The first prep race for China

The Great Wall Marathon may be over a year away, but the preparation has already started.  When I announced my plans to run it, my friend Stacy asked if I'd like to run a half marathon with her in Chesapeake, Virginia - the Dismal Swamp Stomp - which took place this past weekend.

Stacy is kind of not human.  She's done 6 marathons, a few half Ironmans, maybe even a full Ironman (I can't remember), and she gave birth to her second child a mere three months ago.  Half marathon 3 months postpartum?  No problem.  If you're Stacy, that is.  If that were me, I'd still be trying to cross the finish line.

This small, flat race was scheduled for a Saturday morning.  That meant fighting traffic leaving DC on a Friday after work, which is never, ever, ever even remotely enjoyable.  Chris and I left just after 5pm.  Thanks to a horrific truck accident hours earlier, we averaged a whopping 35 mph the entire trip.  6 hours after we left DC, we arrived at the hotel that I Hotwire-ninja'd a few weeks back.

I hate driving.  The only thing I hate more than driving is driving in DC.  And this is why.

After not enough hours of sleep, it was race time.  The weather simply couldn't have been more perfect - sunny, low humidity, and temperatures in the low 60s.  I was hydrated and had downed plenty of coffee, but I was still feeling the 6 hour car ride and the lack of sleep.  As we took off, Chris was napping happily in the car.  I was a tad jealous.

The course was an out-and-back that followed a canal trail through the Great Dismal Swamp.  The name sounds like something that will suck the life out of you, but the course was beautiful.  And flat.  Gloriously flat.

I actually thought I had a shot at finishing in under 2 hours.  Then I hit mile 11.  Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Mile 11 was my come-to-Jesus mile.  Why am I doing this?  I should just walk.  Why the hell did I drive 6 hours is infuriating traffic to do this to myself?  Is that bird mocking me?  What am I doing with my life?  Why am I running on a perfectly beautiful Saturday morning?  I should be getting ready to go sit on my ass and drink mimosas and then take a nap.  WHY DO I HATE FUN?

And then just past the 12.5 mile marker, I started to hear people cheering.  Racers that had already finished had ventured back down the course to cheer us on.  Spectators at the finish line were yelling.  

I picked up my pace a little bit.  I got to the finish where the crowds were, including Chris waiting with his iPhone to take a picture.  I tried to not look wiped the hell out.  When I saw the picture later, I just looked kind of constipated.  I can live with that.

Stacy finished a few minutes later, beating her goal time by about 2 minutes.  She rocks.

Stacy's family came over, and we made our way over to the post-race area, where we found runner refreshments of pizza and beer.

Pizza and beer!  At 10am!  This is why I do this.  This is why we drove 6 hours in traffic.  Screw you, waterfowl, I have beer.  This is why I ran 13.1 miles on a beautiful Saturday morning.  THIS IS FUN.

Even better, Stacy gave me her beer tickets since she's nursing a 3 month old.  More beer for Chris and me.  I read once that beer is a good recovery drink.  I don't care if it is or not.  I'm rolling with it, and please don't tell me otherwise.

It was absolutely perfect outside at this point.  Sunny, breezy, perfect temperature, band playing, good friends, and pizza and beer at 10am in a beautiful state park in southern Virginia.  And I beat my old half marathon time by 9.5 minutes (!).

The next morning, Stacy's 3 year-old son was at the hotel breakfast table wearing a Superman outfit.  As you do.  I almost asked him where he got it, but I realized I knew the answer.  He gets it from his mama. Stacy is definitely Superwoman - with super ideas like traveling to run flat half marathons in the glorious springtime weather.  I'm beyond happy that she invited me to join in the fun (traffic and mile 11 be damned) and happy that we both had great races because of it. Now I just have to run twice that distance on the Great Wall of China.  GAH.

How to win at the Hotwire game

Hotwire is a great place to find stellar deals on flights, rental cars, and hotels.  You know, as long as you don't mind being kept in the dark about where you're staying, who you're flying with, or whose car you're driving.

But you don't have to stay entirely in the dark in order to save some moolah, at least when it comes to booking a hotel through Hotwire.  There are ways to figure out with some relative certainty what hotel you're booking before you seal the deal.  I've won at this game twice now. That makes me an expert on hacking Hotwire hotels, right?

Actually, please don't answer that.  I'd like to stay in my little warped bubble in which I am a travel hacking goddess.

But if you do find yourself hunting for a hotel on Hotwire and are hoping for a specific hotel, here's what I've done to ensure that I got the exact place I wanted.  I'll let you decide whether this is expert advice or whether I'm just lucky:

1.  Pull up the location of your choice hotel on Google Maps or equivalent.  If you use Mapquest, don't tell me because I'll make fun of you.

2.  Find the same location on the Hotwire map after searching for the locality that you want.  Various areas with Hotwire deals will be shown in green on the map.  Compare this with Google Maps, and click on the green area on the Hotwire map that covers the location of the hotel you ultimately want. Hotwire will then only list hotels in that specific area.

3.  Look up your chosen hotel's actual website and check the amenities that they offer - free wifi, a pool, free breakfast, pet friendly, etc.  Keep this open and handy.

4. Now, look up said hotel on Hotels.com, Kayak.com, or similar website.  Look at the star classification and the user ratings.  Note that Hotels.com will give classifications by the half-star, but Kayak.com only gives classifications by full-star.  So a 3.5 star hotel may show up in Kayak as either 3 or 4 stars.

4.  Go back to the Hotwire page.  The Hotwire hotels will list all the things that you looked up in #3 and #4.  The "approval rating" may be represented differently on Hotwire than on sites such as Google and Trip Advisor, but if the approval rating is at, say 95% on a hotel on Hotwire and the customer rating score on Hotels.com is 4.5/5 for your preferred place, then I'd say you're on to something. If the star ratings match up fairly well and the amenities are the same, then you're definitely hot on the trail.  If there's only one hotel in the cluster on the Hotwire map that seems to match everything you looked up on your chosen hotel, then chances are you have pinged your hotel.

5.  Book it and see if you were right!  Of course, if you were wrong, don't blame me.  I've only done this twice.  But if you are right, feel free to pat yourself on the back and buy me a drink sometime.

Good luck, and happy Hotwire-ing.