The past 2 weeks have been incredibly busy--I feel like that is life's current tempo right now and for the next 6 weeks or so! School has been going well; I've had some change in my responsibilities, which I'm thankful for because it relieves some stress from my day. Although with letting go of a responsibility, I inevitably end up with another one! I've become the yearbook sponsor, so each week I am learning more and more about how to do this...mostly by guessing/brainstorming/trying to be creative, but if you have any suggestions, I'll gladly take them!
Last weekend, we got Veteran's Day off from school which worked perfectly with our plans to go to San Antonio for the half-marathon! Me and my friends Dana and Katie left at the crack of dawn Friday morning for the 8 hour trek to San Antonio...very boring drive, with very few opportunities to stop for gas. Texas is way too big. Seriously, when driving 8 hours through the South, you'd at least go through 2, maybe 3, states in 8 hours time! We definitely pulled over to pee on the side of the road...thanks a lot, Starbucks ;)
We had drop Dana's dogs off at her in-laws, who live on a ranch, complete with cattle and a Texas longhorn--so cool! Stuart's dad drove us around the ranch and I got the full tour--it was a lot of fun! After that we went to Dana's house and went out to eat with her family at a delicious Mexican restaurant--you know I never turn down Mexican! Afterwards we headed to downtown to our hotel and got settled as well as met up with our friend Michelle, who also ran the race with us. Saturady morning we headed to the expo at the Alamodome...I love race expos! It's an awesome place to try stuff (like food/drinks related to exercise/running) as well as see lots of neat gear. It's also very difficult to show shopping-restraint! We had lunch on the Riverwalk, which is beautiful! It reminded me of Europe; very pedestrian, with lots of restaurants dotted along the river. It was very picturesque and such a relaxing afternoon! After picking up Julie, another friend, from the airport, we went back to the Riverwalk for dinner. It was super crowded but we got to eat at a delicious Italian restaurant and people-watch throughout dinner--such a fun time!
Sunday morning was the race; it was supposed to be sunny but instead it was a little damp and cloudy...which I was very thankful for! It's been awhile since I've run in humidity...it practically doesn't exist here, which is awesome for the hair, but a little hard on the lungs at first! The race was a lot of fun; lots of people and fun music every mile. At the mile 6/7 exchange, a band was playing "Living on a Prayer" and when we ran by the stage, they were on the chorus... "Oh, you're half way there, oh, you're living on a prayer"; we died in laughter because we really were halfway there to the finish line! Dana and I didn't train as well as wanted to for the race; LIFE got in the way...we have big plans for the spring though and we're going to dictate life a little better than we did this fall! We ended up finishing in 2:05, which isn't too far off of my PR! The course was very flat except for the last 0.2 miles, which were uphill! You ran uphill, rounded a corner, and had about 200 meters to the finish line...See, you should always run through your hills when training! Next time, I'll follow that advice...haha! We had to rush back and shower before we got kicked out of the hotel and then got in the car and headed home...it was a long drive back! We had to take a couple of stretch breaks and we killed a bag of Salt & Vinegar chips...our bodies were craving super salty foods!
We ran in honor of our husbands and had some awesome tanks made...It made me so proud to run for Brian! We had a few people comment on them, which was really cool! I'll leave you with some pictures from the weekend--I'm off to finish cleaning my house because my whole family is coming for Thanksgiving--SO PUMPED!
Our shirts!
