South Carolina Recap

When Michael and I sat down to plan our marathons for 2015, there were a lot of factors to consider. Cost is obviously one of the biggest (vacation time being a close second).

We usually try to be pretty frugal on these trips, but we both thought taking an extended trip to South Carolina in the middle of winter sounded like an awesome idea. (Of course, neither of us expected temps would range in the 30s-40s after race day, or travel would be disrupted due to ice. But I suppose it was warmer than the -20 plus windchill at home!)

One of the things I'm most excited about now that I'm moving to Ohio is no longer having to play airport tag to get us to the same place at the same time. I love trip planning and finding good flight itineraries, but trying to find two inexpensive options is a huge pain. (CLE is surprisingly small, and most flights are on baby planes express aircraft, which is way different than DTW!)

However, I think I did a good job setting up this trip. We both departed our respective home airports at the same time to CLT (juvenile, but this is a horrible airport code!), where we would be on the same flight to Florence.

Never heard of Florence? Neither had I, but it was less than a two hour drive to Myrtle Beach, way cheaper than flying into MYR on a "weekend" day, and the rental car was the same price. I thought it was pretty cool, because it was my second time on a propeller plane. (Michael was not much of a fan, though.)

Skies were clear, so I had some great views for our puddle-jumper. Our flight time was about 30 minutes, with less than an hour on the plane, but two women still got up to use the bathroom and got scolded by the flight attendant for violating the seatbelt sign. Seriously, people, I have to pee all the time, and I was fine!

Despite a bathroom stop after landing, we beat everyone to the rental car counter and were in and out in seriously 30 seconds. However, we discovered the second worst car ever. (First is the Kia Rio, and I don't think anything can seriously contend for its spot.) It was an Avenger, which I had never driven, but it looked like a classic sedan and had tons of trunk space, so I figured it was fine. Nope.

First of all, the keys went in next to the wheel, not on it, which drove me crazy. The brake was also way higher than the gas pedal, so while my foot would hit it automatically, I would only catch the very bottom, and it made me nervous about what would happen if I really had to stomp on the brakes suddenly. The wheel was also huge to the point that it was uncomfortable for me to turn. (On top of all this, we discovered the headlights were out that evening, so I proceeded to do all night driving with my brights. I felt like the biggest asshole ever blinding everyone on the road.)

Once I figured out how to maneuver the awful car around, we made it to FATZ, an American-style restaurant in a converted Texas Roadhouse. The food was super good, but it also introduced us to a common problem on the trip - understanding the locals. I found one of the hardest things was to determine whether someone was asking a question or making a statement. I felt like I was back in Germany, blindly answering yes at what were hopefully appropriate times.

Now full, we took off for Myrtle Beach. I had re-listened to Marathon Training Academy's podcast on the Myrtle Beach Marathon, and I knew we were supposed to avoid Conway because of traffic. However, I forgot the number of the Conway Bypass, and none of the signs named it as such, so we ended up spending at least an extra 30-40 minutes crawling through Conway.

Luckily our hotel was at the very tip of Myrtle Beach, so we thought we were set. Turns out the check-in desk in the off-season is only open across the street, but we eventually figured it out and got our keys. Our room was a little pricey, but the view was awesome!

If only it had been warm enough to sit outside....

We then headed to the expo at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. The location is changing next year, but we really struggled to find the entrance to the parking lot, plus it was $3 to park. It was not advertised that parking was cash-only, and neither Michael nor I usually carry cash, but luckily I had some from when I thought I might need to park at the MSU basketball game.

The expo had a nice layout and wasn't very packed, but it seemed like all the Southerners liked to stand in massive groups and chat, volunteers looking as if this were not an issue, and I started to feel pretty claustrophobic. I was also edging towards hangry at this point, especially after the Conway driving and messing with the hotel, so we just grabbed our stuff and left.

We found a cafe for dinner, and after 10 minutes of trying to park, we found out there was a significant wait time. I was about ready to cry at this point, so we broke our no-chains rule and went to Fuddruckers across the street. I felt significantly better afterwards.

Michael and I headed back to the hotel and had a relatively restless night of sleep. If you're 25 and have your pick of hotels in Myrtle Beach, do not stay at the Crown Reef Resort. The other guests were incredibly noisy, and I felt pretty nervous around most of them. That being said, despite the sleeping troubles, I went on to have a great race the next day. You can read all about it in my race recap.

Jumping ahead to Saturday afternoon, we both tried to take a post-race nap. However, the screaming/running family from the night before was at it again, so we didn't sleep much. Surprisingly, we both felt pretty good without one.

We headed off to Mellow Mushroom for dinner (okay, they're a regional chain, so they get a pass on the no-chains rule) and fell in love. The appetizer pretzels were so good, and the pizza was too.

Satisfied, we drove back towards the race start for the Carolina Opry.

Tickets were a little bit on the pricey side, but a friend had gone the past fall and said it was well worth it. I wasn't quite sure what an Opry was, but it turned out to be a variety show, mostly made up of singing. There was also some pre-show entertainment, which was a nice touch. The show was about 2.5 hours, including intermission, which was just about the perfect runtime.

I did feel a little lost when they had some traditional country or very South Carolina-y segments (in fact, the first song was about how it's okay not everyone watches NASCAR...uh....), but it was definitely appropriate for the venue. I did get a little weirded out when we ended with God Bless America, but I guess it comes with the territory.

Sunday our mission was to head out of Myrtle Beach to the Brookgreen Gardens about 30 minutes south. It was in the 30s, but sunny, so it was still pretty nice at the Gardens, even though all the local docents were freezing.

We watched the introductory film (one of my favorite things!), and it did a good job explaining the history of the place. Apparently a billionaire from New York was looking for somewhere warmer to bring his wife to treat her TB, and he bought four abandoned plantations. His wife was an accomplished sculptor, so together they constructed the gardens and filled them with her artwork.

Despite the "inclement" weather, they were still running their tours of the Sculpture Gardens. The tour ended up being the two of us, plus a man from Illinois, so we all thought it was very pleasant out, but the docent cut it short since it was so cold for her. It was pretty neat, though, because she was also training to be a plant docent, so she pointed out a myrtle bush to us.

But for real, you named a beach after this?

I'm glad we went, because I would have missed so much without someone to explain it to me. I'm not a huge art person, but I can appreciate it, and I got a lot more out of our visit with the docent's help.

This is the "Grand Canyon" of American sculpture. Who knew?

After the sculpture tour, I dragged Michael over to the zoo for that tour. The "zoo" was pretty small but contained almost all native animals, which is my favorite kind. We both loved the small Fargo zoo, because it had lots of cold-weather animals we had never even heard of before, let alone seen.

Ok, I have seen red foxes before, but they're so cute!

This docent was actually from New England, so she had no issues with the cold. The theme of the tour was feeding the animals, which was awesome to see. The docent was super knowledgeable, and I really enjoyed learning more about South Carolina fauna from her.

There was one very sad bird outside the enclosure watching the zoo birds get fed.

The zoo is set off in the woods, so we were sheltered from the wind, but my face and toes were still pretty numb when we were done. Michael insisted we needed to go back to the sculpture garden before, which was a little irritating, but he loves gardens, so I figured I could suck it up for 20 more minutes.

I had a feeling something was up all day, but I knew when Michael led me back to an area of the garden we had already been that we weren't back at the gardens to see more art. This is when he ended up proposing!

In front of a pretty cool statue, no less.

After I said yes (which I forgot to do until Michael prompted me!), we ran back to the car to warm up. Our first meal as an engaged couple was at the Dead Dog Saloon, of all places, but my crab cakes was super good, and the dog theme was pretty cute.

Our plan had been to maybe walk on the beach and swim at the hotel, but instead we had phone calls to make! That ended up taking quite awhile, so we decided to be super crazy that evening and just get Mellow Mushroom take-out (with pretzels, obviously) and rented Guardians of the Galaxy to watch in the room. Normally I freak out about changing the itinerary (or just relaxing on a trip), but this was a perfect night.

After finally getting a good night's sleep, we were up pretty early to head down to Charleston for the day Monday. I got this idea because I thought sneaking down to see Fort Sumter would be fun, and it blossomed when I discovered an awesome aquarium was immediately next to where the tours departed. (Way better than the Ripleys one in Myrtle Beach!) I also found these was another small NPS site on the way, and the day was set.

The drive was super easy and stress-free, except for the little bit in downtown Charleston. Our first stop was the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site. Never heard of him? That's normal, because he's known as the "Forgotten Founder." In fact, all his buildings are gone, so the site is housed at a farmhouse built long after his death on the property.

Not even a traditional sign for him.

We started, of course, with the introductory film, which I found to be a pretty helpful overview. Supposedly he is ranked as the fourth most influential person on the Constitution (though a little sign in the museum made a note that what he actually wrote is hotly contested, since all his papers burned in the Civil War). However, his only role in the Revolution was being a prisoner-of-war, and most of his political work was strictly related to South Carolina. On top of that, he was very pro-slavery his whole life, so I can see why he's been left out of the history books, especially in the North.

I think we were at the site for about 40 minutes and managed to see most of the museum. There was a walk we could have done on the grounds, but almost no other buildings are standing, so I was okay missing this.

We completed the rest of the drive to Charleston and snagged a metered spot for free (since Presidents Day is a city holiday!) and picked up our Fort Sumter tickets. We had ours on will call, but people were still able to get tickets on the spot with 30 minutes before departure. The museum was wall-to-wall people, so we used the bathroom and then got in line to board.

Now that's a sign!

Because it was another cold, windy day, we snagged spots down below and ended up sitting with a nice couple from Toledo. (I did go up on deck for a few minutes to buy a snack, and I almost froze. I don't know how some people were up there the whole time!)

They told us to make sure we went to the Brookgreen Gardens (ha!), but they did show us their pictures from there in the summer. It was cool to see how they looked in full bloom.

The ride was about 30 minutes, and there was a recorded narration that played about the history of Charleston and the fort on the way. I think everyone knows Fort Sumter as this iconic place, but I honestly couldn't tell you much about it, other than the Civil War started there.

We waited a few minutes on the boat once we arrived so the rangers could turn the alarms off, then we were allowed to disembark. The narration talked so much about how the fort was turned to rubble, that I was expecting a pile of rocks, so I was surprised how much was actually left.

However - and I thought this was such a neat interpretation of history! - the visitor center on the mainland was built to the same height as the fort used to be, and this helped me visualize much better how much was missing.

While you can go anywhere in the fort once arriving, Michael and I chose to attend the brief 10 minute ranger talk first. Again, not knowing much about the fort, I found this very informative. Though I did feel out of place when the ranger was throwing out South Carolina related dates that I had no clue about (like the date of secession). This is also when the Civil War started being called the War of Secession. For some reason this really weirded me out. I'm trying to keep an open mind as we get to know the country, but I draw the line there, I guess.

We wandered the fort a little bit, but there's not too much to see now.

Eventually I wimped out and dragged Michael into the museum. This one was obviously much less crowded, so I was able to actually read the exhibits. (Except this one annoying lady kept standing six inches from the panels and blocking my view. When I skipped ahead a section to get rid of her, she jumped two sections ahead of me. Don't worry - I got her back by not holding the bathroom door opening from her. God, I am petty.)

Some of the exhibits were cool, like the model of the Civil War era fort, but a lot of the written text was done in a very South Carolina context that I knew nothing of, so I got a little lost in all the new names and dates. I'm sure more local people or total Civil War buffs would have loved it though.

We boarded the boat back a bit early, but it was worth it to guarantee seats inside. I'm glad I got some views of the water on the way out, because we got stuck in the middle this time.

We walked a few blocks to a nearby deli to grab a late lunch, then it was back to Liberty Square to visit the South Carolina Aquarium!

Some of the reviews of this aquarium were not the best, but it sounded like those people were expecting something like the Shedd, so I still had high hopes. Spoiler alert - it was awesome! The focus was almost entirely on local flora and fauna, and it was just the right size. I think it took us about two hours to go through it (reading almost all the signs), and it might take an extra hour if you had little kids. Each exhibit was different "area," and they were pretty impressive.

I believe this was Mountains.

The aquarium has some pretty unique animals, including an albino alligator.

Another highlight is their giant, multi-story tank. We even got to see the divers doing the afternoon feeding, so lots of the inhabitants were more active than normal.

They also had a very cool (and random) exhibit about Madagascar. I'm not sure why it was at the South Carolina Aquarium of all places, but it had lemurs, so I won't complain.

Because of the late lunch, neither of us were hungry when we were done, so we opted to drive back to Myrtle Beach before dinner. The plan was to check in for our flights and then grab something to eat. But the best laid plans and all that.

I had no issues checking in for my flight, but Michael's had a syncing issue that could only be resolved in person or over the phone. Of course we discovered this 10 minutes after the ticket counter at the airport had closed for the day, so we spent the next two hours trying to get through on the phone. It took about an hour to figure out the right menu options (if only you knew how many times we kept ending up with tech support in India), but then there were so many callers due to the impending snow, that we were automatically disconnected every time. I even tried tweeting US Airways and was told there was nothing they could do.

Finally, at 9, we gave up and got Arbys for dinner. We then got up at 6:30 to be at the US Airways ticket counter when it opened so Michael could check in. Then it was back to the hotel for a nap followed by breakfast.

It doesn't seem so bad when I condense the incident into a few sentences, but it really ruined our final night and morning of our trip. Plus it was just so frustrating that it was an error on the airline's part that should have been a five second fix, but we had no way to deal with it.

However, the fun didn't stop there. As soon as we were through security, I got an email saying my flight to Detroit was cancelled. Luckily, the gate agent in Myrtle Beach was very helpful and got me a seat on Michael's flight to Cleveland no problem. My car was at my parents' (they live close to DTW), so once we landed, Michael drove me to the end of the Turnpike, where my parents met us to drive me to my car, then I had another two hours to drive home. This was still way better than when we had to get home from O'Hare in a rainstorm, but it still put a huge damper on the end of the trip.

But in the end, this was an amazing trip, bad weather and bad travel and all. I ran a well-organized race and PRed, and I got engaged. I think I just need a little more time away from the South before I'm ready to go back!

Big Changes

Despite my best intentions, things have been very quiet around the blog the last few weeks. I've talked about the Real Life Stuff that's been going on, but I've been unable to share. Well, the last few pieces have fallen into place, and I finally can! (Thank God, I hated being a vague blogger!)

Michael and I have been long-distance our entire relationship. (We've known each other since fourth grade, though, which I think helped us make it work.) In college we were only about 1.5 hours apart, but since we both started working, it's been 4.5 hours.

That's why I'm super excited to announce that I got a job in Cleveland and will be moving to join Michael!

It was actually the second job I applied to (womp womp) once I started looking, and I am thrilled about the position, the organization, and my future team. I'll still be in accounting, but I'll be moving from cost to doing grants. I've had a little exposure to this in college, but I'm certainly a newbie, but grants seemed very interesting, so I figured what the heck, why not apply. I'm so glad I gave it a shot! As a very risk-averse person, this was especially exciting for me. (And just to note, I was totally up front about this in all my interviews!)

I obviously didn't want to share on the blog I was looking for work, in case anyone from my current job stumbled upon it. It was weird keeping it a secret though, since it obviously affected my stress levels and my running. (I skipped a few runs to work on job apps, and I felt sort of keyed up a lot of the time.)

Though to be honest, it's still affecting my running. We planned our races this year around my work schedule, and it sounds like my new job will have a very similar set-up, so the races should still work. Worst case, we only have one marathon in the fall, so there's lots of other races we could do instead, and the only thing we are out at this point is registration fees. (And I think some of the races even allow transfers, so maybe we could re-coup some of that.) Plus, the next three races we could squeeze in with no time off - though it would be an awful suckfest - so there's really no reason to worry.

However, I am who I am, so this is causing me a ton of anxiety, but I know it's out of my control, and I will just talk to my boss when I start. My only concern is sounding lazy (hey, I know I just got here, but I'm going to need to take some time off, byeeeeeee), but I'm sure it's normal for new employees to have pre-planned trips, and I'll obviously communicate I'm flexible. Plus - it's a marathon, I'm not just running off (ha!) to lie on the beach or something.

I'm also having some anxiety over fitting in my training with the new job. I'm eligible to get a gym membership at Case Western, which is only a few minutes walk from my office, but I'm not sure they will pro-rate the membership. (I'm fine with $33 a month, but $80 would just be stupid.) That means lunch time workouts are probably not an option until July, but I know I can just get a gym near where I live and (gasp) actually get up to do some workouts in the morning. I'm also hoping to use my lunch break to get active and go for a walk in the building or outside.

I realize this post makes me sound like the love child of Grumpy Cat and Debbie Downer, but I want to share my honest thoughts about the transition. I sort of realized suddenly I was depressed again after starting my current job because of all the changes and related anxiety, even though I was certainly happy.

I think being open on the blog (and with myself) will help combat it this time around. I have had a lot of fun researching gyms and found what looks like an awesome one near my new apartment. (Their indoor track is made of rubber. I might marry it!)

There was also one other big change to share (that I will detail a bit more in my South Carolina Recap), but Michael and I got engaged while we were at Myrtle Beach!

It's very exciting to move on to the next step of our relationship. (Though since I look like I'm 12, people still keep calling him my boyfriend instead of my fiancé, even with my engagement ring on.) I personally find it annoying when running blogs I read suddenly morph into wedding blogs, so I will try to keep everything to a minimum here, and only talk about it as it applies to my running.

But wedding planning won't even begin in earnest for awhile since our next goal is to buy a house. Michael's lease will be up at the end of June, and we would like to be out of there by then. We are both sick and tired of loud and inconsiderate neighbors. I can't wait to live in my own place and know it will be quiet whenever I want it to be. (Read: 100% of the time.)

Please be patient with me as I go through these changes. I will get my recaps up soon, but it is a little overwhelming packing up my life and getting ready to settle in a new state. I can't wait to share my new Ohio adventures, but I need some time to get into a groove.

My New Year's resolution was to post three times a week, but I think I will scale back to just once a week for now. Hopefully once I settle in and have someone to share chores with, I will have more time than ever to write!

Have you ever had to ask for vacation time soon after starting a job?
Any house hunting tips for us?

Myrtle Beach Marathon Recap

I know I normally write my travel recap first for races, but I have a lot on my mind from the Myrtle Beach Marathon that I want to get down before I forget. Besides, I'm sure you all care much more about my race than my other adventures anyway!

For some ungodly reason, the race starts at 6:30 AM (right around sunrise), despite it being mid-Feburary. I'm guessing this is because the main road along the ocean gets shut down and traps everyone at the resorts.

Michael and I both had a horrible night's sleep Friday. An itemized list of the noise we endured: a family cursing at full volume running down the hall at 10 PM, the same family cursing and running at 11 PM, a toddler having a meltdown in the next room because she was up until midnight (parents, what did you think would happen?!?!), and a smoker watching videos at full volume on his phone outside the room at 1:30 AM.

Our hotel (Crown Reef Resort) was certainly Not Cheap, but a lot of the other guests seemed...out of place. I would definitely recommend staying elsewhere if you go to Myrtle Beach. I would also recommend being at least 25 so you can stay at a nicer resort. (Yes, I'm still very bitter!)

The 5 AM wake-up call came very early, considering I got probably less than six hours of sleep. I reminded myself I had no problems running Hatfield-McCoy on less than four hours last year, so I sucked it up.

Parking was free at Broadway at the Beach, and it was about a five minute walk from the start. We also could've taken a shuttle from the hotel, but we wanted the warm car to wait in, and I had read less than stellar reviews of the shuttles in prior years. It was a little tricky to find in the dark with the road closures, but it was still stress-free. There were tons of spaces, so we had no trouble parking less than 45 minutes before the start.

By the time I had finished my bagel, I realized we only had about 15 minutes until the start! We quickly packed up our stuff and headed to the start. There weren't too many people walking over, but we managed to get to the right spot. We were also able to walk right into port-a-potties and then waited in line only a few minutes before the gun.

The pacer started out way too fast, so we didn't end up running with him.

It was around 30 at the start, but I only wanted a light jacket for the race, so I brought my mylar blanket I had been saving since Maine to throw away. That was an excellent idea! They also had a big clothes drop a few miles in specially for donation, so that's an option as well.

I am sad I didn't stop for a quick picture at this point. A crescent moon was still clearly visible above the palmetto trees, and it looked exactly like the state license plate. It was pretty crowded and I didn't want to get run down. Looking back though, I wish I had hopped on the median to get the shot!

The race is a loop course but has very few turns, though there are a few short out-and-backs to add distance. We began with a long run towards the airport. It was very pleasant as soon as the sun came up. The humidity actually felt pretty nice after so many dry winter days in Michigan. I spoke briefly to a couple transplants who were worried about how cold 30 degrees would be.

We passed a band around mile six or seven playing Country Roads and sang along. I have no shame when I'm running marathons. One guy also stopped and danced along to it. I would say the race had a super fun, relaxed atmosphere - at least towards the back by me.

We then hit Ocean Blvd and ran along the strip for a very long time. Other people had complained they didn't like having the ocean blocked, but there were still quite a few spots with an unobstructed view, plus the buildings were great at sheltering us from the wind.

Being from a small town, I also thought running through "honky tonk" was pretty neat. It had that fun tourist feel without the downside of being filled with tourists. Win win, if you ask me.

My legs were feeling great at this point. My goal was to run 10:53 min/miles, and my average was just about dead on, with only quick walk breaks at water stops. At mile 12, in the honky tonk section, I put on my podcasts to get myself to mile 20. The halfers had split off at mile 11, so now the course had plenty of room and I could really get into my own groove.

Around mile 15 or 16 we entered North Myrtle Beach and ran by private homes and had more ocean views. At this point, Michael started struggling to keep pace, and he dropped back from me.

I was interested to try out my plan from Stone Bridge that worked so well and use my podcasts to zone out until mile 20. For the first time, I think I finally understood what it means when people say they "go inside" themselves for a run. I still enjoyed the course, but I was able to block out all concept of time and distance and just put one foot in front of the other. I started getting a little fatigued by mile 18, but I was able to just focus on my podcasts and keep up the pace.

I was really confident I would hit my 4:45 goal until I made the turn and hit mile 19. Out of nowhere, there was a horrible, horrible headwind. A runner near me reported the forecast had said it was 20 mph, but honestly, head-on, it felt much stronger. I felt like I was running into a brick wall. I walked through more water stops at this point, so it's harder to analyze my splits, but it seems like I did an okay job of keeping up the pace.

At mile 20 I switched to the new music I bought and got ready to rock out. That is, until I came up on mile 21 and started feeling a tingling in my hands. I had a decision to make - this was clearly the sign of a rapidly approaching bonk - what should I do?

I remembered how horrible I had felt when I bonked at Sleeping Bear, so I slowed to a power walk and began stuffing Sports Beans in my mouth like it was my job. I ate and ate until the tingling went away. My stomach was pretty unhappy at that point, but the silver lining to IBS is I'm actually pretty proficient at ignoring that discomfort and carrying on. Looking at my splits, I lost only about two or three minutes there, and I'm sure I would've lost much more time if I let myself go over the edge.

I also had a crazy revelation at this point. My Garmin starts my lap pace over each mile (which I like), and there were a couple miles where the beginning was sheltered from the headwind...and I was running a sub-10 pace. What? Who was I? I'm not a runner who can run sub-10 miles in the last 10K of a marathon! But apparently I am. That was a huge moment for me. To go from not being able to run one 10 minute mile to running that pace at the end of a distance race in a couple years is a huge achievement for me!

The last few miles were on a bike path, which did offer some protection from the wind. A lot of people were beaten down at the point and walking, so I felt pretty good passing a lot of runners. Yet another thing I'm not used to! Maybe I need to give myself more credit.

The race finishes at TicketReturn.Com Field (yes, that name is super stupid). They are the farm team for the Cubs (who my parents love), but I couldn't coordinate taking my camera out for a picture at mile 26.

No pictures after mile 25!

The chute was almost .2 miles long and felt like it went on forever! I had promised myself earlier I wouldn't kick if I didn't want to, but I did try to pick it up at the very end. My legs were spent from fighting the wind, but I managed a sub-10 pace for the last bit.

Time: 4:51:07

Despite all the obstacles - a five minute PR! I was overcome with the same feelings I had after my first marathon and almost cried. It passed quickly, but it was still overwhelming. I finally accomplished a goal I've been chasing for over a year.

The chute continued for quite a ways past the finish line. I got my medal (placed around my neck!) and skipped the free picture area since I was alone. I hobbled to the food tent and was very pleased to find a police officer keeping out everyone without a bib. Considering how many people still tried to get in, they really needed someone with authority. I was super bummed the promised Krispy Kreme donuts were gone, but I got some pretzels to settle my stomach.

I retreated to a hill overlooking the chute to wait for Michael. I really wanted to walk back to the finish line to get pictures of him, but my legs just hurt to badly to contemplate moving. When I heard his name called, I did hobble back down the chute to meet him.

I picked up a few more snacks, including chocolate milk, and we found a curb to sit on. The group next to us had a Stick, and I was really tempted to ask to borrow it. My quads were so tight!

Overall, this race was awesome, and I would highly recommend it. It was well organized, and, as a Northerner, I found the course pretty scenic and interesting. The volunteers were awesome, and I never wanted for anything.

I think I needed this race to really fine tune what I learned at Stone Bridge. I need to just go inside myself from mile 8-12 until 20, then use music to power myself home. Bonks need to be addressed immediately.

Now the question is - can I gain back some of those lost minutes at Knoxville in five weeks?

Pre-race Thoughts - Myrtle Beach

My trip to Myrtle Beach has gotten off to a roaring start (knock on wood). Security was practically a walkthrough, and my luggage didn't need to be searched, even though I've crammed a space blanket in there. I even got to hear TSA discuss how someone was a "GIANT TOOL" - somehow he sent his jacket with ID through the X-ray before his boarding pass was checked.

There was also a scare last night when US Airways called saying the second leg of my flight was delayed, but then immediately called back saying it was now on time. Jokes.

I'm supposed to start boarding in about 40 minutes, but considering our plane is still not here...I thought I would whip out a quick post. (ETA - plane has arrived while I've been editing the post!) I had planned to do this last night, but I was too busy spending quality time with my parents. (And big shout-out to my dad for interrupting his work this morning to drop me off at the airport!)

I've struggled a bit with what I want to cover in this post. It would be easy to accidently turn it into a review of Run Less Run Faster. That post is definitely on my to do list, but I want this to be a more simple reflection on what happened and what I hope to have happen tomorrow.

I've talked about my injury on the blog (and in person) until I was blue in the face, and everyone reading/listening was probably ready to injure me further to make me shut up already. It certainly didn't feel like it at the time, but the injury was probably very good for me. I've always struggled to skip runs, even if it's for an extremely good reason, but now I feel like I have a more laid back approach. This is obviously a work in progress, but I'm making steps in the right direction.

I did lose some endurance during the lay-off, but my cardio capacity seems to be right where I want it. This is what I typically struggle with: I'm okay to suck it up buttercup when my legs hurt, but the minute I start sucking wind, I'm done. The race tomorrow is obviously not a sprint (thank God), but I'm glad my lungs are prepped for the challenge, nonetheless.

I just truly don't understand people who feel this way.

I am a little nervous about how my legs will hold up. My long runs following my break weren't exactly stellar, but my 13 miler at MP two weeks ago was awesome. I'm hoping running on snow-free streets, in the sun, in ideal temperatures will be just the boost I need to outperform my training runs.

The plan at the moment is to run with the 4:45 pace group. I had been planning to run a 4:30ish before, so I feel like scaling back five minutes per week of injury is a reasonable adjustment. This will also be my first time running with a pace group, but I hope it's a good experience. While my Garmin can be programmed as a pacing crutch, which I love, I hope having a leader to stick with will keep me motivated. Maybe I'll even make some new friends!

All the tracking for the race is via the Myrtle Beach Marathon app. I think I set it up correctly to have my splits auto-posted to Twitter. (Follow me @myeagerfeet.) If not, you can always download the app and track me that way. My bib number is 696. It's such a boost to know people are tracking my progress when I hit timing mats! But the race does start at 6:30 AM, so no judging if sleep through most of it.

There is also a live stream at mile eight, which really makes no sense to me. I'm definitely on the slower end of the spectrum, but it's going to be right around 8 AM when I get there. If I were fast or people tracking me were not in the Eastern time zone, this would useless. But it's there if you're interested.

Good luck to everyone else racing this weekend!

(And good luck to everyone staying warm!)

Weekend Recap - Illinois vs MSU Basketball

Hopefully when you're reading this, I am waiting at the airport for my plane off to warm, sunny Myrtle Beach. I know this should've gotten up sooner, but I had other things to write about first!

Both my parents went to Illinois for college, and they have some how have remained die-hard Illini fans, despite their teams being pretty atrocious pretty much all of the time. I vaguely remember their basketball team was good when I was little, but that's about it. (Don't even get started on football!)

Every year when football and basketball schedules come out, the first thing we check is whether MSU will be hosting Illinois. Sadly we haven't hosted them in football since my freshman year of college (and Eager Feet Dad was already on a trip that weekend!), but we've had better luck with basketball. This year we got super lucky with MSU hosting Illinois on a Saturday afternoon.

East Lansing is only about an hour and a half from me, so I didn't even have to get up super early! I ended up meeting my parents at a Meijer parking lot and leaving my car there, so we only had to pay to park one car. (Shh, don't tell!)

I hadn't been back to campus since the football game at the end of August, so it was fun to be back. I had tried to think of a way to fit a run in on my favorite campus route, but there's no showers accessible anywhere without a student ID. I even thought about running after the game, but I didn't know where I'd put my stuff after changing.

The lots near the Breslin were all full an hour before game time, so we ended up parking by the football stadium. My parents are relatively familiar with campus, but mostly with the roads, whereas I'm almost useless in the car but can get us anywhere on foot.

While the drive from the Breslin to the stadium lot was long, the walk was short. My parents didn't realize this at first and kept insisting we hustle to the stadium as fast as possible, even though we had 45 minutes until tip. I didn't understand but went along with it, but it was funny when we got there, and they were like, hey, how'd that happen so fast? Spartan magic, my friends. Then my dad asked me who the statue out front was, and a piece of my soul died. (Hint: it's Magic Johnson.)

My parents bought the tickets on Stub Hub and must have splurged, because we got seats in the upper bowl with real backs! Normally we purposely buy tickets for the top row of the upper bowl (which is bleachers) so that we can lean against the wall. Man, my weekend recaps are just dropping life hacks left and right!

Empty arena before game time. Sadly, lots of seats remained unfilled even after tip off.

Michael was supposed to come but got an awful cold that resulted in him having to take three sick days. He was feeling marginally better, but he decided to keep himself quarantined. This meant we had a nice extra seat for our coats. I also could sit between my parents and catch up with both of them.

The warm-up music definitely caters to the players, so it features a lot of heavy rap. I think it wore on my mom a bit, and she was glad when it was over. My favorite part of the pre-game is the MSU video beforehand. They update it every year, but keep the same song and a few of the same iconic clips. It's pretty easy to make me tear up, and this video always gets me, as lame as that sounds. Honestly, my favorite part of sports seasons as a student was seeing the preview video at the first game.

I'll spare you the gory details, but MSU looked pretty sad. We missed lots of easy shots, but we went into the final minute, down two, with three free throws and possession (from a technical), and we still managed to lose by five. I wasn't even sad - if you can't win with those circumstances, you don't deserve to win at all. Even my parents were in shock. I'm only a little worried now since some projections show us out of March Madness. Inconceivable!

Here's a happy picture from halftime.

There was the cutest little girl in front of us that made up for the sting a bit. I despised sports when I was little (please note the only college games I saw were Illinois vs Michigan, so obviously not exciting!), and the kid in front of us was like a blast from the past. Before the game even started, she had curled up for a nap in her seat. When the clock hit two minutes left, she immediately bundled herself up in preparation for departure. She could hardly sit still when two game minutes turned into about ten real minutes. I felt her pain!

After the horror was over, food was our first priority. We ended up going to Grand Traverse Pie Co, and I got their french dip. I'm not a big salad person, but my dad's cherry chicken salad actually looked amazing. I'll have to try it next time.

We then made a quick pit stop to try to find Spartan kleenex for my mom's boss. Yes, you can get just about anything collegiately branded! Even the campus bookstore didn't have any - they must only make them at going back to school time. I'm shocked, I figure that's a branded item that must print money.

Following that failure was my favorite stop of the day - the Dairy Store! MSU has it's own herd of cows and manufactures its own dairy products on campus, including ice cream in tons of different flavors. It is pretty much the best ever. I'm glad I didn't discover how good their milkshakes were until the summer before my senior year, or I'd be 1200 pounds.

Vanilla is the only way to go.

And yes, I am sitting in a stairwell in that picture. My dad insisted we go to the "real" Dairy Store (there's also a smaller branch in the Union), and the line took about 30 minutes to get through, plus there were no tables open. Most of the rooms in the building are food labs, and therefore kept locked, so we found these stairs leading only to a locked door and hunkered down there.

I then I had to laugh when we went to use the bathroom before going back to my car. Apparently the one person bathroom in the dairy building randomly has tons of lockers! I'm totally keeping this in mind for future campus visits when I want to run. I easily could have changed there and locked my other stuff up while I ran. So random.

I'm glad I was able to make it to a basketball game this year, and it was really fun to catch up with my parents. When I went back in August for the football game, it was so very bittersweet knowing my time as a student was over, but the ache is easing a lot now. I see a few more Dairy Store visits in my future!

Did you like watching sports as a kid?
What's your favorite brand of ice cream?

Belated Weekend Recap - Snow Tubing

I know it seems a bit silly to recap a weekend that happened a few weeks ago, but I really want to have all my "adventures" documented on my blog so I can do a cool year in review like all the other kids in December. I thought about combining this with last weekend's recap, but I decided to leave them separate, for that same reason.

The day started out with me getting up early-ish to run. This is always something I want to do, but it's so nice, especially in the winter, to doze back off in my blanket nest on Saturday mornings instead of getting up. But I made it out the door before 10 AM. Baby steps.

It was even nicer than I expected being out in the morning. Lots of other runners were out (who knew!), so it was nice to feel like I was communing with them. Even if I didn't actually make any eye contact because that's awkward.

It also beautiful out, with sunny skies and no wind. It was almost 40 degrees by the time I finished! I meant to take a picture of my run, but I was too lazy to dig my phone out. Suffice it to say, it was a very refreshing final long run.

As soon as I got back, I shoveled some food into my face and headed over to my coworker's to meet up for tubing. We had invited a larger group, but it ended up being me, L (same one I ran the Scrumpy Skedaddle with), L's brother, and T, another coworker.

The closest place to us to snow tube is Snow Snake, just north of Clare. For any non-Michiganders reading this, we consider this the beginnings of "Up North." I sort of live on the border, so it's easy for me to cross over. It was an easy 35 minute or so drive up to Snow Snake. (Easy because L drove and I could continue, ahem, refueling along the way.)

An aside here, but it was so funny when I told people I was tubing the upcoming weekend. Almost every person asks me if I meant snow tubing. There is a place to go river tubing nearby as well, but I hardly think that's likely in January!

When we arrived, we were initially a little unsure about the tubing runs. From the parking lot, it looked like grass was poking through at the bottom of the runs. We watched some people go down though, and they didn't seem bothered by it, so we went for it, all except for L's brother. I think the only thing he won't complain about is drinking, so we sent him off to the lodge, and the three of us got our tags.

It was a funny role reversal, after helping L get into running, I flailed around with my jacket tag completely clueless. She was on her high school's ski team, and still skis regularly, so she very helpfully showed me the ropes.

Snow Snake's tow rope was very nice, in that attendants hooked and unhooked your tube. I went tubing once as a kid, and you were responsible for unclipping yourself. That's way too much pressure for me! Up we went to check out our options.

Awkward tow rope selfie.

Snow Snake had four different runs, and we ended up trying them all. A few we did multiple times, based on how short the lines were. We had only paid for one hour of tubing (a bummer that they don't give a discount for two hours!), so we wanted to maximize our time.

The three of us were allowed to go down as a group every time, which was a lot of fun. I almost lost my privileges though after accidentally dropping L's feet one time, and she almost sailed over the snow barrier from the momentum.

That run sounded so gentle. Lies, all lies.

There was a worker manning the top of each run, so the crowd was controlled. It was so nice not worrying if someone would come smash into you from behind! Much better than sledding as a kid. They would also spin you if you wanted. We were too chicken the first time, but the guy spun us anyway (gently), and after that we got over our fear.

Another tow rope picture, but you can see how steep the runs were!

We also discovered on our first run that what we thought was grass was actually hay. Because of refreezing happening that week prior, the bottom of the runs had turned to ice. Without the grass, our combined weight would have easily sent us flying when we got to the bottom. We tried to convince L's brother to join us again, but he was happy with his beers, I guess.

Gosh, winter boots are hideous!

The nice weather persisted for us in the afternoon. I usually run quite cold, but other than the very tips of my toes at the end, I was perfectly comfortable. Dunham's had actually run out of snow pants when I shopped the night before, so the only water repellent pants I had were my rain pants. I felt like a super dork, but they sealed around my boots well, and I stayed warm and dry! Now there's a life hack if I've ever heard one.

When our hour was up, we headed in to join L's brother at the lodge. It was pretty cramped, but we managed to snag a table in the bar area. I stuck to hot cocoa (which ended up being disappointing), but it was nice to warm up a bit and chat.

I'm so glad we found time that worked to go. L and T are hilarious, and it was awesome to go tubing with them. I think the runs I did when I was younger were more intense (I seem to remember us going over barricades and falling out of tubes), but this was a blast. I have a tendency to fall off sleds, so tubing is the perfect activity for me.

Maybe if the snow sticks around I will go again!

Have you ever been snow tubing?
What's your favorite winter activity?