Philly Marathon Weekend

We crammed about as much as one could into this weekend. I have lots to share and not enough energy or time to write it all out. So you are going to get the highlights! Enjoy...

Friday November 19, 2010

*we wanted to leave ME for PA at 3:00am . We woke up at 3:30. Fail. On the road at 4.

* met some guy at a rest stop along the way. He saw my Syracuse sweatpants and Maine plates. He said he is a big fan of Coach Boeheim and that he lives in Maine. I liked this guy.

*arrived at my Aunt and Uncles at 1:00pm ate a turkey dinner at 2:30

*had the most AMAZING 6 mile run. Beautiful farm land. I felt quick. Only stopped because it was flippin cold and dark.

*apple pie and mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert.

*in bed by 9:00pm

Saturday November 20, 2010

*up at 7:30.

*out the door at 9:30 to go into the city. or "downtown" as my aunt and uncle call it. its an hour away.

*10:30 arrived in the city and walked around the town for a bit and did some shopping

*met up with some super awesome twitter peeps for lunch at the marathon grill. thanks to erica for organizing the lunch.

would someone tell sam it's not all about him?

the gang. minus a few.

*sam ask the waitress her opinion on what he should get for lunch and named 3 things he was thinking about. she said they were all good so he told her to pick one and surprise him. when it came ,a different waitress asked "who had the chocolate chip cookie dough pancakes" sam said "um, i might have. i don't know". she looked confused.

*walked around the italian market and got some super yummy cheese. like...really, really good cheese

*chatted with a man and his wife who were in line behind us at the italian market. they had their 8 month old baby with them. he then handed me his kid and said "here, hold him and see what 24 pounds feels like". so i did.

*met the campbell crew at franklin fountain for ice cream. mmmm. saw it on man vs. food and we knew we needed to go. this is what we got.

*got a call from my aunt saying my uncle was in the hospital after being unresponsive from his blood donation. hes ok now.

*went back to my aunts and went to bed.

Sunday November 21, 2010

*woke up way too early.

*made it into the city by 6:40 and got to the philly marathon start line in time to see some of the later corrals start.

*i love the philly marathon, they had a tent set up just for me

*my husband says tyler will appreciate this photo when he is older:-)

*made our way down kelly drive to mile 14 and waited for the runners. ruddley wanted coffee and i told him we didn't have time. (ummm we probably did but i didn't want to go).

*saw sam. he said he felt like death. i told him he looked good in pink

*saw mark. he didn't say anything.

*made our way back towards mile 25. ruddley still wanted coffee but i didn't want to miss all the people i knew running. after all, that is why we were there.

*we didn't get coffee

*saw erica go by at mile 13. i jumped up and down and screamed for her. she had on an awesome outfit.

*saw elizabeth go by at mile 13. she gave me a thumbs up and said she was having fun. i told her that her dad would be proud of her.

*saw sam again at mile 25ish. he was in the zone. he didn't say anything, but i got a point.

*saw mark at mile 25ish. he said he was cramping. i told him to push it!

* walked to the finish and saw team mark! he went 3:31. his second marathon ever. his first one was in oct 2010.

*met sam and peggy at the finish and snapped some pics.

i wonder what he'll wear for 2000.00. if 1000.00 got him pink arm warmers.

*met sam and peggy for lunch for pizza and philly cheese steaks. i had pizza the boys had cheese steaks.

*tried to convince peggy to run the mdi marathon. i hope she's thinking about it.

* said goodbye to sam and peggy and told sam i'd see him in boston. good times never seem so good. so good! so good! so good!

*walked back to the car and passed the eastern state penitentiary, they were giving tours. we did not take one.

*plugged in home on the gps and followed the directions.....

*until ruddley decided not to follow the directions....

*had a 40 minute detour through NYC. not my idea of fun.

*we were craving five guys for dinner. guess what we had. five guys

*tyler slept the entire way home. he was a trooper.

*11:15pm pulled into our driveway

*11:30pm lights out at the emerson house.

phew. we had such an awesome weekend. i am so glad i got to see mark run. it was great to see sam again. love that my aunt and uncle got to meet tyler. a nice long weekend with my family. success.

a whole lot of nothing

yup... thats what my running has been this week...errrr the last two weeks....a whole lot of nothing. i had hopes of running a half marathon last weekend but after my run 2 weekends ago i just wasn't feeling it. i don't have any races scheduled and have a hard time motivating myself to run when i don't have anything to work towards. im also a wimp when it comes to running outside in the cold. i suppose that doesn't look good for my winter training.

im pretty excited about things i have coming up in the spring though. jamie, who i met through twitter suggested that i run the pineland races over memorial day weekend. ive never run trails before but what the hell...im always up for something new. at first i was just going to run the 10k on saturday but when i took a closer look at the swag you get for finishing i wasn't real pumped about the water bottle. however, if i ran the 25k on sunday i get a cowbell. come on, what runner doesn't love a cowbell. not to mention the free beer and bbq afterwards!! i haven't signed up for it yet but im looking forward to it. the weekend before pineland i am running my first relay. this is the reach the beach 200 mile relay in MA. my friend danielle has run the NH one twice and this spring will be the first rtb in MA. we are forming an all womens team but are still a few ladies short (we need 12). i was chatting with another twitter friend ashley last week and it didn't take long to convince her to join our team. p.s- she's in missouri and we are in maine. we've never met and she's agreed to spend 24 hours with me in a van. i hope she's cool! haha. and not only is she running rtb with us she is crashing with a friend in boston for the week and then joining jamie and i at pineland the following weekend. apparently she has a hard time saying no:-)

what's hard is finding time to work out. i know ive said this before but now that im a mom i can't just go to the gym whenever or go for a run whenever. i have to squeeze it in between work and picking him up from daycare. i don't like going for a run after dark alone so doing anything when i get home from work is out of the picture. im sure ill figure it all out soon....i hope. in the meantime, anyone want to whip together a 25k training program for me? im much better at running when i have a schedule to follow.

this weekend im off with my family to PA!!!! we are going to visit my aunt and uncle, they haven't tyler yet. they live about an hour outside philadelphia so we are also going to watch sam, elizabeth and my neighbor mark run the philly marathon. im excited to meet a bunch of twitter peeps at lunch on saturday too:-) and speaking of sam...what are you doing December 26,2010??

sam is closing in on his 61 marathon of the year to raise money and awareness for train 4 autism! while we can't all be crazy like him, we can help in his celebration! on december 26 sam is running the operation jack marathon #61 for him in southern california. several of us mainers have been following sam on his journey since we met him at the boston marathon in april. sam has so many people who "dig what he is doing" that live all over the US but can't make it to ca to run. he has created a satellite option where we can run 6.1 miles (a play off of 61 marathons) wherever we are in the US. for a suggested donation of 25.00 you can run the race, get a operation jack tshirt and finishers medal. you can also bypass the 25.00 donation if you create a fundraising page and raise 30.00 annnnnnd you still get the shirt and medal. all the details can be found right here. if you live in the portland me area and want to join us in the run just let me know!! im thinking we'll run the 6.1 miles in the portland area and then meet up for a post run lunch and celebrate sam's craziness!! this cause is near and dear to my heart so i hope you will think about running!

leaving you with a few pictures! i borrowed my neighbors jogging stroller a few weeks ago. i think i would have rather been bundled up then pushing it!

my mdi relay teammate and amazing friend kate ran the new york city marathon last weekend! she kicked ass and im so proud of her!!