Friday, October 23, 2009

Weekend Recap - Sunday aka Race Day


Finally, the Detroit Marathon recap! I couldn't have asked for things to go more perfectly that day! FB & I woke up at 5am and quickly got dressed and got in the car. We headed over to BR's house to pick her up. I ate a mini Cinnamon raisin bagel from Trader Joe's. We got downtown without any problems. We were planning on parking on the Cobo roof, but we saw traffic backed up at the exit. Luckily BR had worked downtown and could direct us around. We ended up finding street parking not too far from the start line. We cranked the heat in the car to stay warm and stayed there until just about 20 minutes until the start time. There were port-a-johns near where we parked that hardly had anyone in line. After the pit stop we headed over to our corrals. We sent FB off to his, then BR & I went to ours. It was nice and warm in the pack. Then before we knew it we were off. It was a great course that went up over the Ambassador bridge into Canada, along the waterfront there, back through the tunnel until Detroit. BR & I stayed together this whole time. We stuck together until mile 12 where I sent her off to PR in the half marathon. I was really worried about seeing her head to the finish while I still had 13.1 to go. It ended up being fine. I keep focusing on two mile increments when I got to mile 14. Somehow the next 6 miles through Indian Village and onto Belle Isle went by so quick. I was really starting to struggle just after mile 20. Luckily I ran into my friend S and we finished the race out together. My chip time was 4:17:53. It felt SO good to finish. I think I have to say that this was my favorite race yet!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Weekend Recap - Saturday


FB works the door at a bar on Friday night so he doesn't get home until 3am. I don't know how he does it because that is WAY past my bed time! I often crash at his place and take advantage of sleeping in. We usually end up sleeping in until 10am on these days which is really a rarity for me. Last Saturday, I was up at 8 so I could a shower in and get ready for the day. It was a long one. About 9am, FB got up and we set off to run some errands....getting gas, going to the bank, and the oh-so important quest of getting food. I like to eat. We went to the local donut shop and got coffee & bagels, and donuts too. Donuts are another rarity for me but I figured I was going to burn off all the calories from it running the next day. When we got back to FB's, J was there waiting for us to head off to the Michigan game. It had been over a year since I had last been in the big house and I was looking forward to going back. We had awesome seats on the 50-yard line. The game was a complete blow-out with UofM beating Delaware State 63-6. Oh, well! After the game we headed back downtown so the guys could pick up their packets for the race. Both guys ended up having some issues getting their packets and had to go talk to customs to get them. J because he failed to get a passport or enhanced license, FB was just a random screening. I was hoping to head back to Greektown for another yummy dinner. I managed to talk them into going and we hopped on the people mover. However, when we got to Greektown all the guys had their eyes (or stomach) on was the Buffet at the Greektown Casino. Not my favorite way to eat a meal but I figured that it would make them happy so I agreed. I stuck mostly to the pasta and salad. After dinner we made our way home and started to prep for the race the next day. Then it was an early night since we had to be up at 5am.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Weekend Recap - Friday

I had an absoultely fabulous weekend!


FRIDAY:

One of my BFF's and I headed down to the Marathon expo to get our race packets. Detroit was my 6th marathon, it was the 3rd half-marathon for Big Red (BR). We had to walk through a maze to get to the packets which were all the way at the back of the expo. We got our packets & shirts without any flaws. On the way out I stopped at one of the vendors and picked up a hunter-orange running shirt to wear on my next marathon, since it's required. After the expo we decided to hop on the people mover and head over to Greektown for dinner.


We went to the New Parthanon restaurant. It was delish! We shared an order of saganki, then we each got Greek Salads. We decided that we need to chase our dinner down with a sweet so we stopped next door at Astoria bakery and got some treats.




We finished the night off with a trip to our favorite Detroit bar, The Baltimore. We said hello to some of our friends there, had one drink then we were off to call it a night. I was home by 11pm!




Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Detroit Marathon Results

I managed to run my second fastest marathon with a time of 4:17:53. More details to follow...

Friday, October 16, 2009

46 hours to go....


In approximately 46 hours I'll be lined up and ready to go.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Love. this. guy!

Isn't he just the cutest?













Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Crazy Runner

It's been almost 2 years since my last marathon (http://www.usafmarathon.com/) and now I'm looking at 3.5 in 3 months. I think I've officially lost my mind! This is what I have lined up:

Oct 18 - Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon http://www.freepmarathon.com/
Nov 7 - Rockhead Marathon http://www.rockheadrace.com/
Jan 9 - Disney 1/2 Marathon
Jan 10 - Disney Marathon http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dwws/en_US/events/eventDetail/detail?name=WdwMarathonDetailPage&bhcp=1