Michigan Vacay Recap

And I'm back in Florida after a most lovely and winterful vacation to the mitten (that means Michigan cause it's shaped like a mitten, get it?). I flew up on Thursday night and had a great long weekend visiting one of my bestest friends and her fiance, who is very nearly a bestie at this point. Love him. You all may know them as Red and Spike.

The Tour de Mitten began on Friday with a drive up to Grand Rapids.



Our stop in Grand Rapids was to check out the wedding venue and the famous artwork "La Grande Vitesse." We then drove to Traverse City for the Winter Wow Fest. This festival was totally my idea and I must have said how ridiculous the 5K portion of that idea was about nine hundred times while running said 5K.

The driving portion required copious amounts of snacks. Ok, let's be honest here, these aren't snacks. They are sugar comas waiting to happen. At least there is a water in this photo. I probably should have just gotten a diet coke to wash it all down. Cause you know...diet coke is totally the calorie savor.


Upon arrival in Traverse City there wasn't much by way of snow but there was this ice on the railings by the lake. And since I was triple dog dared...


After we ate dinner (Yay Mexican and margaritas before a 5K!) it was flurrying a bit and I hoped for some snow in the morning. Sure enough, Saturday morning I woke to an excited Red telling me to look outside. I squealed in delight at the beautiful white blanket that covered the ground. I'm such a Floridian.


Pre-5K we filled up on cherry pancakes, since Traverse City is the cherry capital and we all wanted to be certain we'd crap our pants half way through the race. Heh. Go read the race report HERE and come back. Yes, I'm the idiot who thought a 5K in the snow would be a great idea. Did I mention it was a 4 loop course? And no, it wasn't in a living room, but nice thought Gatorate.

With the 4 loop race completed and with the help of a small child, I made my very first snow angel.

We did a little shopping in Traverse City and stopped to take some photos. They included this awesome hand puppet fight that Spike and I got into. There was no honey badger so I chose the squirrel and bested Spike's porcupine with the flying squirrel attack. Flawless victory!


We left Traverse City and headed toward Lansing where we ate entirely too much sushi. Or not enough. It was one of the two. And on Sunday there was some church going and some family time with the Spikes. I'm totally prepared for the upcoming nuptials now and know everyone's name by heart. Score!

The final stop of the tour on Sunday was to Hell which is pretty odd since we went to church and then Hell. That doesn't seem normal but oh well. We're all a little kooky.

I had such a total blast in Michigan and am so happy I got to see so much snow! It was perfect! I also ate and drank entirely too much and must now detox. That little 5K didn't even put a dent in what I did. But it was vacation and it was exactly what the doctor ordered. Thanks again Red and Spike, I love you guys!

Happy President's Day all! Lloyd and I have lots of snuggling time to catch up on.

Thankful Thursday

I have the day off today to pack and head to the airport later to go see my favorite redhead and bestie Morgan! We have plans to head up to Traverse City for this fun festival. I'm praying for snow because my Floridian self wants to make a snow angel, snow man, or some other such snow made object. I'm also hoping to have another sushi eating contest with Spike. I still say I won the last one based on sushi to weight ratio alone.

We also have plans to do some wedding stuff and I've been promised that even though I'm sleeping in the guest room AKA The Wedding Prep Room there is still room for me to sleep amongst all of the glitter. Just kidding, I don't think there's glitter....

Anyway since I've really taken this week to dive into tri training I've been a spinning and swimming machine. Well, more like a machine who needs a serious tune-up. In any event today I'm thankful for spin class. It's a seriously awesome way to get reacquainted with the bike when I don't have time to schlep Dolly out to the trails.

Of course, the first two classes reminded me how much spinning can hurt...

So inappropriate right? Heh.

In any event I love me a good spin class and am and thankful to be past the aforementioned, ahem, hurty-bits.

I'll be back from the mitten state on Monday and have some fun stuff planned for the blog next week since it's my birthday week. Email me if you need gift ideas. Hee hee!

What are you thankful for today?

Wordless Wednesday

The co-workers and me.

The Reporter and Me.

Flo Rida.

Shirtless-shoulder-riding-on-his-bodygaurd-Flo Rida.

Rock N Roll Half Marathon St Pete Race Report

The night before the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in St Petersburg, FL, I had a horrific dream. My friend Strawberry E (who wasn't even going to St Pete so I'm not sure how she ended up in this dream) and I were going to the race start and I told her that we were 30 minutes late. We parked and ran up to the race start. The meanie dream lady race director told us too bad that we couldn't race.

I told her I wanted a refund and she responded by looking at my Garmin and saying, "You haven't run enough for a refund." I told her I was in taper and she said, "You don't need to taper for a 1/2." At about this point in my dream I was devastated. And then I woke up with two more hours to sleep and ponder my stress level. Hahaha.

Fortunately, my actual race went nothing like my dream and I could not have asked for a better race day. My alarm went off on time and I headed to St. Pete to meet up with The Reporter. She and I were both a little concerned about how we would feel racing after completing a Miami race just two weeks ago. We both joked that we had that excuse in our back pocket should we suck it up at RnR.

It was down right cold for us Floridians at the start of the race. The temps were in the mid-40's but the wind chill made it feel like the 30's. We huddled together with a group of runners that just kept getting bigger. Apparently we all decided to do what the penguins do and share our body heat. It was pretty funny.

The Reporter and I separated and headed to our corrals and I was happy to see a few familiar faces while we waited to start. I LOVE the time separated corral starts. It makes the start so much less congested and it seems that everyone in my corral was where they should be because we were all around the same pace. Hallelujah!

I had plans to meet up with my buddy Gatorate so he could pace me but I didn't see him until about mile 3 or so. He was in the back of my corral and had to sprint to catch up to me. But considering how fast he is it probably wasn't that difficult.

We chatted and ran along and I didn't drop my throw down hoodie and gloves until about mile five. I was trying to stay close to the 1:45 pace group because I really just wanted to run a 1:44 for a PR. As we ran along I kept seeing my Garmin under 8 minutes per mile. I thought we were running faster than a 1:45 but I just stayed with the group and when we seemed to hit cruise control by mile 8 I knew the main pacer was just giving us a good buffer.

The course itself was flat and the only weather issue was a little bit of wind but I'm used to windy runs along the bay where I live. St Pete is a beautiful place to run so that defnitely helped.

Around miles 9 and 10 I was wondering if I was going to bonk at some point but I just kept telling myself that I was going to PR and make up for the shit show that was Miami.

When we got to mile 10 I knew the PR was in the bag. I was feeling the pace but not struggling too badly and when we got to mile 11 I told Gatorate I was done talking. Heh. He said it was cool and continued to tell me awesome stories of his hash runs and pointed out a statue in a local park that the hashers had put flour on. Let's just say it was like a Betty Crocker bra on this poor marble lady. So yeah...it was awesome.


The picture above is proof that I take some awful race photos. I look like a deranged person. It cracks me up. I was still wearing my long sleeved shirt that I had intended to throw down during the race. I wound up wearing it the entire race and took it off for the post race pics because I wanted to show off my new outfit. Poor fashion planning on my part but I had no idea I'd be as cold as I was.

As we got to the 12 mile mark Gatorate reminded me and those around us that all we had to do now was smile for the camera and get our PRs. He yelled for me to kick it in as soon as we could see the finish line. I admit I probably picked up the pace a tad bit too far out but what the hell. I do what my pacer says.

We got toward the clock and Gatorate was yelling "One forty-four! Go! Go!" And I looked at the clock and thought, "Ack! I gotta get there before one forty-five!" But as I crossed I remembered that I was ahead of the clock and saw the 1:43 on my Garmin and knew I had PR'd. Hallelujah! Suck it Miami!

Me and Gatorate. Thanks so very much Gatorate - you are a fantastic pacer!

Happy to share that The Reporter also had a PR! Woo hoo! Congrats girl!

New outfit is Moving Comfort.

Final thoughts on Rock N Roll:

There was some controversy leading up to this race because of other local races being in competition and the Rock N Roll brand being purely for profit. In addition there were some parking fees and shuttle fees that a lot of folks were surprised by, although I think most of the parking fees had more to do with the city or venue versus the race series from what I've read. I admit to being surprised by the fees as well. However, when I look at what it cost me in Miami versus what I wound up paying yesterday, I got off pretty easy in St Pete.

The race itself was well organized and the post race goodies were nice with more than just a bagel and a banana. The best part was the "free" Flo Rida concert. It's not every day that you get to watch a big name artist with all your running buds.

Granted, I had a free race entry since my company sponsored those of us who wanted to run it, I don't feel as though it was a race I'd never consider again. I will absolutely still support the local races but Rock N Roll does a good job overall.

Final Time: 1:43:21