Tag: runningforme

“You’re just what I needed” aka: Fargo Half Recap

So this past weekend I went to Fargo to run a 5k and a half marathon with some lovely ladies. If you would have told me a year ago that I would willingly drive 7+ hours to Fargo, NoDak to run a race I would have said you were nuts. But Brooke is pretty good at twisting arms and making Fargo sound like a dream race (flat course, fun times with her, Bailee and Johnna? Sign me up!) So I did it.

Long story short, this weekend was fantastic! Bailee and I made the trek in 2 trips on Thursday and Friday. The 5k Friday night was fun, but there were a lot of walkers and strollers. It was hard to run around them. But we managed and had a good time. Then we took jumping photos:

 

After a very delayed dinner at the restaurant next door to our hotel, we finally made it back and collapsed into bed around 11pm. Run a 5k the night before a half marathon AND go to bed late? Clearly, we are doing it right.

Marathon morning dawned with thunderstorms. It was still raining a bit for the first 2 miles of the race. Then it stopped, was warm-ish and humid for much of the race, then about mile 8 or 9 the sun came out and started baking us. I wanted/needed my jacket off STAT! Brooke, Johnna and I ran the race together. I had the BEST time! We laughed, raged, complained, questioned our sanity, and wondered where the FargoDome had gone. I wanted to find race officials and question them about their terrible race route. It was the most fun I’ve ever had in race.

(yes my shirt says “your pace or mine?” Its awesome!

Just before mile 2 there was a band playing The Cars song “Just what I needed.” I proceeded to sing that to Brooke and Johnna for a good portion of the rest of the race…and the rest of the weekend! Those poor girls! But that song was so true; that weekend and time spent with those ladies was just what I needed!

 It was also around that point that I saw a guy with two signs that said “Go Far.” We were running the Go Far challenge-the 5k Friday and the Half Saturday. The man then flipped his signs around to say “Far Go.” It finally dawned on me why they called it the “Go Far” Challenge! I swear I’m not usually that slow! 🙂

Saturday night we met Susie and had a blast with her. She made an excellent case for a trip to the Twin Cities in the fall. We shall see. We stopped and grabbed a yummy dinner first…complete with strawberry daiquiris!

(Johnna is posting more photos from our crazy weekend!)

Sunday morning Bailee and I made the trek back home. 7 hours in a car sucks! I was glad to get home, we met my friend Keith for dinner and then went to see “Star Trek Into Darkness” in 3d after that. Bailee and I got rained in on 4 states on Sunday. I’m so glad that I took the time to shower and dry my hair. This is what happened by the time we got to Brookings, SoDak:

All in all, this was a fantastic but busy weekend! I love those ladies. I can’t wait to see them again! What’s our destination race next year? Somewhere even more awesome than Fargo? Let’s start planning! 🙂

“Back to life, Back to reality”

I only took one extra day off work in conjunction with my weekend. Just one extra day. But somehow, I’m just not into working today. I want to go back to Fargo and I want to hang out with Brooke, Bailee and Johnna. I don’t want to run a race for awhile, but I want to see my friends. 3 days just wasn’t enough. I had the BEST time! Now I just need to renew my passport so I can visit Brooke in Winnepeg. I also need to save some cash to go visit Johnna (and the rest of the tumblrs) in New York City! It was also so amazing to get to meet Susie! It felt like we were all old friends already!

In other news…This is the first time in a loooonnng time that I’m not signed up for any races. Not even a 5k. That’s likely to change soon…there’s a 10k in my hometown that I think I want to do on Father’s day. And a 5k a in a small town a few weeks later. But no halfs, no fulls, no warrior dashes…nothing. It’s an odd feeling. I think I rather like it.

I like to forget that running a half always puts me up a few pounds. So getting on the scale this morning was upsetting. But honestly, since I’m not racing I think the plan is to try something new: HIIT training, cross training and cutting out crap. Let’s face it: I like dessert but my gut and thighs don’t. So I’m going to make a new training schedule that focuses on weight loss. Because, realistically I’d like to lose about 10 pounds. Totally doable. Here’s to keeping myself accountable.

I will post a recap of the races/weekend. Because it was too awesome not to recap. All weekend long I kept thinking of this quote:

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” -C.S. Lewis.

I’m so lucky to have friends like Brooke, Bailee, and Johnna. What a fantastic weekend! Thanks ladies!

Half Marathon #5 done. Not a PR, but I ran this entire race with some fantastic friends; Brooke and Johnna, and that was awesome. It rained, we got hot when the sun finally came out, Brooke had some rage, and doesn’t trust North Dakotans because they may be lying about the location of the FargoDome, and I questioned their judgment when it comes to race routes…but hey, we got 3 medals this weekend! I consider all of that a win.

Rage running. It’s a thing.