Lets train

{warning: long post alert, full of pictures and some narrative. come back later if you so choose.}

I got the perfect surprise today at work: I didn't have to stay past lunch and let's just say this was exactly what my body needed. I had big plans for my afternoon off [laundry, groceries, cleaning...all of the stupid stuff that can't get done when you are away all weekend long]. What did I do instead?

Treated myself to a little Panera for lunch and then passed out on the couch for a solid two hour nap, snuggled up next to a very tired fluff ball named Henry. Both of us slept so hard that we were a little delirious when we finally awoke. It was one of THOSE naps, you guys....the freaking bomb, even though I still have a pounding headache that is going strong since yesterday. I'm not going to let my neurotic self imagine it's brain cancer, or an aneurysm, or something else completely fatal. I'm going to use my realist side and say it's probably just fatigue, still, right?

Okay, so let's move onto the pictures. I was all ready to say, "I didn't take that many this weekend, and it felt kind of good not to be pressured to snap away the weekend." And then, I uploaded my pictures to find a total of 135 images. Whoops! Guess I did manage to go photog-crazy as usual. It was just odd to be without a camera at the actual race, but more on that later.

Our drive down: I got off work a tad early so we hit the road by 3:30 which might not seem like a big deal but it literally made the weekend SO much more tolerable. Arriving at 9:30 instead of our originally planned midnight was freaking huge.

Our family spends the six hour trip as follows: Me, the shutterbug:


Nate, the annoyed driver:
I must say this: I won 'wife of the year' by offering to drive halfway on the trip home. That was a stupid idea on my part, considering the horrid weather and my extreme fatigue. What can I say, I'm quite the catch---and he owes me big time. I hate that drive with a passion....but let's move on.


And finally Henry, the ever-stressed world traveler who pants the entire trip as if to say,"Where are you taking me, you crazy humans? Let me out of this forsaken car!" At least he's cute when he travels.



Should we take this as an omen for the upcoming race?



The sunset was only decent on this day, but I took pictures anyway. Nothing like a little farmland to make a scenery shot.


Once we finally arrived at our destination on Friday night, we chatted with Hannah and Michael until the wee hours of the morning. It happens everytime no matter how tired we are. It's just so good to be in the presence of old friends again. Sigh.

Speaking of, on Saturday Keri came to town. Hannah, Keri and I went to eat lunch at McGurks and I almost passed out from the intense love I felt towards my Three Grilled Cheese. Then Keri and I went to get a pedicure, praying we wouldn't run it off the next day. I sometimes forget that Keri HATES when they use that holey stone thing to scrape the bottoms of your feet. She freaks out and squeals and giggles. And thus, I took pictures.



Now I don't know about you, but I think it's official: Keri got her groove back. Her eyes have that sparkle again, her laugh has that familiar happy pitch to it, and she looks freaking amazing. I'm so proud of my friend and I miss her dearly. Again....old friends just make my heart feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Speaking of making my heart happy: it's definitely a season called 'Spring' in St. Louis. Which is funny because as I type this, it's a measly 39 degrees outside. And the forecast calls for the 'S-word' tomorrow. I cannot even type the word S-N-O-W without gagging in my mouth a little bit. So let's move onto a better climate: The STL, shown via these pretty images I loved taking:














Love it. Can't wait for flowers of our own up in The Great North.

Also, going with my favorite themes of dogs and flowers....here is another cute dog for your viewing pleasure. His name is Sampson, he's a Wheaton Terrier, and he is Hannah and Michael's dog....so I guess that makes him our host dog. He and Henry grew up together as puppies when Hannah and I lived together [before we each got hitched] and the dogs are obsessed with each other. Also, Sampson is obsessed with the camera and is a total poser. He rushed up to me as soon as he caught a glimpse of my camera and smiled for this shot:


Oh, the boys. Seemingly innocent, aren't they?


For our pre-run dinner we opted for Vitos and although it was pure torture to order anything besides their bomb pizza, the spaghetti and meatballs dish was pretty tasty and full of adequate carbs. I did not take pictures and I think Hannah was immediately disappointed in me, questioning how I would write a decent weekend post without pictures of my pre-game meal. She is right, you know. I'm a slacker:)

So we went to bed nice and early only to awake at 5 a.m. the next morning: half marathon morning. Did you know it's still dark out at 5 a.m.? Yep, sure is.


The eluisve self-timer picture taken at 5:30 a.m. Do we look pumped?


One really cool thing about being up before the sun is the gorgeous light. I believe this would be 'twlight', right? Love this shot of my boys:


This shot is a little blurry [darn 1.8 lens doesn't like low light conditions much] but I still like it. I spy bokeh!


The race began at 7 a.m. and the rain started at 6:15....of course the weather men were right on this occasion, right? All I kept saying was, "At least it's not cold AND rainy....it could be 40 degrees right now and that would be pure hell." Instead it was a nice 50-60 degree day albeit sopping wet. Here is our view from the start line taken with Nate's wannabe iPhone camera:

So apparently there were 15,000 runners at this race which was freaking insane! It was awesome to run with so many people but a little challenging, too. Not a big fan of dodging other runners throughout the course [and all I kept thinking was that Chicago would be about 3 times as crowded]. I can't believe how many spectators there were enduring the horrible conditions to cheer us crazies on---I love big races for that feeling of unity, the knowledge that every runner has a story and every spectator has a desire to support these runners. It's so freaking awesome, you guys. Even when it sucks. :)

Because of the sheer number of people and the mad chaos in the morning of the race, I didn't get to meet up with Keri which is a bummer but I knew she'd be in good hands with her sister and some other friends. I know Ker was nervous about finishing but of course, she kicked major A and pushed through like a champ. It was her first half marathon and I bet she'll catch the bug and do more in the future. Again, so proud of her!

As far as our run goes, I am very pleased with our 1:57 time, which is a little less than a 9 minute mile pace as an average. In our 2005 half marathon we clocked a 2:10 time, or a 10 minute mile average, so this race we shaved a full minute off each mile...I'm impressed! I really didn't feel like I was pushing myself until mile 10 when I figured out we could actually go sub two hours...then it felt like we sprinted the remainder of the course. Which is probably why I'm the sorest I've been since my full marathon....except I'm actually functioning today instead of hobbling around like a cripple. I'd say it's only a slight limp today so that's good:)

Here is the only picture we have of us together at the race, and this is right after we finished. Again, Nate's camera phone isn't quite the same as my SLR but I didn't think running for two hours with a giant camera slung around my neck would be a good look:)

We were very wet and started getting cold after we stopped running, and I must say that showers taken after half and full marathons are pretty much the best thing ever.

Here we are back at Hannah's before the shower. We don't even look that wet, do we? But I promise we were. Even Henry was annoyed with us dripping all over him.


We cleaned up and my appetite came out to play with a vengance. We chose Square One Brewery for the specific purpose of order thier amazing pancakes. This meal DID deserve a photograph simply because it was so mouth watering.


And after that we were back in the car for the world longest drive. If I ever try to pull this stunt again....running a half marathon and driving all the way home in the same day....someone please talk some sense into me. I knew it would suck but I had no idea how badly. I should know better, I'm practically geriatric with my birthday next week.

I have one more post full of even more pictures waiting in the wings---if you can handle it. I'm not sure posts like these are even interesting to most of you readers but I'm still running low on my 'witty tank' at the moment. Do forgive me:)

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