but the crowds were just overwhelming.

Saturday night was the Team Challenge pasta party, which was so inspirational. I won’t go into all the details, but what an event! It was so well organized and with almost 1,800 people there was hardly a wait for the buffet lines or any confusion as to which table you were sitting at. It was quite impressive.

Typical Heather style:

Before we left, my sis, Nikki, and I had to stop and get a picture with Ali and Roberto from the Bachelorette:

My excitement from meeting Method Man equaled my sister’s excitement from meeting Ali and Roberto! She’s a total Bachelorette junky! Ali’s sister and brother both suffer from colitis so this event is near and dear to her.

Being celebrity stalkers really takes a lot out of you. We were glad to get back to our room that night.

We set out our gear:

And crashed:

Sunday was about to be one of the longest days of my life. I had no idea.

Would you have gone up and asked for a picture with a celebrity like I did? Or just have taken the picture from afar??