Ah, race photos. We love them, we hate them. We pray that we will get at least one good one where our faces aren’t contorted and we don’t look like we are one step from death. A great race photo is in fact a rare thing. I have run many, many races in just a few shot years and only have a small handful of race photos I actually like. Below is my all time favorite, taken at the runDisney Princess half marathon in 2012. I’m smiling, and my body isn’t in a weird position. To be fair, I didn’t “race” this race which is why I look all fresh and happy….but still, it counts, and remains my all-time favorite.
I wanted to share some of my favorites with you, but first I thought it would be fun to share some not so great ones. To be honest, these aren’t terrible because well…I don’t keep the crappy ones, but the reasons why I dislike a lot of these has to do with the race itself and the memories the photo brings back. So I will share some of my least favorite that I still have, then some of my favorites (and why). here we go!
Least favorites:
Run for Life half marathon October 2010. This was my 3rd half marathon, and it was in early October in Mississippi = HOT. It didn’t start until 9:00, so temps were already in the 80’s and sunny, with no shade. I was determined to PR, even though it was the first half I had run by myself and I was a bit nervous. I almost got hit by a car that didn’t stop when the police officer said to, and I was BORED to tears by this course. I thought I would die of a heat stroke, and it was my first experience with a big mental battle during a race. I still remember fighting back and forth in my mind about stopping and walking. I won the mental battle, and was rewarded with a 3 minute PR. But I hated that race if you can’t tell by the look on my face.
Gulf Coast Half Marathon 2011, Mandeville, LA. I ran with TNT and got a 4 minute PR. This race was fun but I was stupid and forgot to wear sunglasses. We ran the length of the lakefront directly into the sun and it blinded me, as you can see. I look a little goofy….
Women’s Half Marathon December 2012, Baton Rouge, LA. Ah, the heartbreaker. I was primed to PR, but it was when I was struggling with calf cramps. This was one of those races where I just didn’t “feel it” from the very beginning and knew it would be a long race. I missed my PR by less than a minute if I remember correctly, and was pretty unhappy as I crossed the finish line. Isn’t THAT a pretty face.
August 2011, Rock n Roll Providence Half Marathon. Oy. This was the inaugural race, and I was VERY out of shape. I worked the runnngskirts.com booth and was exhausted with tired legs, not to mention since it was August I was NOT in half marathon shape. Of course I had to run anyway even though I knew my time would suck on this hilly course. To make matters worse, I was going to barely make my plane, and the race STARTED LATE and then it monsooned, MONSOONED rain the ENTIRE 13.1 miles. It was so, so miserable. I was soaked to the bone for days it seemed. I just wanted this race to be over! You can tell in the puddles in the photo that it was raining and well, my shirt isn’t supposed to be that color. My skirt almost started to slide down it was so heavy with water!
Now that THAT ugly part is over, here are some of my favorites:
Princess marathon weekend Tangled 5k, 2011. Ran with some fellow bloggers and had SO much fun, which I think is pretty obvious.
This picture is from the Women’s half I spoke of earlier, but threw this one in because it’s actually a decent picture.
Ah, my first marathon, 2011 Disney marathon. We took it slow and had a blast.
Princess half marathon 2013. Love this because 1.) Running in a costume is awesome 2.) It was a SUPER fun race 3.) Where my current PR stands. I am waving like a princess running down main street. It was SO humid that morning, I was already drenched at this point.
Disney marathon 2013. Another fun race, the second leg of Goofy’s challenge, running through Animal Kingdom. I knew I was going to make it, and was enjoying myself!
Rock n Roll New Orleans 2012. This finish line photo shows me on the brink of exhaustion, but it means a lot to me because I pushed SO hard to PR in this race. I worked the expo again for running skirts, so was pretty tired. Bobby paced me because I wanted to PR so badly. I remember pushing so hard at the end and telling him I didn’t think I could do it, but I did somehow! We were blessed with great weather that day, too.
Disneyland half marathon 2012. You can just SEE how much fun I am having in this picture. I loved running in California, NO HUMIDITY! I was ecstatic, I didn’t know what to do with myself, Running was SO much easier. We weren’t even trying and I was just a few minutes off a PR just because I could breath. It was a very cool race.
Disney half marathon 2010. This one means a lot because it was my VERY FIRST half marathon. I knew nothing about running then and had JUST started to blog and read blogs. It was freezing that day, 23 degrees and sleeting. My pigtails had hardened and had ice on them. I have never been so cold. But we did it and it started an addiction to runDisney.
Again, not for the race but for the photo. This race was actually a disaster, the day after I got off a cruise and was land sick. I ran this race nauseated the whole time and ended up in urgent care after. Oh joy. But I like the picture! I look relatively normal.
Jazz half marathon 2012. I really enjoyed this race up until mile 9 when I had my first calf cramping episode ever. I was actually feeling great and smiling the whole time and just enjoying myself and the race, it was such a great feeling and makes me remember why I run in the first place.
So there you have it, some of the worst and some of the best of my race photo collection.
*You can find recaps to all these races and more on my races page under “running”.
QOTD: Do you ever buy race photos? Do you judge a race photo by just how it looks or also from the memories of the race it brings back? Would you be interested if I did a post on reader’s best and worst race photos?
I’ve never bought my race photos as mine have all been so fugly 🙂
You’ve got some really great ones here.
I’m sure you have good ones!
I’ve bought photos from some of my races, but not all. Usually if I don’t buy photos it’s because I didn’t have any good pictures, not because of how the race went.
good call
I buy them…but only the good ones! I bought one of the packages during Goofy though so did get quite the handful of bad ones – what am I doing when I’m running?!
LOL I did the same thing and got some terrible ones!
I also posted about race photos, and I feel like I’m being sniped by the cameras :-p I don’t know where they’ll be on the course, and whenever I do see one I know I’m not buying that photo. I never look good in race pictures, but I do have one from Princess 2012 in the corrals. My dad and I were both starting in C and one of the official photographers took a picture of us.
that sounds cute!
I had no idea this was a THING 🙂 until recently.
kinda glad I only run…when chased 🙂
this is a fun post! i don’t race much but i would be too cheap to ever buy a race photo. i probably only would if i won the whole race and wanted a photo of me as i crossed the finish line and busted through the ribbon haha. so basically it will never happen unless i enter a race where my opponents are all turtles.
me too! I will never win!
Lol I never buy photos…the ones my friends and family take usually come out better! I always get weird faces and grandma legs lol
my hubby always runs with me so rarely does anyone take ones of me!
I love race pictures… I’m always amazed at how ‘jiggly’ I look in race pictures… I alone could sponsor your BAD race photos 🙂
I do like to buy the good ones (because they are so rare) – but mercy, some of them are so expensive – YIKES – hate that!
I know I hate that too!
Love this! You have a lot of awesome ones… I think I have way more bad ones than good. 🙂
LOL you run a lot of races!
i just KNEW providence would make it in there LOL!! what a day!! i can remember us trying to take pics with your phone through the ziploc baggie! great memories 🙂 and if anything, it made us stronger runners because no matter how hard it rains here.. i am confident that i can ALWAYS look out of my window and say that i’ve run in rain harder than this lol miss you 🙂
LOL! I miss you!!!!
Seriously, if I can run in those conditions I can run in anything lol!
awesome pictures! I wish I looked as good as you do in your bad pictures! this has inspired me to take more pictures (or have someone take them because I don’t buy the ones from the race)!
great!
I have a few good ones, but you can definitely tell I was hurting during my hard races.
I make really funny faces when I am pushing hard!
Love the pics. Mine always turn out not so great!! I only purchased my first ever race and have not gotten any since!
bummer!
Love these! And I actually got a chill when looking at the marathon weekend 2010 photo. It was so cold that day!
I was there too! My first half! I remember shaking I was so cold afterward. And I am from OHIO..where it was that cold in training!
I never buy race photos because they’re always so expensive. If they lowered the prices, then maybe!! I reeeeally wanna do a Disney half!!! It’s definitely on my list of goals!!
you would have so much fun!
I don’t get all my race photos, but have a lot of them. I of course like to keep the better ones, but have also kept some bad ones just so that I can look back and see how far I’ve come.
that’s a great idea
You have so many cute race pictures. I don’t think I remember having any really good ones from any of my races. Haha.
I’m sure you do!
Love the photos and recaps! Would love to see a post on readers race photos too.
Thank you so posting your good & your ugly pictures! Where do you get your super cute skirts? I LOVE running in skirts some much more than shorts. Thanks to you & your post I signed up for Princess 2014 & Tinkerbell 2014 next year! Training starts next week! Thank you for all your post!
I get all my skirts from runningskirts.com. If you use code “SKIRTSASS” you will save 15%!
I’ve only done 4 races so far and out of those I’ve only had one picture that was actually good. I did buy that one. I did my second half marathon weekend before last and all eight pictures that they took were pretty awful. There are 2 or 3 that look like I am two steps away from dying, but I loved the race because I got to run it with my brother!
that sounds fun!
I love this post! Race photos can be so cute but also SO AWFUL! Your Princess photos are really cute! Sometimes I buy the photos, but not always.
thanks! I rarely buy, too!
I love that we share our first half marathon in common! It was ridiculously cold during that race, but I was so happy. At the end I remember saying, I want to do it again! Nothing like record setting weather for your first, very memorable!
OMG so cold!
I’m dying to know where you grew up. I’m new to your blog and found you through Pinterest:) I recently signed up for the Glass Slipper Challenge 2014. It will be my first half marathon. I’m super excited! I couldn’t help but notice all the New Orleans things in some of your posts. I grew up in New Orleans and went to Ursuline, but now live in Slidell. Love your blog!!!