Archive | October 5, 2009

Clearly a trip to Mars, PA is exciting.

Oct5

I haven’t blogged in a few days… Weekends seem to be so busy that I just don’t get a chance! All the exciting things happen on the weekends too.

This will be a weekend recap post. All the pictures are from Saturday though. Really this is a Saturday recap…

FRIDAY!

There was work. I got home from work and ate and ate and then watched The Ghost Whisperer. hahaha. Aaron (boyfriend’s) band, Meeting of Important People, had one of their songs played during the show. Want to hear the song? Click here. Okay done plugging his band…

Sooo I stayed in Friday night to rest up for my long run on Saturday morning.

SATURDAY

I woke up bright and early (6:45 AM), forced myself to eat some oatmeal (with mashed banana), coffee and a piece of bread. The bread was consumed in the car on the way to North Park.

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It was only like 48 degrees or something outside so I wore a shorts, tank top, jacket and a hat. I’ve never run in a hat before. Don’t ..like..it.

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I got to North Park by 8:10 and set off for 11 miles. This is the first time I didn’t stop my Garmin when I stopped for water or something so the pace is TRUTHFUL. How about that. I’m trying to remember things that happened during the run. The first lap around the lake wasn’t bad. I got back to my car and was at 4.88 miles. Who told me it was FIVE miles around the lake??? Liars! I thought about taking off my jacket at that point because it had warmed up a bit but didn’t feel like taking the time to stop at my car. Must not stop the Garmin. I checked my pace at this point and it was about 9:33. I was okay with that. I was hoping to maintain about that pace for the entire run. Well…at this point I had only stopped at one water fountain. The stops start adding up for me in the second half of the runs usually…

So I continued along on my second lap around the lake. Around mile 7 I’m pretty sure I couldn’t feel my legs anymore. I kind of like that feeling… weird. It’s good. The first 4 miles are always the worst. My legs are usually fighting with me up until that point. And then they give in…and I can’t feel them. Awesome.

So I had to run past my car a second time to get to 11 miles. That’s terrible. I finally got to 11 miles and stopped right that second…and almost got hit by a biker. She was on the sidewalk! She started screaming at me that I was on the wrong side of the sidewalk. I said something like, shouldn’t you be on the road. That was a bad move. She started screaming about me wanting her to get hit by a truck as she biked away. Way to end my 11 mile run.

As you can see below, I didn’t maintain a 9 1/2 minute mile pace at all. Eh. Whatever. The goal for the half marathon is just to finish. I can do that. I don’t want to hold myself to any time goals.
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I got back to my car, stretched and then started taking off my clothes in the parking lot. Haha. I was freezing and covered in sweat. I put on a sweatshirt and headed home.

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Aaron came over around noon and we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and then went to Mars, PA for their annual Apple Festival.

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Um yes that would be a flying saucer. Mars mascot is the Fighting Planets. lol.
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The main street is called Pittsburgh Street… I wish it were Main Street. I want to live in a town where there is a main street.
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There were surprisingly few apples at this festival. Aaron got a caramel apple though.

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I like this picture:
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We wandered around the festival and came across Sweet House Bake Shop:
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Look how cute:
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Eventually we made it back to the city, Aaron dropped me off, I tried to nap for an hour then sat around the house drinking coffee for a while. Eventually friend, Laura and I decided to go to Aaron’s show downtown. It was kind of early though so we went to Sonoma Grille first and each had a glass of wine. It was called Five Reds or something. Sonoma had WAY too many choices. I just picked something random. It was pretty good.
Around 9, we walked down to the street where they were playing. It was a closed event for downtown city residents but…Laura and I just slipped through the fence. A few pictures for you:

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So that was Saturday…. Sunday was full of church activities and rushing around and watching part of the Steeler’s game sort of. Yep. Alright it’s time for me to go to bed. 10:43 PM! I may not have time to blog again tomorrow. Sigh. I have to go to an event for work right after work… Ah well.

Okay goodnight all!