Quite the Adventurous Weekend!

It’s Boston Marathon Monday!!

Last night, I had a very odd dream about Kara Goucher. Apparently, I was in Boston to cheer for her and only her during the race…you know, since Kara and I are big buds and all. After all, I was there to cheer her on in Houston at the Olympic Trials, then I stopped during the Rock N Roll NOLA Marathon to scream for her as she ran by…yep, I’d consider our friendship quite solid. Right.

I know she’s going to run an awesome race in Boston and I’m so excited for everyone participating!

On top of my crazy dream, I had quite the eventful weekend, let me tell you!

It began on Friday afternoon and the end of our team’s Relay for Life Silent Auction! We raised over $8,000 which is awesome compared to what we raised last year…AND I came home with a few great items at that! Score!

First item I won - this beautiful new wreath made by a cancer survivor (even better)! The blue/pink reminded me of my wedding colors (I know, a bit ridiculous but what can I say?) so I bid on it. I might have had to fight a few people off in the last few moments of the auction, but I won it! Yay!

I also won this basket, full of smell good items…Diva scent, of course! I’m excited to use the wash and the candle, not sure yet what I’ll do with the shawl. I’ll admit – I bid on this basket mainly because I love Tyler candles and Glamorous Wash. Ok glad to have that off my chest! :0)

Friday night, Jason and I had a belated Anniversary dinner at a local fancy restaurant.

Side note: Here I go talking about weddings again, but this one was super exciting for me! I haven’t been able to get these capris to fit in a long time. This outfit was my rehearsal dinner outfit and since then, I purchased brown capris to wear with the jacket/top because the actual outfit capris no longer fit. Guess what?! Friday night, the capris buttoned AND fit (as opposed to buttoning but still being too tight)!!! YAY!

Ok back to dinner! Remember that surprise I told you about last week? Well, dinner was only 1/2 of the surprise!

Jason surprised me with tickets to Wicked in New Orleans!!! Eeep! We saw Wicked on Broadway in New York and were instantly in love! We are both SO excited to see this again we can hardly contain ourselves! Only a few more weeks and we’ll be there! Yay!

Back to dinner again…

This is their famous fried asparagus appetizer. It’s amazing, seriously! 
(And it reminded me of a Twitter hash tag. Social media, much? Yep.)

 

He had the Surf-N-Turf and I had the Duck! Everything was delicious!

Dessert was incredible as well – simply called “Bananas Foster”. If you know me, you know my absolutely all time hands down favorite dessert ever is Ohana Bread Pudding with Ice Cream and Bananas Foster Sauce. This dessert wasn’t quite as dreamy, but came awful close. One thing missing, bread pudding. Maybe I should suggest that next time?

On Saturday morning, I ran a mud run!

I can honestly say I’ve never been THAT muddy in my entire life. More on the mud run tomorrow (complete with video thanks to my amazing waterproof camera)!

Saturday night was Relay for Life Colleges Against Cancer at a local college campus.

For it’s first year, they put on a great event! I can’t wait to see how this event grows in the future!

Finally on Sunday afternoon (after much drama with my grandfather’s medications…thankfully we got it all straight), Jason and I put the finishing touches on our flower beds! I’m sure the neighbors loved my frantic dancing and flailing of arms every time I saw a wasp. Yep, I despise those things!!

It’s hard to work with such a large area, but after several years of replanting and moving things around, I think we finally have it the way we like it. That is, until next year, of course! 

How did you spend your weekend? Anyone race, do anything exciting, or spend your weekend relaxing? Please share!! :0)

Sweet Redemption

I’ll be back tomorrow with a full race recap of my experience with the Rock n Roll New Orleans Marathon – but for now, I want to share a few thoughts I had while running this race.

For starters, I looked to Rock n Roll New Orleans as my “redemption run”. This was my 4th Full Marathon and up until Sunday, I had yet to achieve my goal. With two fun Disney fulls and one injured full under my belt, I knew Sunday had to be different.

Last year, I trained for the Houston Marathon. I put everything into training and only weeks before the race, I became injured. I developed tendonitis and swelling in my left knee which led to 8 weeks of Physical Therapy and subsequent ITBand issues.

I was crushed that I couldn’t run the Houston Full. Along with the average marathon, Houston also hosted the Olympic Trials that weekend. Watching Kara Goucher, Shalane Flanagan, Meb Keflezighi, Desi Davila, Ryan Hall, and all the other Olympic Trials hopefuls compete for the title was incredibly inspiring. I stood on the sidelines with my leg wrapped in an ACE bandage and I wished with every fiber in my being that I could go the distance, too.

On race day, I wanted to cry as I pinned the Half Marathon race bib on my shirt. I was advised by my physical therapist to run the Half Marathon instead of the Full. At the time, I knew it was the best decision but my stubborn brain didn’t want to accept it.

As I ran the Houston Half, I kept thinking back to Kara who pushed through her pain to qualify for the Olympic Trials. I hobbled along, pushing through my pain as best as possible and I gained a whole new respect for professional athletes. No, I’m not comparing myself to them AT ALL, cause I’m not. I’m not even saying that I understand them because I’m definitely not that caliber of a runner, I simply gained a new found respect for them.

I finished that Half in tears, disappointed in myself…disappointed my body let me down….disappointed at life in general. How could running, something I love SO much hurt so bad?

Flash forward to Sunday. A few weeks prior to the race, I heard that professionals like Kara Goucher, Shalane Flanagan, and Mo Farah were on schedule to run the Rock n Roll NOLA Half Marathon. I could not believe I was about to travel a very similar path, just a few (or maybe more) minutes behind such greats! My running buddy Heather and I examined the course to see if we might catch of glimpse of these awesome athletes run by and as it turns out, WE DID!



There’s the pace truck followed closely behind by Mo!








Shalane and Kara!!




As the athletes flew by us, we stopped to cheer them on. I could not believe that I was running on the same roads as these incredible ladies (and gentlemen)!

We began running again and that’s when the realization hit me. THIS DAY was IT. Last year, I couldn’t even run 2 miles without excruciating pain and here I was running a marathon at a great pace with no pain at all! I kept thinking about Kara and how ironic it was that she was in New Orleans, too…just like Houston last year! I’ll admit, I told Heather my thoughts and I teared up a bit - I honestly could not believe everything that was happening at that moment. Kara will never know how much of an inspiration she’s been to me. I held onto my thoughts for several miles and continued to let them roll around in my mind.

Here it was…my redemption run….I promise you, redemption never tasted so sweet!