Jackasses

In the span of two hours at work tonight, three separate people came in and asked me where the Beyond section was. Hahahaha!! That's soooooo funny!! I've NEVER heard THAT one before!! So very clever!!

I think the rain makes people stupider.

Just another day in New Port Nowhere :-P

Mondays blow

Rode the bike today for an hour. No big whoop. Nothing exciting. Still look like a dork, butt still hurts, just another day, blah blah blah.

Ordered a new pair of running shoes this morning. My shins are starting to twinge a little, which usually means my shoes are wearing out. It's time--they have over 400 miles on them.

Song of the day: "Come a Little Closer" by Dierks Bentley. Mostly because I saw the video this morning. Crazy-hot song/video. Mmmmmm, Dierks.

Closed Down the Chili's

Work didn't go as badly as I had expected last night. It just went by mind-numbingly S-L-O-W-L-Y because we were completely dead. Afterward, my friend and I headed over to the Chili's in our shopping plaza and drank our troubles away for two and a half hours. There must be some good tequila in those Presidente margaritas, because I was goofy and giggly. It was fun, something I should probably do more often. Just maybe not drink quite so much next time :)

She's got me half-convinced to try the internet dating thing again, but with eHarmony this time. Maybe I will, but not right now. It's not that I don't want a relationship; I just don't feel like I have much to offer right now, what with me still being in school and my living situation being what it is and all. And I'm kind of obsessive about the marathon/tri thing, so I'm not the right girl for every guy. I've learned that from personal experience. I know there's someone out there who is right for me; I'm just not sure who or where he is.

18 Miles

Ran 18 miles this morning at 5:15 AM. Felt pretty decent for most of it, got a little hot with about three miles to go. I figure I'm supposed to ponder life and explore my deepest thoughts while running, but the deepest I got was, "Endorphins are a myth. At a certain point, this shit just hurts." Sorry. But if you'd like to know some of the inane things that ran through my mind this morning, read on.

*5 AM is really, really dark. Really.
*5 AM sucks, no matter what you're doing.
*Even at 5 AM, it's friggin' HOT.
*Frogs totally creep me out.
*When you're half-asleep, every twig that falls off a tree into the street looks like a snake in the shadows.
*Armadillos are kinda gross. Like possums with a hard candy coating.
*I really need to move. I hear the Yukon is nice this time of year.
*It's friggin' HOT.
*Since they're clearing that big ditch down the road, exactly *where* are all the gators and snakes that lived in there going to go? Running the neighborhood, most likely. We'll probably be on the news. (Looking behind me periodically to check for gators.)
*A Labor Day marathon in Mississippi was a FANTASTIC idea!!
*After 7 years, 13-2/3 marathons, and at least 10 half marathons, Gu STILL makes me gag.
*It's friggin' HOT.

After Thursday's hills, yesterday's brick, and today's run, my legs are tired. Since our AM was practicing creative scheduling, I'm working 5-11 tonight, so I figured I should get my long run over with today, but that leaves me with a free day tomorrow. Maybe I'll hit the pool.

Song of the day: "Songs About Rain" by Gary Allan. Come on--"I thought I was over you but I guess maybe I'm not; 'Cause when I let you go, looks like lonely was all that I got." There's nothing more deliciously country than that!
(**Wondering when exactly I became a redneck**)

Since it was a long run, I'm doing another one. Girl power song of the day: "Settlin'" by Sugarland. "I ain't settlin', just getting by; I've had enough so-so for the rest of my life; Tired of shootin' too low, so raise the bar high; just enough ain't enough this time." Yeah, baby.

OWorkN: I'm closing with the store manager, Sparky the Ass Clown, so the game of the evening will be Beat the Assistant Manager's Closing Time. He will see that E got us out at 10:05 on Thursday, so he'll make that his target. Except he's incompetent and too stubborn to hand the reins over to me, so he'll do it himself, which means that things will be done wrong and some things won't get done at all. And I'll just smile and nod my head at him. At least I'll get out early.
(Apparently I not only have low motivation for this job, I also don't respect "authority" figures. I think it's time to move on.)

Brick

Did a brick today, 10 miles on the bike, 3 mile run, which is what I'll be doing next Saturday. Took me about 1/2 mile to get my "road legs." The ol' stems were pretty Jello-y for a while. And since I'm still ambivalent about the bike, I thought I'd focus on the positive aspects, like I did with the treadmill.

*It's doing awesome things for my legs
*Hills are more fun. Well, going DOWN hills is fun. Going up still sucks. But not as much as running up them. At least there aren't any ginormous hills around here. Except for that one.
*Spitting off the bike is pretty fun (Yes, I spit. Get over it.)
*The neighborhood kids think the bike is cool
*Not ALL drivers are discourteous. Some actually leave for work early enough that they don't have to run over you to make it on time. Golfers late for their tee time, however, will run over any old lady pushing a carriage full of babies and puppies to get to the clubhouse (our subdivision is a golf course community.)

But my butt still hurts and I still look like a dork in my helmet :)

Now, I'm relaxing for the rest of the day. Going to the movies (by myself, yet again) to watch my movie star crush, Will Ferrell, which is mildly disturbing. What can I say? I've got a thing for funny, goofy guys. And tomorrow morning, it's 18 miles at the ass-crack of dawn. Yay. A Labor Day marathon in Mississippi was a FABULOUS idea.

Song of the day: "You Look Good in My Shirt" by Keith Urban. Just 'cuz it rocks :)

Good things about the treadmill

Okay, so I detest running on the treadmill. However, living in coastal Florida, it's the only way I can get some serious hill training in, so it's a necessary evil. Maybe if I focus on the positive aspects, I'll forget it's boring as hell.

*The dining room is climate controlled at 74F with low humidity
*I have three fans on me at all times (ceiling fan, floor stand fan, treadmill fan)
*I don't have to hose myself down with SPF 45
*I have to push myself a bit harder because it's a pain in the ass to stop and restart it on the hill program
*I have my own cheering section in the way of the Great Dane and the Min Pin (okay, so they're napping, not cheering. But I can see that they're cheering for me on the inside every time I look into their confused little eyes)

Ummm, that's it. Still boring as hell.

ORN - 4 miles of hills

Song of the day: "A Little More You" by Little Big Town. Appropriate, as there's someone I'd like to get a little more of. But, as with all my other ill-conceived mini-crushes, it ain't happening. Which is fine. He's probably too young for me, anyway ;)

Six Miles and Movies

Today's numbers:

Miles - 6
Time - 6:40 AM
Duration - 1:13:37
Temp - 77F
Humidity - 84%

Yeah, definitely NOT a dry heat. I was schvitzing within 15 minutes. Ah, the joys of training for a fall marathon in Florida :)

After a nice, cool shower, I settled in and watched The Other Boleyn Girl, which was really good. Who knew Anne Boleyn was such a bitch? (I'm sure some literary license was taken, but still...) So I have TONS of free time over the next month and a Netflix account. If you have any movies that you absolutely LOVED and feel I must see, hit me up, either here or at marathongirl74@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Busy (but largely unproductive) weekend

So Saturday I worked 9-5 at The Hellhole, which was super-fun as always. It reconfirmed what I always knew--retail is not for me, and I probably shouldn't work with people :-P Although one customer told me I was very pleasant, which indicates to me that my acting skills are improving. One good thing: I got to work with one of my favorite co-workers, who had gotten a total of about six hours of sleep in the past 48 hours because his daughter is cutting her molars. He's even *more* entertaining when he's severely sleep-deprived. The goofiness level was dialed WAY up, which, of course, I enjoy immensely :) His Forrest Gump impersonation over the walkie-talkie gave me the giggles for the rest of the afternoon, and even made all the about-to-be-cranky people in line laugh. Still, I was glad to get the hell out of there for the evening.

Ate loads of Chinese food for dinner and watched "Fool's Gold." It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. One of those movies you don't have to think about too much, which was perfect after a mind-numbing day at the store. Plus, watching Matthew McConaughey run around on-screen largely shirtless isn't exactly a hardship.

Got up at the ass-crack of dawn Sunday morning, ran 16 miles in the skanky, humid, hot morning, got bitched at and dressed-down, took a nap, read for a couple of hours, and watched a marathon of "Deadliest Catch."

Today, I got up, rode 80 minutes around the neighborhood, practiced on the steno machine for two hours, went to the grocery store, watched "Definitely, Maybe" (a pretty good chick-flick,) went through my seemingly-weekly breakdown, wondering how the hell I effed up my life so bad and what I can do to fix it, then practiced for another hour, since that seems to be the only answer I can come up with to fix it. Aaaaaand now I'm here :)

Tomorrow's LSD

I'm running 16 miles tomorrow morning. Temps should be in the mid-70s with about 184% humidity. Anybody who wants to join me, meet me at my house at 5:15 AM. I'll be the idiot in the pink shirt wearing the Garmin.

On the plus side, I probably won't be fully awake until I'm about halfway done :-D

Night, y'all.

One more shot...

This message is generated as confirmation of your recent registration on Active.com. You have been successfully registered for the following:

Registration: Top Gun Triathlon VII (2008)
Purchase Date: 07/18/08
Category: Individual
Event Date: 08/02/08
Name: Shawn Newton

Summer Break!!

"School's out, the night rolls in
Man, just like a long-lost friend
You ain't seen in a while
You can't help but smile
And it's two bare feet on the dashboard
Young love in an old Ford
Cheap shades and a tattoo and a Yoohoo bottle rolling on the floorboard
Perfect song on the radio
Sing along 'cuz it's one we know
It's a smile, it's a kiss, it's a sip of wine
It's summertime, sweet summertime"

--"Summertime," Kenny Chesney

One solid month of not having to get up at 5 AM and fight the friggin' traffic 42 miles ONE WAY into Tampa. Hello, morning marathon and tri training!

Now I just need to stick to the schedule I made for myself so that I don't blow it by staying up all night reading and watching movies :-/

It's a mental illness, really...

I'm already working on a preliminary race schedule for 2009. Kinda sick, huh?

:-D

More info as it becomes available.

RR: Maverick Sprint Triathlon

Well, it was my first tri. It was supposed to be a 400-yard swim, 13 mile bike ride, and a 3 mile run. It pretty much sucked ass for me, but I'm guessing it wasn't totally *me.* NOBODY seemed happy with this race, from the fact that there was virtually no information on the website to the lack of water on the run. When we picked up our packets, he asked us if we had USAT cards. We said yes. He said, "Okay." He's supposed to check them and our IDs. Then he had the wave starts up on a board, but they were scratched out and scribbled over to the point where it was illegible. So we figured we'd just get our information from the race packet. Not so much. There were some flyers for other races, but NO INFORMATION for this race at all.

While I avoided stingrays, snapping turtles, and sharks, I *did* manage to find a damn sinkhole while walking into the Gulf for our pre-race, get-used-to- the-water swim. Now I have a slightly puffy ankle that doesn't really hurt much unless I rotate it, but I'm icing it anyway.

While we were racking up the bikes and Linae was showing me her transition layout, we met a Pinellas County cop and his wife. They had done a bunch of the tris in the St. Pete area, and we chatted them up a bit. When they found out it was my first, they told me not to base my opinions of triathlons on this race. I told them that I was already planning on doing Top Gun in St. Pete, and they said that would be much better. About half an hour later, the husband got the duathletes organized. Even though he was not a race official. It's just that nobody else was doing it. He made friends with the Sarasota County cops out on the race site, and found out the course logistics, and just...took action. God bless him :)

The swim was okay, even though I freaked out a little. I kept getting kicked by this chick in front of me, and no matter how I tried to get away from her, she was like a magnet. Wherever I moved, there she was. I finally got far enough away from the buoy and out of her path. But then I got kinda swum over by one of the 40-and-over guys that started after us, and someone kept grabbing my ankle. I wound up breaststroking A LOT, which wasn't in my plan, but whatev. And once we rounded the last buoy and I saw there were some guys standing up in the water, I did the same when I thought I could touch bottom. Lesson: I need more open-water swim practice. I came out of the water at 13:05.

I didn't time my transistions; I'm lucky I knew where the hell I was :)

The first part of the bike went smoothly for me. Made it to the first turnaround, saw two people behind me. One was a lady, the other a guy being followed by a motorcycle cop. The lady passed me; I never saw the guy or the cop again. The bike course was not marked well AT ALL. There were some sporadic 8.5 x 11" signs that read, "Slow! Bike race in progress." At one point I asked a spectator if I was going the right way. I almost took a wrong turn, going off to the right instead of straight. Kept on going down the road, and came to a place that said "Bike Turnaround," but it was unclear WHERE you actually turned around. There was a lady in a day-glo yellow vest directing traffic, so I slowed down and asked her, "Where do I go?" She said, "What?" I repeated myself. She said, "What do you mean?" "I need to know where I'm supposed to turn around!" "Oh, are you part of that Police Olympic thing?" Now, at this point, I was stopped in the middle of the freakin' road, and I must have bumped my chain or something, because it came off. I'm not a mechanically- inclined person AT ALL, so I wheeled it over to the sidewalk and started monkeying around with it. Day-glo girl asked me THREE times if I wanted to put the bike in her truck and she'd take me to the finish. I told her THREE times I'd like to at least TRY to finish the race. After about five minutes, I finally got the damn thing back on, and went back down the street to Siesta Village. (I knew that's where I was going because she FINALLY was able to give me directions.) I was on the bike 1:07 and change, including chain-fixing. Lesson learned: I need more time in the saddle. And a basic bike maintenance course.

I was pretty annoyed, and a little disheartened by the time I got into T2. Some dude had racked his bike right over my stuff, so I just moved down the rack. Idiot. I lost the helmet, put on my visor and race belt, and started off on the run. Before I left the TA, I had a real bad feeling, so I went back to my bike and grabbed what was left of the water from my bike. I figured they'd run out because this jackass had done such a stellar job of directing thus far, so I thought, "Screw him. I'll bring my own." Good thing I did. As I was running onto the beach, Linae was running off, and we chatted for a few seconds. She told me there was no water at the aid station OR the turnaround. Big shocker. I got kinda tired of dodging the beachgoers and little kids, so I walked a lot of the beach. As I've mentioned, I'm not the most graceful creature ever created, so sand (and then a trail run through the woods) is not ideal for me. But I did what I could, ran whenever my give-a-damn came back, tripped on two tree roots and narrowly missed a hole in the woods, and hauled myself over the finish line. Their clock said 2:07; my watch said 1:52:35, not counting transitions; my actual time is somewhere between the two.

Afterward, I heard some scuttlebutt that both the swim and the run courses were a little long. I also heard that the RD got kicked off the beach by the cops for screaming at a spectator (the previously-mentione d Pinellas County cop.) And that when there actually WAS water, there were no volunteers; a tourist and her grandkids who felt bad no one was helping the runners decided to fill cups and hand them out. Un-freakin'- believable.

This pretty much blew, but I'm not ready to give up the sport just yet. I told Linae and the Tri-Gator guy by us that if I didn't know this isn't how most tris are, I'd never do one again. I'm going to give it one more shot in August, so I'll reserve judgment on the whole tri thing until then :) I figure, if seasoned triathletes think this is the worst race they've ever done, I owe the sport one more chance.

Margaritas and pizza at 9:30 in the morning--I LOVE endurance sports!! Drank too much tequila afterward, had a fabulous Cuban sandwich, chatted with the bartender, and then we headed back to our own neck of the woods.

The next one WILL be better.

You Know You're From Michigan...

An oldie, but it still makes me giggle:
===============================

You know you're from Michigan if....

1.You've never met any celebrities.

2. "Vacation" means going to Cedar Point.

3. At least 1 member of your family disowns you the week of theMichigan/Michigan State game.

4. Half the change in your pocket is Canadian.

5. You drive 86 mph on the highway and pass on the right.

6. Your idea of a traffic jam is 40 cars waiting to pass an orange barrel.

7. You know how to play (and pronounce) Euchre.

8. It's easy to get Vernors Ginger Ale, Sanders Hot Fudge sauce and Faygo Pop.

9. You know how to pronounce "Mackinac."

10. You've had to switch on the "heat" and the "A/C" in the same day.

11. You bake with SODA and drink a POP.

12. The movie "Escanaba in Da Moonlight" wasn't funny. You consider it a documentary.

13. Your little league game was snowed out.

14. The word"thumb" has geographical meaning, rather than anatomical significance.

15. You show people where you grew up by pointing to a spot on the back of your left hand.

16. Traveling coast-to-coast means driving from Port Huron to Muskegon.

17. You measure distance in minutes.

18. When giving directions, you refer to "A Michigan Turn."

19. You know that Kalamazoo not only exists, but it is either raining or snowing there.

20. Your year has 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.

21. Home Depot on any Saturday is busier than toy stores at Christmas.

22. You know when it has rained because of the smell of worms.

23. Owning a Japanese car was a hanging offense in your hometown.

24. Everyone you meet out of state thinks you know Eminem personally.

25. You drive 60 mph thru 2 feet of snow in a raging blizzard, without flinching.

26.You think Devil's Night is celebrated everywhere.

27.You believe that "down south" means Toledo.

28.You know what a "Yooper" is.

29. "Up North" means north of Clare.

30.Octopus and hockey go together as naturally as hot dogs and baseball.

31.The snow freezes so hard that you can actually walk across it and not break it or leave any marks.

32. Half your friends have a perfect sledding hill right in their own backyard.

27. You actually understand everything i just said.


MICHIGAN TEMPERATURECONVERSION CHART(Fahrenheit)

At +70º -Texans turn on the heat and unpack the thermal underwear. People in Michigan go swimming in the Lakes.

At +60º -North Carolinians start turning on the heat. People in Michigan plant gardens.

At +50º -Californians shiver uncontrollably. People in Michigan sunbathe.

At +40º -Italian and English cars won't start. People in Michigan drive with the windows down.

At +30º -Distilled water freezes. Lake Superior's water gets thicker.

At +20º -Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, and woolly hats. People in Michigan throw on a flannel shirt.

At +15º -Philadelphia landlords finally turn up the heat. People in Michigan have the last cookout before it gets cold.

At 0º -People in Miami begin freezing to death. Michiganders lick the flagpole.

At -20º -Californians evacuate to Mexico. People in Michigan get out their winter coats.

At -40º -Hollywood disintegrates. The Girl Scouts in Michigan are selling cookies door to door.

At -60º -Polar bears begin to evacuate the Arctic. Michigan Boy Scouts postpone "Winter Survival" classes until it gets cold enough.

At -80º -Mt. St. Helens freezes. People in Michigan rent some videos.

At -100º -Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Michiganders get frustrated because they can't thaw the keg.

At -297º -Microbial life no longer survives on dairy products. Cows in Michigan complain about farmers with cold hands.

At -460º -ALL atomic motion stops (absolute zero in the Kelvin scale). People in Michigan start saying, "Cold 'nuff for ya?"

At -500º - Hell freezes over. The Lions win the Super Bowl!

Birthday Pics

Late as usual, here are some pictures from my Sixth Annual 29th Birthday with the family (so you don't have to do the math: I'm 34 ;) ) on May 25, a day early. In case anyone is still interested.

Here's the cake. One layer chocolate, one layer white, buttercream frosting. Purple and yellow flowers. Everyone is happy :)

My sister Stephanie and me with the most popular ingredients of the evening. And to all of you who think we look sooooo much alike: Put down the glue. There's a passing resemblance at best ;)

Nectar of the Gods. I measured the tequila wrong, putting in a little more than 1-1/2 times what should have been put in. Everyone thought they were a little strong, but Tony (Steph's BF) and I enjoyed them immensely.

Yes, my gifts were wrapped in Hello Kitty paper. Yes, I'm 34.

Like his Auntie Shawn, LT REALLY enjoys cake and ice cream.

Helloooooo, Kitty!

A super-flattering picture of me psyched to get Dierks Bentley's Greatest Hits. It gets heavy rotation in Big Blue's CD player.

First Open Water Swim EVER

Here's the photo Linae took of Pass-A-Grille Beach, the site of my first open water swim. Being a techno-idiot, I couldn't get the photo any bigger, but you can still see how gorgeous it is. Her CrackBerry takes a mighty fine-quality picture, eh?

I was kind of nervous as Linae and Joe led me out into the water. I wasn't worried about sharks; I know for the most part, they don't care about me. Jellyfish and those stupid Portugese man-o-wars that have been hanging around WAY too close to the shore (and have been getting a lot of press lately) were another thing altogether. And I really didn't care to see a stingray, either. But I saw no critters that wanted to bite/sting me. Just some little fishies that darted away whenever you came near them.

We waded out to the sandbar and swam parallel to the shore. Just like when I run, I pull to the left when I swim (which causes me to believe one side of my body is shorter than the other, lol) But Linae gave me some sighting tips, and I didn't go as far off-course the second time. We swam a bit further than what I'll be doing in the tri, and Linae said I had a good, long line in the water, so I think I just might survive this new arc in my Circle of Crazy :)

Hockey

The Pittsburgh Penguins are a bunch of punk-ass bitches.

I'm just sayin...

GO WINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

RR: Women Run the World 15K

Sunday, May 4, was the 15K of the Minnie Marathon weekend at Disney World. This was my first Disney race, so I did my usual touristy thing and brought my camera.

Since Kay lives about 20 minutes from Disney, she was kind enough to let me crash at her house again. I got to her house after hitting Wide World of Sports and picking up my packet after work on Saturday. It wasn't a bad drive; took me less than two hours to get there. We met Daria and her son for dinner at Macaroni Grill in Winter Garden. Yummy food and good company--can't beat it! Afterward, we went back to Kay's and crashed, since we had to get up at the ass-crack of dawn to get to the Disney shuttle buses. I am NOT a morning person. I'm in the wrong sport.

So here's the start line:
The first half of the race was pretty boring. It started in the parking lot of Animal Kingdom, then ran down the access roads. But then it went into MGM, or whatever they're calling it now. This is the backside of Tower of Terror:

And the streets of "New York:"

My camera batteries died here. I was bummed because around the corner was "Beverly Hills" and some characters. Mulan's dragon friend Moo-Shu blew me a kiss, and I *missed* getting it on my card :-( But then I got the brilliant idea to just switch the batteries, and it worked for a while. Here's the Swan Hotel:

And then we got into Epcot. Here's part of "England:"

"France" from a distance:

"Morocco:"

"Japan:"

"Italy" (probably my favorite:)

"Germany" (homeland of half of my people, lol:)

"Norway:"

"Mexico:"

Here are Kay, me, and Daria after our finishes. Yes, the goofy tiara made yet another appearance. I figured of alllll the races in the world, the tiara would be most at home at a Disney race geared toward women. And I was right :) Photo courtesy of Daria:

The margarita hut was closed. Sadness :(

The Epcot globe:

Bling! Medal and cotton shirt. They gave away tech shirts, but I didn't get one because I couldn't get to packet pick-up until late Saturday, so of course they ran out. But I was okay with it when I saw Kay's--it was positively TINY. WTF were they thinking??

HAWT!!

So I'm driving down Hillsborough Avenue this afternoon, and I notice a billboard for US 103.5, a local country station. On the left is Keith Urban. On the right is Tim McGraw. I about wrecked Big Blue because I couldn't take my eyes off the beauty of it all.

Now maybe one with Gary Allan and Dierks Bentley? I might die....

RR: Country Music Marathon

Linae and I flew into Nashville to run the Country Music Marathon/Half Marathon on April 26, 2008. Our cruise director, the lovely and talented Lisa Limper, met us at the airport late Friday morning and proceeded to drive us around town in her friggin' SWEET Mustang convertible. Red, of course :)

We started out downtown, where we picked up our packets from the convention center and bummed around the expo for a bit. We grabbed lunch at a cool little restaurant across from the Sommet Center, where the Predators play hockey (GO WINGS!! but I digress...) and then we wandered up and down Broadway (on my old stud Leroy (J/K--Big & Rich reference. We *were* in the capital of country music,) ducking into a few honkytonks to check out some of the music. There was a fantastic guy singing at Layla's Bluegrass Hillbilly & Country Inn. I wish I could remember his name. We had some really tasty beer (Shiner Bock, maybe?) and then we moved on down the street to Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. There was an awesome Canadian rock-country band. I wish I could remember their name (that's what I get for procrastinating.) I think Linae has some of this info if you're *really* interested. After listening to them, we walked around dowtown a bit more, got some souvenirs, Linae got a purple cowboy hat to run in, and we headed to a nice little pizza place called DaVinci's. Lisa's friend Eli, who was running the half the next day, met us there and we had a nice dinner. Then Lisa dropped Linae and me off at our hotel.

It was raining pretty steadily on Saturday morning, which made for a super-fun time standing around waiting to start the race. Here we are before we split up to go to our respective corrals:


It took FORTY-FIVE MINUTES for my corral to get to the start line, and then we were packed in on the streets of Nashville for 11 miles, until the half-marathoners split from us. Here's the Nashville skyline. I especially like the Batman Building (AT&T Building, actually. I just like that Nashvillians call it the Batman Building):
Music Row, the epicenter of country music:
Musica, or "The Naked Statue." I found it quite pretty:

One of the amazingly beautiful parks:

Can you *have* a race in Nashville without Elvis representin'? I think not:

The irony of the situation here is that these nuns were standing outside of their convent, which is on the bottom of the hill from Hell:

The Tennessee State Capitol. (Fact: I did not actually see this during the race. This picture was taken from the passenger seat of the friggin' SWEET red Mustang :) )

Linae in her new ride:

The bling--medal and (chintzy cotton) shirt:I finished the marathon in 6:25:58. Slow, but the rain stopped and then the sun came out about two hours after I started, and it got pretty hot pretty quickly. And the HILLS! OMG!! Beautiful course for the most part, though. There was a nice section that ran along the Cumberland River, we ran through some gorgeous parks and really nice neighborhoods. There were a lot of kick-ass bands on the course; my particular favorite were the guys just past mile 20. I wish I could remember their name. (Lisa, Linae--y'all told me their name! Refresh my memory??) Anyway, I almost stopped and just listened to them for a while, but I knew I'd never get started again.

It turns out L & L had missed me by just a few minutes at the 20-mile check-in, and they were worried about me, so they were texting all their friends near computers to see if I had a 20-mile split time. LOL--I'm glad they did that before calling all the hospitals in town! It's a good feeling knowing you've got friends watching your back, making sure you aren't lying in a ditch somewhere ;)

After I made it through the finish line, Lisa drove me back to the hotel, where I showered, napped, and watched the end of Game 2 of the Detroit-Colorado series. I was sad that I missed going to the gay bar with L & L, but I was very happy for the nap :) I called the girls when I got up, got ready, and we went out to eat at Lisa's favorite restaurant, The Yellow Porch. Had an antipasti plate, a fabulous filet on top of this potato casserole concoction and asparagus (yummmm), and a ginormous slice of carrot cake. And some wine, of course :)

Lisa picked us up again on Sunday morning, and we had a delicious brunch at a funky little cafe called Marche Artisan Foods. I had a blood orange mimosa and a to-die-for leek and goat cheese quiche. And we split a strawberry-mascarpone-balsamic syrup concoction on toasted bread. Oh. my. GAWD. My mouth is STILL watering....

Then we went for pedicures, which Lisa was kind enough to have gotten for us as a congratulatory gift (Thanks again, Lisa!) I had never had a pedi; it was kinda weird at first, but it felt awesome (once the guy quit scrubbing the soles of my feet, lol) Then we hit Target for some cute flip flops to show off our pretty painted toes (yes, the Florida girls actually went somewhere WITHOUT flip flops.) Then we headed off to the country to Arrington Vineyards:

We did a wine tasting, which, of course, I had never done before. It was fun. We bought a bottle of something we all liked, and sat on the porch drinking wine and eating cheese and crackers, listening to a really good band called Art for Sale (I remembered the name of a band! Wooo hooo!) It was absolutely beautiful out there, and we had a great time, even with the little bit of chilly rain.

After the vineyard, we went into Franklin, a nice little town that made me homesick for the little towns I lived in in Texas and Indiana. They had a street festival going on, and most of the shops and restaurants were closed (not necessarily because of the festival; just because it was Sunday) but there was a chocolatier open! We got some chocolate-dipped strawberries and some dark chocolate truffles (**drooooool**) and then headed out toward the airport.

But there was one thing we had left to do: Find a margarita and initiate Lisa to the Mean Girls Bench:

We found Pancho's, got some nachos and a pitcher of the sweet Mexican nectar of life, and toasted our fabulous time in Nashville :)

Hey Lisa--if I wind up coming to live there in a couple of years, you have no one but yourself to blame ;)

(Damn, this report was long....)