The Frye Island Marathon - State 21 {Maine}

I had a panic attack in Maine while Drew & I sat on the deck of the chicken coop we were supposed to sleep in, wrapped in towels to keep the monster mosquitos from devouring us, drinking wine and recounting marathons. I got to Maine, which was supposed to be number 21 and I only had 20. I freaked out thinking I'd miscounted and was only on 20 and what the heck I am so dumb... then I realized I'd forgotten to count Iowa. Which really, who's surprised that silly race slipped my mind? Iowa... or as Drew likes to say, "Idiots out walking around". He really lacks respect for the state as a whole.

Anyways, back to the count. We're on 21. And if you're wondering (is anyone reading this?), yes I did start putting the numbers in the blog title so I wouldn't have to keep counting. Because states always go missing and remembering things is hard when you are 35. 

I was looking for an East Coast marathon in July and found the Frye Island Marathon! Perfect! The only problem was that there was no online registration, only an email address for the race director. So I emailed him and told him I was interested. He said the race was definitely still on and registration would go live soon enough. So we started planning our trip to Maine!

Fast forward several months and several more emails to the race director... I was panicking that this race was not real. I found results from past years and the number of participants ranged from 0 to 9 each year. And still no online registration. But our flights were booked and our chicken coops were confirmed. So we were going to Maine. 

Registration opened at the end of May. The race cost $10. Ten Dollars! I knew this was going to be a race to remember. 

On race day, Drew dropped me off at the ferry at 5:30 AM where the Mayor took 4 of us across the lake to Frye Island. The race director's brother picked us up and drove us to the start where we met up with the 5th participant and the race director gave us directions on the loop course. Then he set his watch and said go. And we were off!

I hadn't run much since Seattle and was battling injuries to my left hip flexor, my right hammy, and both calves. Originally I thought I'd shoot for a 9-minute pace and keep things nice and slow. But as we started I found myself with a gal named Julie who was training for a 100-miler and using this as a training run. We chatted and ran together and she told me she would be running very slow and walking the hills. I assumed I would pick up the pace and leave her after a few miles but quickly questioned WHY. Why do I need to run a 9-minute mile? Who am I doing this for? I was enjoying myself and her company so I stuck with her. I walked the hills, accepted cheers from the locals sitting in lawn chairs drinking beers, and enjoyed the day.

The course was a 1-mile loop followed by a 5-mile loop. Do the math and you'll realize that meant 5 5-mile loops. This seemed daunting, but even with how slow I was running, the miles flew by. I felt great.

At mile 11, we passed through the starting area and Drew was there! The race director's brother offered to let him use his bike. Drew hopped on and for the first time ever joined me on the course! I cannot even explain how much I loved this. He peddled by my side, filled my water bottle, and acted as my own personal photographer. For 15 miles!

The best part of my day. :)

I loved hearing this woman tell me her running stories!

All smiles!

My first self-supported course. That's the only aid station!

Coming into the finish!

Somewhere along the course my watch died. I'm so glad it did because I would probably have been freaking out about the end-time. Even though I said my only goal was to finish, I was still shocked when I came through the finish at 4:54. That's my slowest marathon time ever. And I know it doesn't matter. And I know I had so much fun during the entire race. But it was still a shock. I just keep reminding myself that it's not about the time. It's about the experience. I have nothing to prove.

I ended up as the 2nd place female... and also the 2nd to last female. During the 4th loop I left Julie at the aid station and picked up the pace a bit because I was feeling good. She came in about 15 minutes after me, still smiling. It was a race to remember.

However, we did not get medals! And I needed a medal! So Drew and I stopped by the Frye Island General Store (the only store/restaurant on the island) before heading back to the mainland. I found a nice Frye Island keychain and fashioned my own medal to add to the collection. Because I have to have 50 at the end of this right? Imagine if I didn't... I would be so confused with the count.

Maisy showing off the medal!

Y'all, have we even talked about Maisy? She's been around for 2 years now, but I'm not sure I have even introduced her to the blog! Because who reads blogs anymore???  Maisy is the pet-cemetery version of Mya. She looks extremely similar but is evil to her core. And now she's our only dog.

And with that, I'm taking a break... I've sworn off running for at least a month. I don't think I'll train for another marathon until at least after Christmas. I'm looking forward to slow Saturday mornings, time spent with Drew, and not being tired all the time. I'm ready for a change. I don't know what that looks like, but now I have extra time to think about it. See you next marathon!

Rock & Roll Arizona Marathon

State 17 was possibly my most proud marathon. I ran the Rock & Roll Arizona Marathon as a St. Jude Hero and raised close to $2000 for St. Jude Research Hospital. Running for kids with cancer made running feel even more important.

This race fell on MLK weekend so it worked out perfectly for a quick weekend trip. We escaped the "Icepocaplypse" happening (or not happening) in KC and spent the weekend in sunny (or not so sunny) Scottsdale.

We arrived on Friday and spent the day familiarizing ourselves with Old Town Scottsdale... which means we ate. all. the. things. We decided we really like Scottsdale. That evening we drove out to Carefree to have dinner with my aunt and uncle. 

Saturday morning had us out in search of carbs. We received so many recommendations for where to eat in Scottsdale, but my favorite by far was the Daily Dose Diner. The breakfast was amazing and I had what was seriously the best pancake of my life. Every pancake I have will try to live up to that pancake and probably fail. Sorry pancakes.

Off to the expo:

Let's rock this!

This was my first R&R marathon. I've heard mixed reviews but they are supposed to be well-planned and very efficient when it comes to the expo, start, finish... yada yada. It was fine. I didn't have any complaints, but it wasn't as flashy as I thought it would be. It was pretty similar to other bigger races I've done. 

After the expo we headed to Tempe to check out the ASU campus and find a spot to watch the KSU basketball game. ASU has a fun bar-district right off campus where we made ourselves at home. The best part was climbing "A" Mountain! It's a tiny little hike but such a cool thing to find right in the middle of civilization. My favorite part of visiting different states is seeing all of the unique parts of each city/town/state. An on-campus mountain seems pretty crazy when you come from Kansas.

Everyday an adventure.

Race Day: Let's do this.

Racing was not actually in the plan for this race. Checking off a state and getting in a good long training run was. I'm training for my first ultra-marathon and this race fit perfectly into my training schedule. 

Drew dropped me off at the start an hour early so I could warm up and get in a few extra miles before the actual race started. It sounds a little crazy, but doing a 30 mile training run is so much easier if you have a crowd and aid stations for 26 of it!

The race started in downtown Pheonix and ran through Scottsdale and then ended in Tempe. The weather could not have been more perfect. It was cool and overcast and excellent for running. 

Run Run Run.

The views made this race. Everywhere we ran, we were running toward mountains. Even though we never left the city, we were surrounded by the beauty of nature. I felt such a sense of calm just gazing at those mountains as I ran. 

My goal was to stick with the 3:45 pace group, but I started to feel a bit claustrophobic in the crowd. I pulled ahead and seriously enjoyed running my own race. I was in the zone.

The only mishap came around mile 8 when I started to feel some serious chaffing in my left underarm. I've never experienced this but I guess it came from wearing a tank top in the middle of January. My armpits were not ready for it! I pulled into an aid station where they saved me with copious amounts of vaseline and I was off on my merry way.

Around mile 16 I stopped for a potty break. When I returned to running I could feel my pace slow. I wasn't upset about it though. I just kept moving forward, enjoying every moment of the run. We hit an out-and-back portion and it was fun to pass others in their St. Jude shirts. We shared cheers and high-fives.

Feeling amazing!

The final miles flew by, even at my slower pace. Around mile 24 I realized the race was almost over and I literally became sad about it. I have never in all of my marathons felt like I didn't want the race to end! I was having such a great time and even though my body was ridiculously tired, I wanted it to keep going! 

I finished strong and happy. I felt accomplished, and most importantly I felt like my body was capable of more! 

I collected my medal and my banana and then picked up my sweet finishers jacket! It was by far the best perk of the race. Drew waited paitiently while I had my legs massaged and then found me an almond-milk latte to warm me up. Have I mentioned what a great support he is???

30 miles total! Earned that medal!!!

After a quick shower and re-fueling, Drew and I set off to experience more of the famous in-town hiking. Driving 10 minutes to a mountain seems like a dream. We Kansans are easily impressed!  We arrived at Piestewa Peak late in the afternoon. We chose a relatively easy hike that didn't seem too populated. The climbing felt so good as it stretched my legs!

Feeling on top of the world.

Monday morning had us up early to make the most of our last morning in Arizona. We had one goal: Camelback Mountain. After pulling into the parking lot on one side of the mountain and reading multiple signs warning us of the difficulty of this climb and the need for mountain-climbing experience, we made the decision to drive to the other side of the mountain. Good idea.

We beat the crowds and had a really great time climbing up the mountain. The hike was a great workout, but we felt safe and only slightly out of our element. The views were spectacular and the weather was perfect.

This guy...

My motto for the year has been "Be Brave". I've been trying to override my initial "no" response to things that are out of my comfort zone. As we ascended the mountain I realized it was much higher than I first thought. We kept getting higher and higher and I kept trying to turn off my fear of heights. Once we came to a spot where the trail stopped and rock climbing began we took a time-out to evaluate. We had to catch our plane and continuing the rest of the way up the mountain would put us in a realy time-crunch. Plus I was really f-ing scared of going and further.

I'd like to think if we'd had more time I would have made it to the top, but who can say? We took some pics and then headed back down the mountain. I hope that someday I can make it back to Camelback and get all the way to the top. For now, these views were the best part of this trip for me.

Always reppin' KC.

Trips like these are the reason I set a goal of running a marathon in every state. Exploring this country and experiencing all that each state has to offer (especially with Drew!) is the best part of this journey. 

Now we just have to figure out where to go for state 18...

Boston

I've been pursuing this dream for a long time.  I ran my first marathon in 2006.  And I knew.  I just knew that this was it.  This is what I want.  This is who I am.  The marathon had become a part of me.

 

Even so, Boston seemed so far away.  My first race time was 4 hours and 31 minutes.  My Boston qualifying time is 3 hours and 35 minutes.  Trimming off almost an hour from my marathon time was a daunting task.  But I knew I had it in me.  I knew I would run Boston.

 

Between my first marathon in December 2006 and my first qualifying race in October 2013 there were 6 more failed attempts at a BQ.  It took seven years to qualify.  During those years I experienced setbacks and injuries.  Those seven years were full of brutally early Saturday morning long-runs, cross-training, speed work, exhaustion and burn-out.

 

During that time I hired a coach who pushed me and trained me (sometimes at 4:30 AM) and made me realize how good it feels to push myself so hard.  I met Brittney, who believed in me and wouldn't let me falter on my dream.  She even convinced me to sign up for this crazy 50-states marathon club. 

 

In those seven years I've run in terrible heat, torrential downpours, and did one crazy-stupid 20-miler on icy roads.  It wasn't as bad as the 20-miler on the treadmill.

 

Every run, every early morning, and every aching muscle has been worth it.  Because I made it. 

 

I am a Boston Marathoner.

The Boston Marathon runs on a Monday.  Marathon Monday is a state-holiday.  These people take running seriously.  Drew and I flew in late Friday night and stayed at a hotel near the airport.  Even pulling in to the hotel near midnight, there were runners everywhere.  Boston was being taken over.

 

On Saturday morning we took the subway into Cambridge to meet Brittney & Scott at our hotel.  We settled in, then headed into the city for the marathon expo.

Oh hey Bestie!

The expo was ca-razy!  It was freaking huge!  Britt and I went in on a mission.  We were there to spend money.  And we did it.  I now have a full wardrobe of Boston Marathon gear to wear whenever the occasion calls for it.  Because you know, I like people to know.

 

Usually the Boston gear is all really brightly colored blue and yellow.  We were kind of bummed that the colors this year were purple and orange.  Not exactly flattering... and not nearly as recognizable as the classic Boston colors.  But never-the-less, we loaded up.

 

After that we headed down to Fenway for a Red Sox game. 

 

Fenway with my honey.

But first we had to stop off and get some eats... and brews.  The area around Fenway is super cool with all kinds of restaurants and bars.  We had a blast!

 

Check out Britt's purple and orange.

Holy cow.  The game was so cold.  We were so glad we'd bought all that running gear because we had to put it on!  I'm wearing like 3 jackets below.

 

OMG I'm cold.

Red Sox.

After the game we be-bopped around Boston's downtown and had some dinner and more drinks. 

 

On Sunday morning I met Britt for a little shake-out run.  We decided to run across the Charles and into the city to the finish line.

 

Britt's still decked out.  She's run Boston before so she knows what's up.

It was super cool to see the finish line... even though the road was still open and we made cars stop so we could get a picture.  The whole thing seemed so surreal.

The Finish Line!

We had signed up for a bus-tour of the course for Sunday morning.  The bus drove us out to Hopkinton where the race starts, 26 miles outside of Boston.

 

We are ready!

It was cool to see the start and the little towns along the race course.  Our tour guide had some fun stories about the history of the race and he pointed out some fun spots for us to look for when we ran.

 

This is where we start!

 

After the tour, we had to head back to the expo because I realized that in my visions and dreams of running the Boston Marathon, I had envisioned myself running in all my glory, sun shining on my face, all while wearing my typical race gear of shorts and tank.  I'd brought running tights in case it got cold.  When I returned to reality I realized it was going to be freezing cold and RAINING!  And that I'd prob end up with hypothermia if I didn't better prepare.  So we loaded up on gloves and arm sleeves and parkas.  Then to dinner!

 

Boston's North End is where its at.  We made a reservation that day, so we assumed the restaurant wasn't one of the most popular since it had tables available.  Even so, this was hands-down the best Italian meal I've ever eaten! 

 

 

Hand-made pasta and eggplant parm.  Love!

Dinner was followed by a trip to the bakery for cannoli.  I can't remember the names of the two bakeries, but supposedly they compete for best cannoli in Boston.  We only tried one, but it was the best freaking cannoli of my life.  And totally worth waiting in the line that snaked out the door.

Italian pastries forever!

Okay, race day.

 

Britt and I took the subway down to the bus-loading station and checked our bags.  We loaded a bus that took us back to Hopkinton to wait around in Athlete's Village where we were provided with bagels and coffee and Gatorade while we sat around freezing our asses off.

 

These athletes are cold!

We were part of the second wave start.  So we took a nice little walk through town and found the starting line. 

We're about to run BOSTON!!!

Britt is in charge of our throw-away gear and she found us some very tasteful Chiefs sweatshirts for the occasion.  I was not sad to take this off and put it in one of the donation bins that lined the start.  I'm thinking that Boston's less-fortunate collected a lot of ugly sweatshirts this year!

Britt & I had planned on wearing our Garry Gribbles Racing Team singlets for the race so that we could represent KC.  We also thought maybe they'd feature us on the Facebook page since we were running BOSTON.  No such luck.  I was seriously devastated that we had to wear so many damn layers and look like silly fools instead of the serious athletes that we are.  I'm wearing my arm sleeves underneath my long sleeves.  It was so so cold.

Serious athletes!

Bah.  No pics from the race.  But that's okay.  It was incredible.  Definitely not how I pictured it, but incredible all the same.  When we started the rain was a mere sprinkle.  We did not let it get us down.  We were running the Boston Marathon.

 

As we progressed, the rain got heavier, then lighter, then heavy again.  I tried to focus on being in the moment, taking it all in, enjoying the experience.  Despite the rain, the crowds were huge.  Every small town we ran through was out in force.  It feels really special to have so many people acknowledge something that is so important to you.  It was such an amazing feeling.

 

Several months back, we decided that we weren't going to wear our Garmin watches during Boston.  We wanted to enjoy the race and not worry about our time.  It was a weird feeling not checking my splits and keeping tallies on our pace, but it was really cool too.  We walked through the water stations, took several bathroom breaks, and stopped to chat for a couple of minutes when we saw the boys around mile 18.  Time was not a concern.

 

We dominated the infamous Newton hills that culminate in what is known as Heartbreak Hill.  I was feeling good, not great.  The last few miles were tough.  It was cold.  I knew I hadn't trained as hard as I had for other races and I could feel my endurance lagging.  But the crowds kept us going.  As we got closer to Boston the crowds increased.  At one point a crazy hipster in thick-framed lab goggles leaned over the railing and screamed at us "You're running the Boston Marathon!"  It is the single most vivid memory I have of the race.  I will never forget that feeling. 

 

We were so glad that we had worn our race singlets, even if they did look a bit goofy over our long sleeves.  Matching is always a good idea.  It brings attention and people are more likely to cheer for you.  We constantly heard shouts of "Go Kansas City!" throughout the race.  See?  We were totally repping our city!

 

As we closed in on the finish, I knew I was totally depleted.  We pushed our way down the finish shoot and crossed the finish line hand-in-hand.  We did it.  We were Boston marathoners.

 

This is where it got ugly.  Running in 40 degree rain is one thing.  Stopping is another.  Although the volunteers were super quick to wrap us up in our (super-fancy) mylar blankets and even opened our water bottles for us, it wasn't enough.  The cold quickly set in.  We were soaking wet and about a mile and a half from the park where we could pick up our checked bags containing dry clothes. 

 

As we plodded along, I became colder and colder and grumpier.  By the time we made it to pick up our bags, I had completely lost the functioning of my hands.  I couldn't feel my feet. There was no way I could even open my bag to get to my dry clothes, let alone get them on.  And then we found out the subway station was closed.

 

I'm not going to lie.  I went to a dark place.  I don't think I've ever been so miserable in my life.  We headed in the direction of our hotel, which was a few miles away, and stopped at a little snack shop in the park for coffee.  As Britt was gathering her things she spotted a cute little dog with his cute little family and stopped to pet it and chat.  In my most saten-like voice I screamed at her, "Brittney!  I'm going to kill you!  Get your stuff and let's go!" 

 

Not my proudest moment, nor one that she will ever let me live down.  But she grabbed here stuff and we made our way toward Cambridge.  Praise the Lord that we stumbled on another train stop which took us across the river, saving us another mile of walking.  I sat on the train, completely drenched and shaking uncontrollably.  I have never been so happy and relieved as I was when we arrived back at our hotel. 

 

I immediately headed to the shower where I stayed for maybe an hour, just letting the hot water wash over me.  Drew, who is seriously the best, came back to our room with a venti hot chocolate from the Starbucks in the hotel lobby.  It was maybe the best thing I've ever consumed. 

 

After recovering the feelings in my limbs and returning to my happy place, we met Brittney and Scott for drinks and snacks at the hotel restaurant.

 

Proudly wearing our medals!

We had dinner out and then dessert at Shake Shack, all the while showing off our Boston pride.

We earned these medals!  And milk-shakes.

 

 

Tuesday was our last day in Boston.  We headed down to the harbor to check out more of the city.  I just loved how the entire city of Boston embraced the marathon.  It was like we were rockstars. 

 

Boston Strong.

 

Seriously, he's the best.

 

We also made our way to the Harvard campus to soak up some knowledge.  Wouldn't you know it?  Britt and I had accidentally worn the matching shirts we bought when we BQ'd in Chicago.  She is maybe my soul mate. 

 

Soul sisters.

Brittney & Scott had an earlier flight than us, so we had lunch on our own and then decided to check out the JFK museum that afternoon. 

JFK.

The view from the museum.

And then it was back to KC for us.  The Boston Marathon was over. 

When arriving back, I was surprised by a few things.  First, when I arrived back to school, my kids were freaking out.  Apparently my substitute had put a race tracker up on the overhead so that the students could actually watch me as I progressed.  She said that several students and teachers would stop by all morning to see how I was doing.  I found out a handful of other teachers had the same thing up in there classrooms.  I have never felt more love than I did when I got back to school and had so many students and teachers congratulating me and acting genuinely excited for me.  I was like a celebrity!

The other surprise was how many people asked what my time was.  Remember, we didn't run with our watches or have a goal.  We took lots of breaks and our finish time of 3:45 in no way represents our typical marathon times.  Yet EVERYONE asks what my time was.  No one has ever asked me about my race time in other marathons.  Seriously.  No one asked when I ran a 3:24 in Memphis, or a 3:28 in Duluth.  I felt like I had to add a disclaimer and tell people that I wasn't actually racing.  I'm sure no one cares or even registers that my time wasn't great, but it was just ironic that of all things people cared about the time. 

Just a few other pics. Like I said, Boston loves the marathon.  The whole city was decked out in marathon swag.  Every store-front and restaurant had marathon daphodills in their doorways.  They were yellow daphodills planted in blue pots to represent the race. Sam Adams even had a special beer brewed just for race week called the 26.2 Brew. 

Marathon signage.

The subway stations were lined with marathon marketing!

Brittney arrived a day before us, and when she went down to the start there was a memorial set up for the victims of the 2013 bombing.  But by the time we arrived on Saturday it had been taken down.  I'm not sure why, but my hope is that there is a permanent memorial in the works.

The bombing memorial.

I'm not sure where I go from here.  I've been pursuing this goal of Boston for the longest time and I'm not sure what to do now that I've achieved it.  I've been taking some time off from running this summer.  I've signed up to pace a couple of half-marathons this fall, but won't be running another full marathon until February of 2016.  For now, I guess I'm just trying to let my body rest and figure out what comes next.  I do know that I want to go back to Boston again someday, maybe many times.  I've qualified for next year's race, but I think I'm going to hold off and hopefully make Boston an every 5-year thing.  So, hopefully you'll see me back there in 2020!

Thank you for all the love and support through this journey!

The Louisiana Marathon

Marathon number 9 was all sorts of fun.  The Louisiana Marathon was held in Baton Rouge, so Britt and I made a girls' weekend of it.  The boys stayed home.  And while I was sad not to have my number 1 fan there, we still had a great time.

Britt was impressed that this man was playing a keyboard while waiting for his flight.

We arrived in Baton Rouge, checked into our hotel, and made our way downtown for the expo.

Bib Number.

We stopped for pizza at a place called Schlitz & Giggles (hilarious!) and met the vice president of the 50 States Club.  Britt thought he was our waiter and struck up a conversation with him only to realize he was there to run his 360th marathon, not serve us pizza.

Bien Venue!

We decided to eat at the Pre-Race Pasta dinner... or "Pastalaya" as they called it.  We were both very excited because Bill Rogers (Boston Billy) was a featured speaker.  He won the Boston Marathon 4 times, so we had high expectations.  He stepped up and garbled some nonsense which left us wondering if he was perhaps high on drugs. 

The next speaker was named Matt Long and we'd never heard of him.  He turned out to be AMAZING.  He was a NYC Firefighter/Iron Man who was run over by a bus, given a 5% chance to live, and came back to do run another marathon.  If that's not inspiration, I don't know what is.  He totally made up for Billy.

On race morning we were supposed to take a shuttle from the hotel to the race start.  But when we came down to catch the shuttle, we were told that the shuttle wasn't coming.  F.  Luckily we were able to grab a ride with some runners who had driven to Baton Rouge.  Talk about unnecessary stress!

Good morning, Louisiana!

The Capital.

This is only the third year of the Louisiana Marathon, but it was very well organized.  Once we got to the race start, things went very smoothly.

Our goal going into this had been to break 3:30.  I was feeling very intimidated by this number.  If you talked to me during training, you know that I was less than dedicated this time around.  I felt like the lack of recovery from Chicago, plus the holidays and cold weather were all used as excuses not to train.  I only got a couple of really long runs in and my weekly mileage was low.  I knew Britt had really been training, so I was concerned about keeping up.

The race started and the weather was perfect.  We ran through beautiful neighborhoods and I ogled over the green yards with flowers and orange trees in the front yards.  We ran past plantations and through the LSU campus.  Our pace was quick, but I felt great.

Then the feeling you never want to feel in a race came... I needed a porta-potty.  Nooooo!  As we approached the aid station at mile 14 I saw one up ahead.  I told Britt I was going to sprint ahead and to go on without me, that I'd catch up.

After the quickest potty break ever, I hit the gas and sped off to find Britt.  It didn't take me long as I saw her up ahead running the opposite direction of the race towards me.  She's crazy.  We'd lost a minute and a half and we were determined to make up time. 

Unfortunately, my mental state was not where it should have been.  I was seriously struggling, but when I checked in with myself, I couldn't find anything wrong with my body.  I was tired, but nothing hurt.  I just wasn't there. 

I pushed on for as long as I could.  I didn't want to let Britt down.  But I knew I was slowing her down.  Finally at mile 22 I stopped to walk and told her to go on.  She yelled at me.  She's scary in a Jillian Michaels kind of way.  But I knew I couldn't hold her pace.

I let myself walk for one minute then picked it back up.  I instantly felt better.  My pace wasn't as quick, but it was still a good pace.  I made myself smile and enjoy the last miles while I pushed myself to finish strong. 

I crossed the finish line in 3:33:36.  And I felt great!  I was so happy to PR, despite my lack of training and mid-race potty break. 

I hobbled through the finishers' shoot looking for Britt, but she was no where to be found.  Turns out she crossed the line about 3 minutes before me and hopped the barricades to try to see me finish.  She must have just missed me!

Eventually we found each other and made our way to what will forever be known as the best post-race party there ever was.

Post Race fun.

This post race party was serious.  Tons of restaurants were there serving up Cajun food, including an entire "vegan village" serving up vegan red beans & rice and jambalaya.  Heaven.  I was in Heaven.

There was also live music and beer.  Lots and lots of beer.



This dog is even enjoying the beer.

We had our fair share of beer.  Maybe more than our fair share.

Did I mention there was beer?

We finished running around 11:00 in the morning.  We closed down the party around 4:00 in the afternoon.  Runner's high, beer, delicious food, and sunshine.  What more could a girl ask for?!?!

The next day we headed out for beignets at Coffee Call.  They are supposed to be famous for their incredible beignets which are said to be even better than Café DuMonde in New Orleans.  Yeah, I haven't heard of that place either.  But it sounds legit.

Our order of beignet fingers were ah-mazing.

There's a reason the south is high on the obesity scale.

The place was bumpin'.  We were lucky to find a couple of stools at the bar.  People, these things were good!

OMB.  Oh my beignet!

Our next stop was LSU to meet Mike the Tiger.  On the cab ride there I discovered that Britt thought Mike was a statue.  She thought we were driving all that way to see a statue.  Goodness.

I told your ass I was a tiger!

Mike is real.  In fact, he's the sixth Mike the Tiger in LSU history.  And he was napping.

It turns out we had more fun with Mike the Statue.

Can't. Get. Up.

I'll just stay here.

We followed some athletic looking fellows to find that the LSU track team was practicing.  This made me so so so happy!  We grabbed some seats in the bleachers and watched the whole thing.  These folks were fast!

Track!

Wanna race?

After track practice we decided to check out the stadium.  It was all closed/locked up, obviously.  But some worker left a gate unlocked and crazy-Brittney convinced me we should break in!  She's such a bad influence.

What up SEC???

I may have enjoyed the shenanigans and come up with some of my own.

Don't I look official?

Before heading out we had another photo shoot with Mike.  I was finally able to make it up on top.

Senior Pictures!

What do you think the stranger/photographer thinks of us?



We are Boston Qualifiers.  We do what we want.

I'm gonna rip your damn face off!

From there we were off to the airport and headed back home.  We had an incredible weekend full of fun!  I'm so grateful to have such a fun running partner, even though she can be a mean and scary lady at times.  I can't wait to see how far she pushes me in marathon number 10!