Weekly Running Recap - 2/17 - 2/23

Don't you just love Mondays?  I do, because it means I can get all analytical and see how my previous week of running was:

 

Monday - 6 miles w/ 2 x 1 mile fast

Tuesday - 5.5 miles

Wednesday - REST

Thursday - am - 2.3 miles easy outside; pm - 4.5 miles including tempo

Friday - 5.5 miles

Saturday - REST

Sunday - 3.9 miles

 

Total - 27.7 miles

 

So total mileage for the week was nothing special...definitely not up to where I want to be.  But I do think I more quality miles in there than I previously have.  And I suppose that's better because my next race distance is 5 miles, followed a week later by 6-7 miles in a marathon relay.  I'm not training for a marathon right now.  I am however, going to run a half marathon in late April or early May (not sure which one yet!), so I do need to be getting in higher mileage for that.

As for Friday's and Sunday's runs:

Friday - I ran 5.5 miles in 45: 35 for 8:17 average pace/mile on the treadmill at the Y.  Nothing special really.  I was planning to go for 8-10 miles, but I just couldn't stand the treadmill anymore.  That thing is killing me now.

Sunday - I ran OUTSIDE!!  Yay!!  I did 3.9 miles in 33 minutes for 8:28 average pace/mile.  I came extremely close to landing on my butt after sliding on some ice, but I used my awesome ninja skills to somehow stay on my feet.  The sidewalks were mostly clear, but still some icy or wet patches that were difficult to navigate.  I moved to the streets though (side streets) and it was a lot better then.  I struggled a lot at the start because it was so cold, but eventually warmed up and felt like I could've ran further (and maybe should have) but I also didn't want to be away from the house for too long because...

 

I was babysitting my younger cousins all weekend!  I got to do some fun, sports-related things with them this weekend:

 

Ryan had basketball games on both Saturday and Sunday and won both of them!

I forgot how entertaining grade school basketball is. It's so much better than watching college or NBA basketball.

Saturday night, Shannon's high school track team had time trials and parents were invited to a meeting and to watch the time time trials. Since this is right up my alley, I tagged along with Shannon as her parent for the night.

 

 

She did the pole vault, recording a tie with her personal record of 7 feet. Shannon missed all of outdoor season last year due to a surgery so I'm sure she will improve quite a bit this year!

She also ran the 400 and won her heat!

Other than that we did a lot of bumming around, watching movies & sports, and eating pizza, Thin Mints, Cheez-Its, and Portillo's.

What is the best part about your Monday?

What is your favorite track event?

St. Louis Half Marathon & Weekend Happenings

This past weekend was the Rock 'N Roll St. Louis Half Marathon!  I ran the whole thing with my brother's girlfriend Erin and it was her first half marathon ever and I'm sure she wants to keep doing more and more.  Look how happy she was:

I didn't get to St. Louis until late Saturday night, but the Cardinals World Series game was still on, so Erin had made some pasta for me and we watched the game.  Unfortunately, it looked like the game was going to go into extra innings and we needed to be up super early, so we turned it off in the 9th.  Apparently the game ended (with a Cardinals win!) shortly after we hit the hay.

So, race morning.  We woke up and got ready to run!  We had bought matching Lululemon tank tops, but it was a bit too chilly for that.  I advised Erin to eat a bagel and some GU Chomps energy bites and I did the same.  When we got to the start line, I needed to grab my bib and t-shirt since I didn't make it to St. Louis in time to go to the expo.  But that was surprisingly quick and then we jumped in the corral and it was time to go within a few minutes.

The first few miles of the race were through downtown St. Louis, which was cool because it was sunrise and we ran towards the Arch and then around Busch Stadium.  We were each wearing coats over our running clothes because it was so cold at the start, but took them off around mile 2-3.  Luckily, we knew we'd see Katie around mile 5 because the course went right by her SLU apartment.  We ran to her, gave her a quick hug and our coats and continued on.

I was very colorful...and cold.

The race really wasn't that eventful.  Erin had hoped to maintain at 10 minute mile, but we were going much faster staying right around a 9 minute mile.  One of the later miles was even 8:40 and I think she was shocked at how fast she was able to go considering she hadn't trained this pace!  We were even chatting and having fun taking some pictures and videos.  And I will have those videos for you in my next post hopefully...they were taken on my iPod that I was running with, which I left at home today.  Anyways, there were some pretty killer hills, but we maintained a solid pace and finished in 1:56:45!!  Woohoo congrats Erin!!  Erin's mom also ran her first half marathon and finished faster than the first place marathoner!  (That was the goal.)

The pace was fairly comfortable for me, but having run only 2 3-miles runs in the past 2 weeks since the Chicago Marathon, diving right into 13 with those hills did my knees some damage.  They are fine now, but they sure hurt for the whole day.

My cousin Kevin had a funny tweet this weekend:

That's kind of how I feel about blogging.  I feel like a failure if I don't have photo proof of everything I did to show here.  But I can promise I really did go out to dinner with Angela and Liz on Sunday night in St. Louis.  And we were so deep in conversation and sat at the restaurant for so long after paying, that the obvious choice was to move our party over to the nearby fro yo place.

We had such a great time catching up with each other and talking about running and dorm food...and how we ran so much that we could eat so much dorm food.  And then we started reminiscing about the good ole days at UD.

I wasn't driving back to Chicago until Monday, so in the morning I went to breakfast at Einsten brothers with my 2 Billiken cousins, Katie and Kevin.  We had a great time catching up and talking about the upcoming holidays and of course, the event of the summer that we CANNOT wait for - the first Smith cousin wedding.

How was your weekend?

Do you like to take pictures documenting everything you do?

Chicago Marathon Celebration & Recovery

I think this will be my last of my Chicago Marathon series of posts.  (You can read about the expo and pasta party, RACE RECAP, my playlist, and my fans.)

The post-marathon celebration started pretty much as soon as I crossed the finish line.  As I'm pretty sure I mentioned in my playlist post, putting on Teenage Dream was my first order of business after finishing.  Then I just wanted to dance because I was happy, but I thought these other fatigued strangers would think I'm weird and I guess the movement I considered dancing after 26.2 miles was a bit funky because a few of the finish line workers asked if I was OK.

I made it though most of the chute area, collecting my free beverages (water, Gatorade protein shake, beer) and found Mac.  We briefed each other on our races and tried to spot Angela, but we must have missed her because we when finally got hold of her, she was already at gear check.  I pretty much "ran" there to meet her.  It was obviously more of a shuffle, but I was cruising compared to everyone else because I wanted to be reunited with her after separating around mile 15.

After reuniting with all our fans and hanging out in the park for awhile, it was time to head home for a necessary shower.  I was surprisingly mobile and not having as hard of a time getting to the car parked really far away as I did last time I ran Chicago.

I went straight to my bed after showering, but I couldn't fall asleep.  "Exercise gives you endorphins; Endorphins make you happy." (Legally Blonde)  A few phone calls later and I was at Nookie's with the Conlons for a 4pm champagne brunch.

Yup, that's the cheap stuff.  After the brunch dinner, I was tired but we had more celebrating to do.  Mac, Drew, Michael, and Angela came over and we sat around, ate, drank a little, talked about the marathon, etc.  Then we went to meet up with the Conlons again at Benchmark.  We did do a shot there to celebrate, but other than that I think we were all pretty much wiped out and just sat at the table and ate tots with ranch...probably one of the most amazing combos ever.

After making it out of bed successfully without falling over on Monday, I started the day off with Angela at Starbucks, or should I say "Asha."

Then we headed to Fleet Feet.  I actually don't remember why we went to Fleet Feet - I think we just had some time to kill - and found they had a bunch of the official Chicago Marathon gear, so we each bought a post-marathon gift for ourselves.

Angela had to head back to St. Louis, but Michael and Drew were still in town, so we met up and went to Moe's for a Mexican lunch and did a lot of walking.  Fleet Feet had free medal engraving so we dropped our medals off there and then sat very lethargically in Starbucks for awhile.  After they left that afternoon, I lounged for awhile and ordered myself a small Lou's pizza (and no, I didn't eat all of it; I had leftovers for lunch and dinner the next day!)

And for the recovery.....

I was SORE until Wednesday.  I considered going to a spinning class on Thursday, but decided I was going to take full advantage of the "I just ran a marathon and need time off" excuse to not work out while I could.

I did short runs of 3 miles each on Saturday and Sunday mornings...and had a fun full day of tailgating and football at Notre Dame with Catherine & friends.

Even though I love UD and the Flyers, it was fun to tailgate for a real college football team.

Weekend Photo Bomb - 9/6 - 9/8

Here's a sampling of the weekend in pictures!

Friday - Rachel is training for the Fox Cities Half Marathon and needed to do a long run.  I met up with her after work on Friday to bike while she ran.  It was a great time catching up!

When I showed up to meet Rachel, we had matching running fanny packs!

About 5 miles in and still smiling!  She finished 11 miles woohooo!!  I am only half a good friend though because I left after about 6 miles because I was planning to drive home for the night.

On my way home, I went to hang out with Catherine and Matt for a little bit.  Catherine is officially in marathon taper mode now!  Her marathon is in 2 weeks, and trust me, she is working on a good guest post to write for my blog afterwards.

Saturday - Mac and I went to the Chicago Half Marathon Expo at Navy Pier.  We ran there about 2 miles and then walked around the expo for awhile.  I found 2 of the Sweaty Bands headbands to complete the marathon outfits that Angela and I will wear!  Since we had our race bags from the Expo, we just had a nice stroll back home instead of running.  And who wants to run very much the day before a race?

I can't decide what was the better purchase of the day - the headbands or the socks.  Both were better (and cheaper) than the half marathon purchase.  Races are too expensive.  But I am glad we did it.

Sunday - Chicago Half Marathon! I am going to do a whole race recap tomorrow, but here's some of the basics...  I finished in 1:42:04.  I was hoping for a little faster, but I'm over it.  Mac and his friend Bryce ran too.  This was the first half marathon for each of them and I think they were pretty pumped about the medals.  We are all winners.

And here's a giant picture of the slice of Lou Malnati's pizza we each got after the race!

Despite having the pizza right after running, that obviously wasn't enough so we went out to Elly's for breakfast.  They have such amazing pancakes.  And I ran into some other friends there too!

I hope everyone had a great weekend too!

Marathon Training Camp Weekend in MI

I just got back from northern Michigan a little while ago and obviously want to share some pictures and fun stories ASAP.  I've decided to call it our Chicago Marathon Training Camp Weekend since Angela, Olivia, and I are all running it and we got in some quality workouts and fun over the weekend.  So first, a picture of the lake/where I spent a few hours napping.  The nap also resulted in sunburn on only the left side of my body.

After the nap, the 3 of us went for a short 4 mile run - short, but hard.  I had done my long run on Wednesday night and then didn't run at all Thursday and Friday.  Angela and Olivia did their 18-mile long run Friday afternoon, so on Saturday afternoon we were all pretty sore/tight.

Wouldn't you want all of your runs to be on a road right a pretty lake?  I would.  Then I realized a lot of my runs ARE right next to Lake Michigan.  But this is way way different since there's not a million people also running the same path at the same time.

After a lot of chips and salsa, an amazing homemade dinner, and a few beachy cocktails at the cottage, us 3 girls headed to the local bars.  They close at 11pm.  A local we met asked us what we were up to for the rest of the night and I replied with "going home to sleep in bunk beds."  Their cottage was so cute and perfect for the northern-Michigan lake-cottage atmosphere.  Their family has been vacation here forever. The cottage actually reminded me a lot of the cabins my family used to stay in when we vacationed at Pennellwood.

Sunday morning we went to Mass, got lunch in town and brought it to the beach to eat, and then explored along the lakefront for awhile and walked to this lighthouse.  I wore this new hippie skirt that I am now in love with.  I practically got it for free from the LOFT since it was on sale and I had a $15 off coupon to spend during the month of my birthday.

We weren't really up for running, so instead Angela and I took out the tandem bike for what turned into a 12 mile ride.  I think we talked about the Chicago Marathon the entire time - what we'll wear, pacing, the course, etc.  I am even way more pumped up now!  6 weeks to go!

Sunday night we went to the beach for the sunset and rock collecting and then had another great dinner at the cottage.  We were all pretty wiped out and had decided we would do a hill workout Monday morning, so we turned in to the bunk beds early.

Monday morning was chilly, but perfect temperature for a hill workout.  And by hill, I mean mountain.  Angela BEASTED up it.  I had my phone in my little running fanny pack pouch thing, so I took it out (while still climbing up) and snapped her picture.

And then do you know what we did?  We ran down it and then back up again.  Each time was close to 5 minutes of straight up.  Angela was ready to do another, but Olivia and I were not as enthusiastic.  Here's the view from the top on the way down...around the curve, it kept going down.

In high school we used to joke that any of the "hills" in Chicago that we would use for a hill workout were actually just "bumps."  This hill was on the other end of the spectrum.  We talked Angela out of a third hill climb and ran straight into town on a few more rolling hills to join their parents for breakfast.  They even brought us clean t-shirts and sweatshirts so we wouldn't have to sit in the restaurant in our sweaty clothes.

Do you like doing hill workouts? - Chicago is extremely flat, so this is the most hill action I've done in a long time, probably since I visited Kristin in Cincinnati.  So this time I really enjoyed the hill workout since I haven't done one in so long.

Where is the most scenic place you have ran?

Cincinnati Cabrewing Weekend

I'm on my way home from Cincinnati right now and thought I'd recap all the adventures of the weekend. Luckily, I was able to get a ride with Belinda and her friend so I didn't have to worry about driving and can write this while I ride! We are listening to Celine Dion, so it's just a good atmosphere all around.

As soon as I got to Cincy Friday evening, Kristin and I went for a run. I was a bit nervous for this because the Ohio valley is mountainous and I had just done a hard workout on Thursday night. Even right when I got in the car with Kristin and started to laugh as we were talking, my core muscles felt extremely sore. But we started out on our route through Oakley and Hyde Park and chatted the whole way. It was a great normal run, but I am definitely not used to the hills! Sometimes I wish I had a little more terrain variety to run on but this felt like going from one extreme to the other. We did a solid 4.25 miles that went by super fast. Besides just the hill factor, it was a lot different that running in Chicago because of the peacefulness of it. We passed a few people and were running on some busier streets, but it is nowhere near the amount of people and stoplights I always have to fight through if I don't run at 5:30am before everyone else wakes up.

After the run we got ready for a night out! We went to Nada, a Mexican restaurant downtown. Everything about it was amazing. We shared chips and queso dip and were practically too full to eat our actual meals.

First round of drinks was a mojito for Kristin and a margarita for me. Second round was sparkling sangria for me and a coffee for her. No sleeping allowed!

We met up with Tim and his group that went to the DMB concert for a night in Mt. Adams. Besides the one time I came to Cincy for a night a few months ago and went to a bar near Tim's apartment for about a whole 10 minutes, this was the first time I had been out in Cincinnati. We did the Hofbrahaus one night in college too but I'm going to consider this the first real weekend I got to experience the city nightlife.

The real adventure of the weekend though was cabrewing on Saturday! After coffee and sandwiches, we met Tim, Dan, Eric, and Erin to drive to the river. We decided to tie our 3 canoes together to float down the river instead of really paddling. When we started, the canoe lady said the trip should take about 1.5 to 3 hours. We were in the river for 4.5 hours. We did make some necessary stops as we floated to (1) use the rope swing off the bank of the river to swing into the water, (2) climb up a tree that had wooden planks nailed to it to use as steps and then jump down into the water, (3) use the bathroom and (4) save a lady whose canoe had flipped at one of the more rapid parts of the lake. Jumping off the tree was definitely my favorite part but it was scary being up that high. The biggest regret of the trip was that none of us brought a phone or camera onto the water because we were scared to tip, but since we anchored all 3 canoes together, tipping wasn't even possible. But we did have the necessities - beer, water, chips, salsa, and Twizzlers.

After the river adventure, it was time for more coffee and getting all fancied up again. We met up with the cabrewing group (organization name: Terry's Fairies) and went to Yardhouse for an awesome dinner and then out to another bar downtown. My pictures from Saturday night are on my real camera, so I can't upload those just yet so here's another from before the canoe adventure.

The weekend was filled with a lot of activity, fun, and good food! Kristin and I even got brunch this morning before I headed out. I'm not sure if I'll be able to work up the energy for a short run when I get home, but maybe I should just to get above 30 miles for this week.

What was the best thing you did this weekend?

What is your favorite thing about running in a new area?

Week 4 Recap and Week 5 Plan

I'm not even going to do a real week 4 recap because (a) I don't have access to my Excel file with my plan (and won't for about 2 weeks - but I'll probably make a new make-shift one for now) and (b) there were extenuating circumstances throughout most of last week that caused me to not run at all Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I had a decent run on Monday which I wrote a bit about right after the run but never got around to posting it.  Maybe I will add to it after tomorrow's normal run and then post about both.  Thursday and Sunday I did races, which went as expected and Saturday I did the 10.5 mile long run.  So all the runs I did were good, but I also took 3 days off which was more than I would've liked and felt very exhausted all week.  I finished the week with 29 miles, so for 4 days I'd say that's decent.  If I would've gotten in the extra 1-2 days of running I definitely would've hit 35-40.  So it really was a true step back week and now I need to step it up.

Here's the plan I came up with for this week.  Once again, I don't even know what my original plan had, but I think it might even be better if I just make my plans week by week anyways.  I do already have my long run mileage figured out for each weekend leading up to the marathon, but the other days maybe I'll just go by how I feel each week as it comes.

If I do all these runs, that would put me at 45-50 miles which would be pretty high for what I have been doing the last couple weeks.  I put the long run on Thursday because as of now I am planning to visit Kristin and Tim in Cincinnati this weekend.  I am sure we would go out on Friday night and not be in long-run condition Saturday morning and I also don't want to do a long run there by myself (on hills) or risk not doing it at all.  I think I can convince Kristin to at least do a normal run with me ;)  So, goal is to do the long run Thursday evening.  I think I'll go to the Elk Grove Forest Preserve where there is an 8.3 mile loop and just go for it twice.  My plan for tomorrow actually is to go there and do 1 loop.  I just hope it isn't TOO hot in the evening.  I do imagine I'll ending making Friday a rest day so I can sleep in before driving to Cincy and being active all weekend, but maybe I'll have more energy this week and really want to get in another run.

Mac was talking about meeting up to do the Yasso 800s on a track this week and I said Tuesday would be the perfect night for me to do them.  Not sure yet if he'll be able to, otherwise I will plan to go and try to do them myself.  I've never done the Yasso 800s before and am a little nervous for them, but especially after today's 5K race I know that some speed training would really help me right now.  In case you were wondering what the Yasso 800s even are, I will post about them after I actually do the workout but in the meantime you can Google if you are super curious.

And now since this has been all boring running talk, I did at least do a few fun things besides run this weekend.  My favorite was after Saturday morning's long run, I met Steph and Catherine for brunch at Honey n' Jam in Lincoln Park.  I hadn't been there before but I would definitely recommend it.  I love all breakfast food though so I'd really recommend going for brunch anywhere, anytime.  Catherine and I had both done long runs that morning so after brunch we decided to go for a little walk to stretch out and talk.  Then I walked home...so much walking...but I stopped and treated myself to ice cream on the way.

So I leave you with a nice picture of my omelet (with bacon, cheese, and onion), potatoes, and toast.  What a great post-long run meal.

Do you like to plan out your days/weeks way ahead of time or just do what you feel?

The 2nd Annual Joe Marathon

Today was The 2nd Annual Joe Marathon!  Just like last year, it was a success even though this year was slightly different because we did it as a relay.

Uncle Joe started running at 5:30am from his house.  Grandma, Grandpa, and some members of his family were up to see him off and follow him by car, but not many of the rest of us were even up yet.  Jessica joined in at mile 8.

Aunt Terry also joined by bike and after about 2 hours from the starting time, they arrived at the halfway point of the marathon course.  We stopped for a quick picture of course and then I set out on my way.

I was running from mile 13.1 to mile 20. I was the only runner during my leg, but after Uncle Joe took a few minutes to recover from his birthday morning half marathon, he caught up with me on bike so I would have someone with me.  I was also trying out mom's Garmin to see if I want to get one for myself. It was nice to have, but also felt like I was looking at it a lot. And as Uncle Rob said, it takes the fun out of doing calculations in your head while you're running. I'll keep trying it this week though.

I finished my 6.9 miles in 55:10 so right at 8 minute pace which I was happy with especially after yesterday's long run.  Since I had the Garmin, I can see my splits and they were: 8:01, 8:09, 8:01, 8:00, 7:59, 7:49, then 7:03 for the last .9.  I was glad the splits were relatively consistent/got slightly faster rather than slower.  This will be fun to use the Garmin and analyze my runs...I think I might over-analyze though.  I was wiped out when I finished my run.  It would probably make me run a lot faster on my normal runs to know I have 10 people anxiously awaiting my arrival and with water and Gatorade.

It was nice to have a little cheering section waiting for me approximately every mile and a half along my route.  They would find a little strip mall or parking lot to stop in, wait for me to run by, cheer, and offer water.  That was hard work too, especially so early in the morning.  But you can all sleep in tomorrow since you're on summer vacation!

Aunt Bernadette was part of the group waiting at mile 20 so that she could take over as runner. She was so excited to get going and set out to finish the last 10k. She had 3 bikers with her - Uncle Joe, cousin Joe, and Uncle Ron. They seemed to be having a good time and the Muellers showed up to cheer during these last couple miles too.

Aunt Bernadette successfully finished The Joe Marathon as our anchor leg! Everyone was proud of the accomplishments of the day and happy to be a part of it. We sang happy birthday to Uncle Joe again and all went inside to celebrate with bagels, donuts, fruit, etc.

Last Year's Inaugural "The Joe Marathon"

The Joe Marathon is possibly one of the greatest things ever created.

"Inspired by Shannon who asked, 'why do you pay for a marathon, why don't you just run in the streets?'"

Uncle Joe told us he was going to plan a marathon to run in the streets around Arlington Heights.  Until the week and the day before, we really had no idea how much planning he put into it.  And he didn't know how much we planned also, by creating special t-shirts for the occasion.  What good is a race without a t-shirt?

The race took place on 6/30/12 (Uncle Joe's birthday) at what was supposed to be 6:30am, but was moved up to 5:30am due to the heat.  He trained for the race in the months beforehand, and eventually mapped out his route of 26.2 miles starting and ending at their house.  The course passed by a lot of special locations, including the houses of most of our relatives in the area.  The night before the race, Uncle Joe drove around placing yellow signs like this one at every mile marker.

On race day, I think almost everyone from the Smith family participated somehow (except the R. Smiths who were in Hawaii, so that's a good enough excuse), whether it was by running or biking with Uncle Joe or just being outside to cheer, support, and hand out water.  Of course, Grandma and Grandpa brought donuts for anyone not running.  Catherine came out to participate too!  Another surprise to Uncle Joe besides the t-shirt was the police escort he got near the end of the race.  Since Grandpa volunteers at the police department, he has lots of connections.  Uncle Joe planned the course so that there weren't too many major streets to cross to avoid traffic.  But near the end, he had to cross a busy intersection and by that time it was a little later in the morning so traffic was a bit heavier.  Grandpa got his police buddies to STOP traffic in the intersection during this segment of the race!

This year's Joe Marathon is taking place on 6/30 again, but will be a little different.  Uncle Joe did not have time to train for a full marathon this year, and neither has anyone else.  So it's going to be run relay style.  Anyone who wanted to run decided how many miles they can do and since we already have the 26.2 mile course, why not use it to make a relay-style marathon?

Uncle Joe will run from the start to the halfway point, 13.1 miles, with the help of Jessica for the last few miles.  I'll run from the halfway point of The Joe to mile 20 to get in a 7 mile run on Sunday.  Aunt Bernadette will take over at mile 20 and run to the finish.  Maybe if I'm feeling good I'll keep running a little bit with her.  Many other family members have also offered to bike, take pictures, or provide support stations with water and cheering throughout the course.  It should be a fun event!

Long Run Wedding Weekend

This past weekend was Jim and Christina's wedding and it was a blast!  First of all, I need to tell you about my run on Friday evening before all the festivities, then I'll get to the fun stuff.

I wanted to do 14 miles on Friday, but I just can never get motivated enough to run after work.  First I met Angela at Starbucks for about half hour and then when I got home I knew I really need to just go run.  I set out towards Wicker Park and did a loop around that general area, then back into Old Town.  Since it was around 6:30pm when I started and a nice Friday evening, a lot of people were outside so it was difficult at times to weave in and out of people.  This first 4-ish mile loop was hard mentally to get going and I really thought I might just stop when I got back into Old Town.  But I knew I'd get back and be mad at myself and be in a bad mood still having like 3 hours to wait around.  So I kept going and headed north to Wrigleyville...the Cubs game was just ending so that again was more people to navigate through.  But after I got through that and headed south, I had my own space and just ran home, ending at what I mapped to be 11.8 miles in 1 hour 31 minutes.  I get kind of skeptical sometimes with how accurate mapping actually is and I know sometimes I'll walk across the street instead of run and even little things like that can add up.  So 11.8 in 1:31 would've been about 7:43 pace and I just didn't think I was going that fast, but who knows, maybe I was.  I logged it as 11.6 though which would be about 7:51 pace just to be a little more conservative.  I think maybe I will buy a Garmin; I imagine they'd be fairly accurate.

After the run, I was so worn out.  It was humid outside.  I got home and chugged 2 bottles of water before I even showered.  After my shower, I still had about 2 hours before Michael arrived and I didn't really want to eat since we were going to eat when he got here.  I had not ate the energy Gu I brought with on the run, so I figured I'd have that.  I personally like the taste of them.  Unfortunately, I think they are more for energy and not to fill you up.  It made my stomach hurt as I just watched TV.

The rest of the Friday night and Saturday were a lot of fun!  The wedding was beautiful and it was a very fun time to catch up with lots of friends.  And to dance.  The wedding meal was delicious.  Michael and I got bagels in the morning and then I thought I wouldn't be able to eat again until dinner.  But Glavin and Erika always come prepared with snacks, so I was able to snag a piece of bread with peanut butter...they even brought their own silverware.  One casualty of the weekend was a pair of flip flops.  On Sunday morning, I only had my heels, but luckily there was an Old Navy that we passed on the way to the pancake house where I could buy a new pair...actually 2 new pairs.  They were 2 for $5.  I can't not take a advantage of that.

What is your favorite Gu flavor?  My 2 favorites are Chocolate and Strawberry Banana.