Where did April go? Sorry I had every intention of making a blog post sooner, the month just got away from me. More and more things keep happening to me I am getting very far behind on keep you guys informed! I just got back from a fabulous weekend in Chicago with Holly, but I am waiting on her to upload pictures, so that post will come later.
So until then, I wanted to make a few quick comments about what I wanted to talk about during my last entry and sadly still haven’t (I blame the accounting job, this was an incredibly busy busy season, no pun intended!)
I wanted to do a full recap on the Oscars, but since that is long gone I will say a few words.
Best Dressed: Mila Kunis in a landslide for sure. Her lilac greek style dress was to die for and I want my own.
Most deserved Oscar: Colin Firth, not only was he amazing in the King’s Speech, but I have been a fan of his since he was the love interest in Briget Jones’ Diary. I have always loved Mr. Firth and glad he finally won!
Best Movie: I was so torn here, while I was glad the King’s Speech won (I mean who didn’t fall in love with that movie?), I have to admit I really enjoyed both Inception and The Social Network possibly a little more. All in all it was a great Oscar season and I was pretty satisfied with everything I saw.
Now on to the Marathon!!! One and only important thing to know: I finished. Other big thing to know: It rained THE WHOLE TIME. I am not kidding. For you to fully understand we must start from the beginning:
We went up to OKC (me, my roommate Casey, and her boyfriend John) to run in the big race. I was running the full and John was running the relay with some of his friends. My mom was also in town for a wedding. My good friends Sarah and Ryan let us stay at their house for the weekend. Mom and I had a wedding to go to Saturday night before turning in early in order to get up for the big day. Now I have run races before, but this was my first marathon. To prepare, I bought some new running gear at the expo (including a nice “spider belt” to hold water, id, and GU. In all reality it is actually a glorified fanny pack, but who cares. It served its intended purpose.
The race began at 6:30 am, so Casey and Ryan were nice enough to take me to the hotel where John and his friends were staying at 5:30am (you always are supposed to show up early for races, that is something I learned the hard way after almost missing the start at one of my first races). My mom decided to sleep in and said she would see me at mile 6 when I made it by Sarah and Ryan’s house (they live right on the marathon route). I knew it was supposed to rain (it was only a 30% chance when I went to bed) but when I woke up and walked outside I was excited to see that it was dry outside. Needless to say, we got in the car and right as Ryan backed out it started to rain. And we are not talking sprinkling here, we are talking monsoon. I should have just given up then and there. But, I made it all the way to the hotel to meet John and his friends and was ready to go.
However, once at the hotel I found John and his fellow relay friends only to learn that the race was delayed by 30 minutes. The last thing you want to do when you get up early to run a race is have to stand around and wait for the weather to clear up when it clearly isn’t going to. So we waited and waited and waited. We then decided to head towards the start line about 15 minutes before the race. One thing we didn’t realize was how long it would take us to get to the start line with all of the extra hurdles due to the rain.
Basically here is what happened: we found the corrals (which are these big fence things that the runners stand in, normally they have several openings for runners to enter, but not in OKC there were only two). However, we were in the middle of the crowd and couldn’t get to the corral entrance to get in. Then all of a sudden the announcer starts counting down from 10 and I realize that I am going to miss the start if I don’t do something. I see other people climbing over the fence and I looked at John and he nodded for me to do it. So John helps me up and over the fence. I jumped down onto the ground only to have my ipod cord get stuck on the fence and rip my headphones in half. This is when John did one of two things that would save my day. Through the fence he handed me his headphones and just told me to run. Now that might not seem like a huge deal, but to a runner, having your headphones for the big race is a must. I would not have been able to race for 4 hours without my Lady Gaga, Britney, and Journey to jam to while I run. So I grabbed John’s headphones only to also realize that I had cut my finger while hopping over the fence and was bleeding (thankfully because of the rain this didn’t stay a problem for long). By then end of all of this (which was only about 10 seconds but felt like 10 hours in slow motion) the race started and I crossed the start line: hand bleeding, with new headphones, in the pouring rain. Here goes nothing.
I will try to be brief as possible here. The first 6 miles were fine. My friend Aaron ran by me with garbage bags on his shoes and baggy sweat pants on. Thankfully he saw me because I wouldn’t have recognized him. He runs too fast for me though so he was quickly in front of me. At mile 6 we ran through Crown Heights and right by Ryan and Sarah’s house. My mom, Casey, Sarah, Ryan, and my friend Jenny were all outside holding signs and cheering. Apparently a couple got married at mile 6, which is something I would never be interested in doing, but good for them.
The next 8 miles or so are a blur. A lot of people ask me why I like to run. All I can really say is that it is a great time of reflection for me. But during a race it is important to remain focused and concentrate on your split times. My split times were averaging between 8:45 and 9:15 minutes per mile, which is right where I wanted to be. The key is to not start out too fast because then you won’t be able to finish strong.
I befriended a guy from Austin around mile 11 who gave me a few words of advice including asking me what time I expected to finish in. By this point, I didn’t care what time I finished in, I just wanted it to be over! But he told me that at the pace we were going we should finish around 4 hours. The only good thing about your first marathon: no matter what you will PR! Thank the Lord!
At mile 14 we made it past lake Hefner. Ryan was nice enough to check out the news channels and found this picture. This is me at about mile 15. The great thing is that right after this picture was taken the sun came out (don’t get too excited, it was only for about 20 minutes. But it was the most glorious 20 minutes of the whole day). If you can't tell I am the girl closest to the lighthouse.
At mile 18 my mom, Sarah, and Ryan were waiting for me again. That is one of the most rewarding things about running in a race: getting to see familiar faces along the way. My mom didn’t really get this before the race, she kept asking me why I wanted her to come. I told her that she would understand once she was there. And sure enough she was there with her little umbrella cheering away. At this checkpoint the funny thing is I was in pain, but needed to stop and eat some of my GU chomps. For those of you who are non-runners, it is necessary to eat supplements along the way. Some people do liquid items like regular GU, but I do the GU chomps, which taste like gummy bears, really delicious. I stopped and chatted with mom, Sarah and Ryan, at the end of my chomps and gave them my cool spider belt (aka fanny pack). It was necessary to lighten the load for the last 8 miles.
At mile 20 Casey and John were waiting for me. Now, I have always adored Casey’s boyfriend John. He is always nothing but nice to me and has really fun parties. I have really enjoyed getting to know him over the past couple of years. Today though, he raised the bar. John was supposed to run the last six miles of the race for the relay. However, as stated earlier, the beginning of the race was a cluster, to say the least. What I didn’t realize (because I was hopping the fence) was that the rest of John’s team decided not to run the relay. John however, stayed to ride back with Casey, and decided to run the last 6 miles with me anyway.
So John picked up the pace and ran with me from mile 20 to mile 26.2. I was really concerned about hitting the wall, which can happen anywhere from mile 18 – 23. During my 22 mile training run I hit the wall at about mile 20 ½. I never really understood what the wall was, until I hit it. Literally with a mile and a half left in that training run, I couldn’t move one more muscle and had to walk. So, I was really scared of that happening to me again. Thankfully it didn’t, and I really think it’s because I had a running buddy the last 6 miles. And John was such a good sport. At mile 22 the rain really started coming down harder and there was even lightening and thunder (motivation to run faster I guess). But luckily my legs weren’t hurting too bad and I was feeling fine, so we ran the last two miles pretty quick.
We came around back to downtown to mile 25 and I knew I was going to be ok. We turned the corner to the finish line and crossed in 4 hours and 6 minutes. Below is a couple of pictures of John and I crossing the finish (PS - I am never cute in race action shots. Some people have the gift of catching the camera at the right moment and smiling...not me....I always look like I am breathing heavy and about to pass out...which is mostly true. Luckily you can't see my face that well in these).
Given the circumstances and the fact that it was my first marathon, I was really pleased with this time. I would have liked to have broken 4 hours, but maybe that will be for next time. After crossing the finish line I got my cool space blanket to keep warm and we immediately went into the food tent where I had some of the best Nutter Butter’s ever. At this point in time I am soaking wet to where I looked like I just took a shower. So I decided it was time to find my mom and Ryan and Sarah and get home. And fate was on my side. The second I found mom and we got in the car it started to hail. I felt really sorry for the marathoners that hadn’t finished the race yet.
We then celebrated with a huge array of Mexican food at Ted’s and then I drove home. Note to self: don’t try to drive more than 30 minutes the day of a marathon. I was so stiff and uncomfortable the whole drive home. But, I made it and that’s all that matters. That is one big thing to check off of my list of things to do before I die. And turns out I finished in 671st place (out of about 2,500 runners, so all in all my time wasn’t that bad!)
And I have to thank the 5 or 6 people in the Dallas Running Club that trained with me for the past 4 months. It is such an accomplishment to train for something for so long and actually finish what you set out to do. I wasn’t going to let rain stand in my way. If I can make it through a marathon in those conditions, I can make it through anything. My friend Kate and I are already planning another marathon to run: Nashville, April 28, 2012….get excited!
Now on to my next favorite topic in the month of April: a little thing called the Royal wedding. Now if you know me you know that I have been obsessed with the Royal wedding since the engagement was announced backing January. My sister and I both took off of work on Friday, April 29th to tune in. We had a little mimosa party and Chris, my sister’s husband, was nice enough to cook us pancakes, bacon, and eggs while we watched Wills and Kate get married. As you can see below I also had my “All About Kate” magazine; we were ready to go! That's Amy and Chris' dog Crimson in the background, he was apparently excited too!
My opinion on the wedding: All I can say is wow! I loved everything about this wedding. From Kate’s hair, dress, tiara, to her lovely family and beautiful sister, to Wills and Harry, and finally all the great hats that everyone wore, it was definitely an event to remember. Amy and I had so much fun watching the wedding. We literally didn’t move off of the couch for 6 hours. It was time well spent.
I have decided that Kate Middleton might be the person in the world that I am most jealous of at the moment (well her and Carrie Underwood and her sister Pippa). I mean this chick is absolutely flawless. She seems to be both beautiful and totally down to earth. I want to be her best friend. But until then I will just read about her in all of the magazines and wait for her to visit Texas so I can maybe meet her and put my name in the running on marrying Prince Harry.
Below are some of my favorite pics from the event.
Kate’s sister Pippa also looking flawless. I love that in England it is traditional for the maid of honor to wear white.
And below are some of my favorite hats. Not sure who the top two ladies are, but Chelsy Davy and Carol Middleton did great on their hat selections.
And I don’t care what anyone says, Princess Beatrice and Eugenie’s hats were the worst ever. All I can say is ugh! Not good choices. Definitely a Glamour Don't in my book.
Ok, just a few more things to talk about before I let you guys go for now.
#2 – I know most people probably already know of the gel or shellac nails that is all the new craze at all of the nail salons right now. I must say, I am a fan. I never get my nails painted because it never stays on. However, I used a red during my first gel nail experience and I was super impressed.
Here is my manicure on day 1.
And again at day 20. I mean I only had to take the polish off because the bottom of my nails were growing out so much. Very impressive, I will never get a regular manicure again.
#3 – While I am not super domestic, I get real excited when I find things that make my life a little easier. Since I am not married I haven’t registered for wedding gifts and checked out all of the coolest gadgets I am a little behind on great kitchen items. While I was at Crate and Barrel recently Sarah showed me this apple slicer thing that has turned my life upside down. You just put the slicer on top of the apple, press down, and it slices it into 8 equal sized pieces. This may not sound like much, but in the morning when every second is meaningful it is awesome to save time from cutting an apple piece by piece.
It really is the little things in life, isn’t it?
You start out with your apple.
All you do then is put the slicer on top, push down and voila! You have a perfectly sliced apple. Perfection!
Let's just say I got really excited the 1st, 2nd, and even 3rd time I used this little contraption.
Ok, that’s all I got for now. Sorry for the long and random post, but I had to get you guys updated. Check back soon for a post about my recent trip to Chicago. It was awesome and I can’t wait to share my little weekend adventure with you.
Until then, Ciao for now!
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