Back in the Saddle

I still have more pictures and thoughts of the San Francisco Marathon but for now I thought I would do an update of this week.

We got home Wednesday afternoon, it was a long trip home! Our wake up call came at 2:48am Wed. morning, Cheryl was up first then I was up right at 3:00 or so. We had already packed the night before so just really needed to get dressed and throw on a little makeup.
We were down in the lobby about 3:45ish and our shuttle pulled up almost immediately. We didn't know how long it would take to get to the airport and we wanted to be there by 5:00... well we were there at 4:40 and the Southwest ticket counters weren't even open yet!!
I closed my eyes as soon as we got on the plane and I was still kind of awake when we took off but pretty much slept all the way to Vegas.
We had about an hour and a half lay over since our plane had arrived a little early. I was really tempted to play the slot machines but I spent enough money in San Francisco I really didn't need to throw anymore away!!
When we boarded for the flight to Little Rock Cheryl gave us each a free drink coupon and once we were airborne we all ordered a Bloody Mary.. it was YUMMY!!! Thanks Cheryl!!!!!
It took forever to get our baggage, in San Francisco they were almost the first bags off, but not in Little rock!
After we dropped Cheryl off we headed to Team 1 where Kylie had been playing with Daddy all day. I was anxious to see her and although I was pretty worn out I wanted to go there instead of straight home.
When I did get home I walked into a sparkling clean house courtesy of Livia :)

Thursday morning I was up at 4:00am preparing to meet Jane for a run. When the alarm went off I was thinking to myself "why do I torture myself like this"!! LOL - BUT it was a great run Jane wanted to hear all about San Francisco so I was talking the whole time! I was happy that everything felt ok, my breathing was ok etc. It wasn't overly hot but it was very humid.
Just before we hit the 4 mile mark my stomach started acting crazy but it never became a big problem, maybe if we had planned a longer run it would have!
Kylie came by Team 1 in the afternoon and she went home with me... she swam in the pool, we drew pictures on the driveway with chalk, we danced with the "So you think you can dance" dancers and pretty much she just wore me out!! She really wanted to go on a bike ride but she didn't have a bike at my house. She is so funny and smart she kept trying to think of ways that she could ride with me on my comfort bike. One of her ideas was to put her car seat on the little luggage rack... I have to give her credit she tries!!

Friday is always a rest day so I went ahead and kept it that way even though I didn't feel like I deserved a rest day. It's amazing we ran a Marathon on Sunday and walked a million miles all over San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday but by Wednesday evening I was feeling like a slug!

Saturday morning Heather and I made plans to meet and run five or six miles at 5:00am. She lives in my neighborhood and no one else was joining us so we just ran from home. It was great and once again I talked the whole time because she wanted to hear about San Francisco. The poop monster did hit me again, this time it was at about 1.5 miles. Luckily we were very close to a gas station but I had that same old problem, the bathroom is just feet away but I can't move!! :( Oh well once it was taken care of the rest of the run went really well.
We were back at our neighborhood waiting to cross the street when we see a truck approaching so we stopped to let them pass but they wouldn't go. Finally I can see they are waving us on and just as we are crossing I realize it is Bailey!! She was on her way to my house so we could ride together. We ended up with 5.5 miles for our run.
Several groups were doing different runs on Saturday morning. Brenda and Andrea were running on Lila Loop with Danielle and then Vicki and some others were meeting at 7:00 for a 5 mile run and then everyone was meeting at Sonic at 8:00 for breakfast/drinks.
Bailey, Arland and I started our bike ride at 6:30 and got 20 miles in before we headed to Sonic to meet everyone. It was great to see them after being away for a week and it was fun to talk about San Francisco.
It was really nice to have completed a 5.5 mile run and a 22 mile bike ride, breakfast, chatting and home all by 9:20am. It was also really nice to not have to drive anywhere to make that happen! As a matter of fact I didn't get in my car at all yesterday.
The bike ride was great but it was also hard, I could tell I hadn't been on the bike in over a week, and I guess maybe running a Marathon might have also contributed to the fact that my legs just felt kind of dead... oh and maybe the run before the bike ::sigh:: who knows, it just kind of sucked to feel like I had lost some of my bike fitness.
It was also great to spend time with Bailey and get to rehash the Marathon. We didn't really get to spend anytime together after the Marathon so we never had that chance to talk it out so we did that on the bike ride. She had a few interesting things to share... you know how sometimes when running you can sometimes be in your own world and you miss things that other people see.. or hear.

This morning was the Bike Time Trials... Arland had been working hard on this for several weeks but wouldn't you know it mother nature decided to wreck havoc on his plans. All day yesterday they talked about the rain chances for Sunday and Arland was constantly checking the radar and trying to decide what to do.
I was meeting Brenda and Bailey at the water station for a 4 mile run and then we were going to help with the timing. It started raining a little bit on my way over and I knew we probably weren't going to get to ride but I also knew rain wasn't going to stop our run.
We had a GREAT run! We started off nice and easy and just got to catch up with each other. At the 2 mile mark we took a "water" break and turned around. The rain started to pick up a little bit on the way back as did our pace. We ended up with a 9:54 avg pace I was thrilled with that since I felt great the whole time and that included a walk break.
When we got back Arland was there and so was James B. but he never got out of his vehicle and a few minutes later he drove off. It wasn't pouring but it was raining enough to keep everyone but Arland and Russ V. away. I felt bad for Arland because he had put a lot of thought into this and I know he didn't sleep much last night worrying about it.
Russ went out first and Brenda was timing him and then it was Arland's turn, he started about 2.5 minutes after Russ. Once they were gone we got under the porch of the Water Dept. and talked some more :) 30 minutes later we see the first rider coming in, and I can see the second rider is not too far behind. They were both really flying and breathing hard when they crossed the finish line. I was really proud of Arland he started well after Russ but he finished just behind him.
Poor Bailey she had actually ridden her bike to the Water Dept. in the dark and the drizzle, she had also run 1.5 miles before we got there, so she was pretty tired and ready to go home and go back to bed. It was too cold and rainy for her to ride home so Arland gave her a ride and Brenda and I headed to Mountain Mudd.... problem was they didnt' open until 8:00!! Oh well our plan had been to get Mountain Mudd and take it to Waffle House so we just decided to go straight to waffle house and drink their coffee.

It has been a great weekend :) I've had several good runs, a hard but good bike ride and most importantly lot's of time with friends!!!!
I have also made a decision about my next Marathon... or at least I think I have. I talked about it a lot to Brenda but I'm not 100% yet.