Good afternoon friends!  I’ve been MIA for a few days, but I’m about to catch you up!

I’ve been gone all weekend and I was excited to get back home to this sweet little nugget, plus I made it home a little early from work today since we had potential for freezing rain around here.  This Mississippi weather is absurd!  Luckily in 4 days, I’ll be flying to sunny and beautiful Jamaica.

Now let’s recap some weekend events – me and my sweet co-worker Bethany drove up to Starkville on Friday after work.  Her boyfriend also lives in Starkville, so we decided to start riding up together!  She’s such a great car ride buddy and we had good conversation throughout the whole trip.  We had a fun double-date that night at Old Venice Pizza when we got to town.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of our pizza, but I’ll say that it was extremely cheesy – way too cheesy for my preference.  I’ll have to keep that in mind next time so I can order light cheese.

Saturday morning, we headed out to Birmingham to get ready for Nick’s race.  We obviously stopped at Starbucks first to quench my undying love for the stuff.  Although, I’ve decided that I really need to cut back on my Starbucks addiction to save money.

Say hello to my delicious Cinnamon Dulce Latte w/ Coconut Milk.

We didn’t really eat anything before heading out, so we stopped in Tuscaloosa and found a cute Mediterranean place called Taziki’s.  I got a veggie gyro and it was wonderful.  The roasted potatoes were a little too lemony and I would have preferred fries, but I’m glad they included some chips with it for that saltiness.

On the way there, we discussed Nick’s game plan for the race and what he planned on wearing and how the weather would be.  I feel like Nick had a pretty good idea of how to handle his first marathon, he was a lot more calm than I would have been! haha  We arrived to Birmingham and headed straight to the expo where I picked up the packet.  We looked around and saw some good deals, but didn’t end up buying anything.  Of course, the very next day, Nick wished we had purchased a hand held foam roller for after he finished the race because his front calf was so extremely sore.  We did get some free slap bracelet’s that are reflective which will be great for some night runs.

After picking up the race packet, we headed out to the mall so I could do some swim suit shopping for my upcoming trip and I found 2 bathing suits, one red & one blue.  I also got a cover up, but I think I’ll be returning it – I didn’t like it so much when I put it on.  We were going to split a pretzel (my favorite snack ever!), but the line was long both times we passed by so we opted out.  After shopping, we met up with Nick’s dad, his girlfriend, and her grandson for dinner at Landry’s Seafood.   Nick got some seafood pasta to carb load.

The next morning we were up at the race early and Nick was ready to go!

 

The race started at 7:03am and we were ready to spectate!  Nick started out wearing shorts, a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeve shirt, and a poncho.  After mile 1, he threw his poncho and long sleeve shirt to me on the sideline.  Luckily I brought a bag with me to carry all of our essentials for the day.  The route was a half marathon looping twice around for the full marathon so once I figured out where we needed be on the first half, I just followed the route again to catch Nick on the second lap of the race.  It honestly worked out so perfect and I’m so glad I was able to walk to various points along the route so I could cheer him on!

 

 

Here were some fun signs during the race:

• Chafing the dream!  – probably one of my favorites.  haha
• Runner’s High (Legal in all 50 states)
• Hey Girl.  Your pace or mine?
• This seems like a lot of work for a banana.

Nick finished out his marathon in 5 hours and 24 minutes!! Holy cow, I was so impressed!  He literally didn’t train for this race.  He did one 15 mile run 2 weekends ago, but that’s pretty much it.  He has been eating really well since he started the Engine 2 challenge at the beginning of the year, so I’m sure that helped a lot!  I would have literally died or quit if I tried to run a marathon with the amount of preparation he had.

Nick got to ring the PR! bell, yay!

I love the energy that a race brings – Kathryn and I are doing the Disney Princess half-marathon next year and we’ve both been to a race over the past 2 weekends.  We completely agree that it’s pumped us up for our race!  This will be Kathryn’s first half-marathon and I can’t wait to run it along side her and experience all the Disney magic & characters!  One day I’ll make it to my marathon, but at this point, with my knee, a half marathon will be perfectly fine with me right now!

After the race we headed back to Starkville and Nick passed out on the way there.  He was absolutely exhausted and admitted that doing the marathon was a lot harder than he expected it to be.  He felt really accomplished afterwards though, as he should.  The rest of the evening I helped him get adjusted back home before heading back to Jackson.

 

I have to say, it’s seriously lame, but when I woke up this morning, I had NOT completed a marathon, but my body sure did ache and I was completely exhausted.  I just kept reminding myself that Nick was the one who earned the right to complain about his aches and pains ha.  I did total up my walking distance though and I’d estimate that I walked at least 7 miles, probably more throughout the entire day.  Nick’s dad, his girlfriend, and her grandson joined me on the first half of the marathon, but I was a lone wolf on the second half.  They decided to head back to the car and relax for a bit.  I’m so glad I was able to be there to support him throughout the race and I was so proud as I watched him cross the finish line.

One day I’ll check Marathoner off my list, but that day was not yesterday.

I’m so proud of you Nick!