This weekend struck the perfect balance between work and play, accomplishment and laziness, friend-time and me-time, excitement and calm. If only it could have stuck around a bit longer, I would have been thrilled.
Friday night, the hubs and I headed out to pick up my race packet for Saturday's race, run a few quick errands, and grab what has apparently become a tradition: pre-race milkshakes. Not exactly carbo-loading, but you won't hear me complaining. Back at home, I got through several loads of laundry and cleaned the kitchen, spent entirely too much time fighting with various pieces of technology in a failed effort to make a racing playlist, and eventually passed out on the couch just minutes before Dan's brother and his girlfriend came over. I rallied for a few minutes but then shuffled off to bed like any good Saturday-morning-racer-on-a-Friday-night.
Luckily Saturday's race didn't start until 8:00, so I was able to sleep until almost 6:30 before dragging myself out of bed, throwing on compression shorts, and fumbling my way to the car. It was chillier than I expected, but a quick warm-up lap helped a bit, even though the gun didn't actually go off until closer to 8:15. Otherwise, this race (in its 13th year) was very well organized, especially for a relatively small hometown 5k -- they had tons of volunteers, a great kid's run before the actual race, and a very efficient system at the finish line, even without chip timing. The beginning of the race was brutal -- almost a full lap around a very crowded track, weaving and getting hit and trying desperately to get past a pack of high school boys who were clearly not there to compete. In retrospect, I should have been a lot more concerned than I was about starting as close to the front as possible: I have a feeling it was this mistake (and the ensuing track chaos) that cost me the goal time I was chasing. But the rest of the race felt good, despite a ton of hills and the fact that for the last mile or so, I was racing less for the finish line and more for a bathroom. Whatever it takes, right? I haven't seen an official time yet, but the clock was somewhere in the 22's when I sprinted past, which still means a PR even if it wasn't quite the 21:something I was hoping.
After a quick shower and some foam rolling, Dan and I were back in the car and headed to our friends T and N's house to help with some birthday festivities for a certain special one-year-old:
 |
| clearly thrilled about the birthday hat, which lasted for all of 15 seconds |
We had such a great time helping them cook/set up/decorate for the party, meeting their families, and celebrating the sweetest little girl you can imagine. The party turned out wonderfully despite some last minute changes thanks to the weather forecast, and the birthday girl seemed to enjoy her cake and got some seriously adorable gifts. After the party and all the clean-up, we got to relax and enjoy some leftovers and a glass of wine with our friends before heading back home. Although I wish like crazy that somehow we could all live in the same town, for now we are so lucky that these wonderful friends are just an hour away.
Yesterday was grey and rainy, which thwarted my plans for a long run and some time by the pool, but turned out ok after all. It was wonderful to be able to sleep late for the first time in weeks, and my legs were feeling pretty worn out so I hit the treadmill for a few miles and then called it a day. I spent the rest of the afternoon baking, cleaning, eating, cuddling with the cat, and being lazy with my hubby... ie the perfect way to end a lovely weekend.
Thankfully, today marks my last Monday in my old job -- next week I will head upstairs to a new (temporary) cubicle, a new (wonderful) boss, and my new (exciting) responsibilities. Especially after the past week of training a less-than-friendly new employee to do my job, I am so very ready to get out of here. This week is going to be long and stressful, but that light at the end of the tunnel gets a little brighter each day.Happy Monday, all!
Love,
Meg
Posts
0 had something to say:
Post a Comment