Where to start? It was a big week!

When I left off my last post, I was headed out for a big day.  The 10K didn't go as well as I had hoped.  My goal was to finish in 1:15, and was very disappointed to finish in 1:18:26 - sadly, it took me one second LONGER to finish this year.  Ah well, it was a great race, and most importantly, I DID finish!  I was able to spend a little time with my long-lost college friend Liz before and after the race, and even saw a few friends from work and from my running group while I was there.  It was a great start to the weekend!

Next up we headed to Peoria to celebrate the sudden marriage of our good friends Roxy & Greg Haney, mix it up with about a hundred of our closest friends, dinner with Heather and Chuck and little Harold, WAY too much bourbon, and finished the night listening to the brilliant entertainment of Triple Charge Time, with our friends Jill, Joe, Dan, Steve, and some of my other former coworkers.  Made it home about 2:30am, utterly exhausted and feeling so amazed and blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

A couple of pics from the day:

Before the 10K - visit with Liz

After the race - my second 10K successfully completed!

Jason and our girl Heather

Sunday morning, after about 6 hours sleep, I headed to the airport and flew out to Cleveland to work for the week.  I won't bore you with the details of my day-to-day, but let's just say, my diet & exercise plan definitely took a hit all week.  I got NO training in!  No weight training, no running, nothing.  And I had several days when I ate a whole lotta junk food.  I made it back home on Friday afternoon after a nightmare at the airport that I do NOT want to discuss.  Let's just say I was VERY glad to be home.

The lack of training and the junk food, combined with my poor results in the 10K last week left me concerned with how I would perform in The Lake Run on Saturday morning.  Friday night before the race, I decided (with some encouragement from my husband) to relax and enjoy a nice evening out.  We had a very nice dinner at our favorite restaurant.  I did have a couple of drinks but we took it easy and made an early night of it.

Now for the good stuff:  The Lake Run went FANTASTICALLY well!  I got to the lake early to pick up my packet & shirt, stretched, and hooked up with several ladies from my weekly running group and took a 1-mile jog/ walk to warm up.  I finished the 4.38-mile inner loop course in 54:13 - a new personal record for me in a race I've run five years straight now!  I cut more than three full minutes off my previous best time!!

Lesson for the week:  I guess the 10K is just still a big stretch for me, distance-wise - I'll try it again next year and see if I can do better!

Seems like I spent the rest of the weekend doing yard work, pulling weeds, re-burying plastic barrier, buying new river rocks for the landscaping, and Jason hooked up a chain to his truck and we removed several stumps and old ugly bushes from the front yard, and I planted two new ones.  There is much work remaining to be done, but now that we've created a bunch of giant holes, I will just might get it done.  

Jason after our first successful "kill" - one dead bush removed from the ground!

One of the MANY enormous holes we created

Some day I will be a real bush but not ugly like the ones I'm replacing!

So here I am again, just about ready for bed and getting myself ready for a nice, normal work week.  (God, I hope so!)  I'm exhausted and sore and feeling terrific!