I met the mayor

In what i'm hoping will become a weekly tradition, here I am to recap the last week of my life in short paragraphs and post some old photos.  It's incredibly exciting!

It was a weird week at work, for reasons I don't feel like going into, and not much happened outside of work other than one big event - YPA celebrated their 10 year anniversary!  They had a get-together at Greystone and even the Mayor showed up!  Andrew had to do a little speech, too, since he's the president of YPA.  Very exciting stuff. I got pictures, of course, which you'll probably see in about 6 months or so...

Fall is really in full swing now, I'm looking out the window of my office to the yellow leaves on the trees (and ground) and it's so pretty. Too bad they're also a pain in the ass to rake to the curb. (Although, I'm still incredibly thankful I only have to get them to the curb and not actually bag them.  That was probably the least favorite thing my parents ever made me do as a kid. That and pit cherries.  Although, I have a feeling I whined and complained more than helped...)

John and I are going to a halloween party next weekend and our costumes are almost ready. I have a feeling that most people reading this won't know who these people are, but he's going as Walter White and I'm going as Turanga Leela. And yes, I have a plan for her eye, it's the only part of my costume I still need to actually *do*, but there is a plan in place, which is something.

Anyway, let's see... where did I leave off with the photos... Ah, yes... most of these will be from our trip out to CT in mid July, totally different weather than the aforementioned autumn!

My favorite photo from a session I did in early July

Another one of the new wine stoppers I got when my mom was in town

I actually took a ton of photos of these guys. I'll only torture you with one.

Photos of Fireworks!

No big plans going on this weekend, either... Although, we did play games both Friday and Saturday night.  Friday was with our friend Andrew and his girlfriend, who we introduced to both Cartagena and Ticket To Ride (I didn't win either game. Grrr.)  Saturday we played Dominion with Joe.  Good times.

Nothing else really exciting going on here - work is busy, busy, busy (and stressful, stressful, stressful, but what's new?), and I'm thinking about taking a Friday off coming up soon because I still have a week's worth of vacation I haven't touched yet.

So, let's jump back to a more exciting weekend - the weekend after the 4th of July when we were at John's parents' house:

John and his dad playing Cornhole

Waiting for a game to start

Not quite sure what John's brother is doing here?

Those look like faces of disappointment

Lazy Weekend

As you already read, last weekend was the Akron Marathon, and this weekend, in stark contrast, is a Lazy Weekend.  I'm going to start what I've dubbed my "winter training routine" - a training plan I've devised in order to get myself in better shape come Spring so I can start training for the half marathon - tomorrow (Sunday), which means today is my last day of laziness!  I mean... if I stick to the plan, which, to be honest, I have my doubts, but hopefully I will.

But for today, I'm planning on spending most of the day sitting my my recliner (thanks to mom & dad for helping me to pick it out and the down payment as a birthday gift!), and reading my  new Kindle Paperwhite (my birthday gift to myself... yeah, I'm all about the gifts-before-the-birthday!). The paperwhite, btw, is AWESOME!  I feel like such a traitor to my old first-generation nook, but gotta admit, the paperwhite is a major improvement.

Anyway, I also want to post some older photos here for you to enjoy!  A lot of these were from when my mom visited in June.

Eggplant flower

This blurry photo of Myles yawning soon became one of my most popular photos on flickr.

When mom was here, I got a few of these wine stoppers in different colors. I love them!

and mom got John this new basket for grilling veggies.  Awesome!

the rest of the photos are all from when mom & I went on a hike at Brandywine Falls

Akron Marathon

I know I'm a bazillion months behind in posting photos, but I thought since I ran in the Akron Marathon (as part of a relay team) it would be more exciting to talk about that.

First, I am so, so glad I waited to have THIS be my first official race. It WILL also be my first half-marathon!  And if I ever decide to do a full (I really don't think I will, but I hear most people say that...), it will be my first full.  I'm such an Akronite.

I, for obvious reasons, didn't bring my camera down to the race, so these are all cell phone photos.

For reference, this was our team:

• Leg One - 3.9 miles - Andrew, you've all heard me talk of him, my friend from work (who actually doesn't work with me anymore as of 2 weeks ago)
• Leg Two - 4.8 miles - ME!
• Leg Three - 7.5 miles - Vincent, Andrew's brother
• Leg Four - 4.5 miles - Steve, John's brother
• Leg Five - 5.5 miles - Sarah, John's friend from college who is now my friend, too, and is full of awesome.

Friday night, I was pretty nervous nervous. My friend Kristy - who has run the full Akron Marathon before -  texted me to wish me luck and I was telling her I felt SO NERVOUS, even though I knew I had no reason to be.  Thank GOD that nervousness was only friday night. I was FINE on race day!

Here I am Saturday morning all dressed and ready to go - my bib's incredibly off-center, and Sarah had to put my D-tag on for me (the thing on my shoe, it's what marks my time as I run over the timing mats) because I was flustered, nervous and confused (she put it on Friday night when I was still in my Freak Out mode):



So, we woke up Saturday morning super early so that we could get down to the start of the race around 6.  We parked and walked to the start. It was FREEZING!  And very dark when we got there.  I brought one of my small Yoshis with me for a couple reasons: 1) I was so nervous the night before that I thought having a yosh with me might calm me down on race day, 2) our team name was Team Yoshi, so I thought he'd make a fun "mascot" to take pictures of all day, and 3) we all decided to wear blue, so it just seemed appropriate to have a blue Yoshi with us all day.

Here's Yoshi waiting for the race to start... not that you can tell:



I'm so glad I was able to be there to feel the excitement/anticipation of the starting line.  We were in the "slow half" staging area (there are thousands of runners, so they have signs up for certain paces/marathon times, that way the fastest people are at the start, and Akron even divides it up into two large groups that start on different streets. The starting mat is in the same place for everyone, so if you're in the "slow group" like we were, the runner has to walk down one street, turn, then walk down another before they even get to the starting mat and their D-tag or bib actually marks their time).  Here's the people who had started to stage about half an hour before the race started:



At this point I was just overwhelmed with emotion. That probably sounds stupid, but, I dunno, I've always been one to get all emotional and significant events and stuff.  And the thrill of being there, the excitement of the event and the massive crowds and just being a PART of it, even if it was just a small part was pretty freakin' amazing.  Anyway, as I'm sure you know, I've been fairly certain I wanted to try and train for a half-marathon next year, and it was while I was standing here that i made up my mind that it IS happening.  Sarah is in for sure (she was actually registered to do one this year, but got injured), and even Andrew said he's going to do it, too. I'm definitely getting addicted to running (I haven't run since the race and I miss it, but I'm purposely doing different training now to get my entire body in shape and only running once a week now).

Anyway.

All but one of our team members was at the starting line.  Even though Sarah was running the last leg, she wanted to experience the whole thing (I don't blame her), so she was there at the start, it worked out great, because she actually knew where we were going and everything.  Andrew, Vincent and I all pretty much had to be there since we all started downtown, and if you want to park in downtown, you have to get there before the race starts, for sure!

So, we were able to get a "most of Team Yoshi" photo before the race started. This is probably my favorite photo of the day (taken, btw, on Sarah's brand new iPhone 5!):


Vincent, Sarah, Andrew, Me.

At the start of the race, fireworks go off.  Very exciting, but then they just kinda keep going really slowly there for a while. It was the most drawn-out fireworks display I've ever seen.  We got to watch Andrew as he moved from staging area 2 into staging area 1, and then we walked down to the first Relay Exchange Zone.  Soon after we got there, the front-runners starting running through. Already!  Crazy!  These people are running HARD CORE FAST!

After that, Sarah, Vincent, and his girlfriend stayed to watch a few more of the lead runners run through, and I went down to the exchange point.  This is the only point where I got nervous during the day, but not about the run, about exchanging the slap bracelet!  Yeah, that's what you exchange from one relay runner to the next - a yellow slap bracelet. Yup, the ones that were so popular in the 90s.

Anyway, the exchange zone is actually pretty well organized, they have signs up for bib numbers, like 8439-8542 or something like that, and you stand in your section. In addition, they have someone standing before the relay exchange zone with a microphone who yells out the bib numbers, so you get an idea of when your person is arriving.  The downside of being the second leg, is that Andrew was only running 3.9 miles... which isn't really enough miles for people to get too separated, so there were people arriving in giant chunks and they couldn't read the bib numbers fast enough.  Right when it was the point where OMGEVERYONEATONCE, Sarah, Vincent and Julia (the girlfriend, not running) showed up and Sarah came and stood next to me to grab all my stuff (sweatshirt, yoshi, and all of Andrew's stuff that i had grabbed from him), and thankfully SHE heard our bib number called (I would have completely missed it).  Oh, and ALSO, you were all supposed to stand on the sidewalk, but the runners kept going on the road to try and see their person, so it got really crowded and congested actually on the road.

Our exchange went fine. Andrew looked like he was dying when I finally saw him coming (he told me later that he immediately fell to the ground after passing over the bracelet - this was the longest he had ever run. He ran a 5K earlier this summer, but he walked part of it. But today he ran this entire time!  In fact, our ENTIRE team ran the entire time!  Which was really probably only an accomplishment for Andrew and I. Ha.).

So. Here's the thing. At this exchange zone, the marathon/half-marathon runners stay on the bridge, and the relay teams go down the entrance ramp to the road below, where the exchange happens. this is genius, because then the marathon/half runners aren't inconvenienced by the craziness of the exchange. I KNEW this was how it worked, what I didn't think about was that meant my first however-many yards were UP AN EXIT RAMP.  Like, for serious hill. and I didn't train on hills! At all!

Here's what I learned though. I did train a LOT at keeping a pace. I KNEW I was a slow runner, but I didn't care. I purposely kept running slow because I wanted to just. keep. running. and build up my distance.  So, I actually found that on that ramp, and anywhere there was a hill on my part of the course, I was passing people left and right. and i'm a VERY SLOW runner.  And they'd all pass me back again when it got flat, but I'm actually really proud of that!  I also passed a lot of people that would stop to walk, and then they'd pass me again when they'd start running again.

Here's a photo that Sarah took of Yoshi after I left the exchange zone:



As you can probably tell by what everyone was wearing, it was still pretty cold, but I wasn't feeling it because I was RUNNING.  Man. I wish I could describe what it felt like... I knew the adrenaline would kick in and it would feel better than all my training runs, but I wasn't prepared for just HOW MUCH better.  During all my training runs, I wanted to stop around 1.5-2 miles. I wouldn't, I would push through, but it took will power, once I got past that, I'd hit "the zone" and felt like I could run forever and be fine. I never hit that really hard part on Saturday. I mean, there were times I was all "huh. I'm kinda tired, I guess it would be nice to be done", but not "OMGIWANTTOSTOP".  During the times I was kinda tired, I had Dorey/Ellen from Finding Nemo saying "just keep running" in my head, like the "just keep swimming" she says in the movie.  Also, my relay leg was basically a giant square-cornered U.  So, when I got to the bottom of my U and made my first left turn, i was all HOLY COW I'M HERE ALREADY???  And that's when I started running through the neighborhoods, and there were SO many Akronites out cheering us on, and SO many awesome signs. My favorite was "Chuck Norris never ran a marathon!" but I also liked the "Worst Parade Ever" sign. I also really appreciated the ones that didn't just say "marathon" or "half-marathon" but actually called out the relay racers, too. I know what we're doing isn't as impressive, but for a lot of us, it's harder for us than it is for the marathon racers because for some of us, it's the hardest and longest run we've ever done!

I also liked reading the back of people's shirts... I liked the mom who had her kids handprints on the back of her shirt and something along the lines of "we're here to give you a push if you need it, mom" So cute!

I only took water at one of the fluid stations (there were two on my leg), and didn't stop running for it, but did do the trick that Kristy taught me of folding the cup into a U. This definitely helped with water sloshing while trying to drink, but the process of doing the folding sloshed water all down my legs.  Also, I know it's acceptable and all, but I could NOT bring myself to throw my cup on the ground. I just don't do that shit, so I had to run to a trash can.  This is probably more dangerous as I could have taken someone out while attempting to do this, but I can't help myself.

running into my exchange zone with Vincent was awesome because it was kinda downhill so you could actually SEE stuff, it was also just getting back into downtown Akron so it was fun to watch all the buildings approach.  It was at this point that I actually started crying. I know, I'm pathetic, but I was just SO happy to be there and SO proud of myself for doing it, and running the ENTIRE WAY.

Ok, so here's my complaint about the number systems for the exchange points. The bib ranges started off in stuff that made sense - 6000-6500, etc, but by the time it got to our bib number (we were 8485), it was all NOT even numbers. I seriously could NOT figure out the math and my brain could not figure out what group was my group and I started panicking.  Luckily, Andrew was smart enough to stand with his brother (after the exchange between Andrew and I, Andrew, Sarah, Vincent and Julia walked to the next exchange point since it was only 2 blocks away, to all wait for me. I think they also stopped at McDonald's first), because he thought there would be a better chance of him and I recognizing each other.  Good plan, Andrew. I saw them both and actually waved my arms around like Pheobe does when running in Friends, I was THAT excited to see them.  Here's a HORRIBLE photo of our exchange (ignore the girl in front looking at the camera, we don't know her):



so, I'm going to mention what my goals were, but please know that I am very much aware that I am an incredibly slow runner, and while I'M %100 ok with that (as previously mentioned, I'm kinda slow on purpose, so that I could increase my distance easier... and speed has NEVER been a goal of mine).  But I still had one actual goal, and one kinda-goal. My actual goal was that I didn't want to stop to walk the entire time. I wanted to actually run the entire time. Mission accomplished!  No walking!  The other was that I wanted to finish in less than an hour. Yes, I was running less than 5 miles and that was a goal.  I told you I'm slow! I was THRILLED when I finished and looked down at my nike+ app and it said my pace was 11:25/mile!  If you take the official time to calculate my pace, though, I was actually 11:40/mile.  Both have me at 56 minutes (which is weird, because I actually forgot to stop the nike+ app right away, but maybe I forgot to start it right away, too, I can't really remember), the nike+app says I ran further, though. I'll believe the official race results (obviously), even though that's somewhat jaded, because Andrew is the one who ran over the mat to start my leg, and of course he could have been running slower than me AND there's the whole time the actual exchange takes, so maybe I was actually running about an 11:30 mile?  either way, I'm sure you think it's pathetically slow, but for me?  It's kinda awesome I could keep that pace for that long (I can run ONE mile much faster, of course).

After the exchange was over, it was kinda weird... I was all done. After the feelings of pride and awesomeness started to wear off, I also got a feeling of sadness over it all being over for me. I've been training and working for this for so long, and now... it's done.

Andrew, Julia and I walked Sarah to the shuttle buses so she could head off to her exchange point, and then the three of us were going to go to Barley House (a bar), before we realized there was no easy way to get there because you had to cross over the marathon route, and all the half-marathons were finishing, so it was impossible to do that.  So, since we were right by the stadium where the marathon finished, we decided to just jump in there so I could pee, because I really had to. When I got out, it was just in time to see the first place marathon finisher, who finished the ENTIRE 26.2 miles in just 2 hours and 18 minutes. CRAZY TOWN. He was FOUR SECONDS away from beating the Akron Marathon record.

From there we headed to another bar that was easier to get to, Brubakers, and I had a mimosa and shared a snack with Yoshi:



We stayed there until we got the call from Vincent that his leg was done, and then paid our bills and walked down to the shuttle area to wait for him to arrive.

Poor vincent didn't have the best end to his run.  He's the most hard-core runner of all of us and ran about an 8 minute mile pace just to get there and not be able to find Steve. He said it didn't take too long, but it still must be frustrating to not have him right there waiting. And, he and Steve had the not-so-thrilling ending of being done and not having anyone there waiting for you.  Andrew, Sarah and I all had at least two other team members there to congratulate  us.  And then there wasn't enough room to sit on the (incredibly stinky, I'm sure) shuttle bus, so he had to stand.  But, he got there. This was taken while we were waiting for his shuttle to arrive:



Also, while were waiting for Vincent, I texted Kristy to tell her "That was the best thing I've ever done. Totally doing the half next year!"  I've now told multiple people this, so I guess it better happen!

After that, we had to part ways with Julia, as we were going to head down into the stadium to the area where only those with bibs could get in.

We got our free snacks and powerade and Yoshi waved to the crowd:



We tried to guess about what time Sarah would be running in, but it was hard to know because Steve didn't bring his phone, so we had no idea when he finished his leg and Sarah started.  At some point, we just decided, "maybe soon" and walked up to the final stretch of the race course so we could start watching people cross the finish line.  We got to see a couple interesting things as we waited for Sarah:

• We saw someone from the wheelchair division finish.  He looked so tired. so impressive, to push yourself for 26 miles like that!
• We saw someone fall just YARDS from the finish line, and we saw the guy running steps in front of him turn around to help him up (he was totally fine, btw)
• The wedding I went to a couple weekends ago?  Saw the groom finish!
• Saw what looked to be a father/daughter team cross the finish line holding hands (he was running the full marathon and she was running a relay - the bibs are different colors, in case you're wondering how I knew that)
• Actually saw my friend Michelle!  It's funny, I told a couple people I knew that were running "I'll cheer you on at the finish" not really expecting to see any of them, So it was so cool to see Michelle. Although, I think I scared the crap out of the girl standing in front of me because out of nowhere I suddenly yelled "GO MICHELLE!!! WOOOOO!!!!" probably right into her ear. Oops.
• We saw a couple people with their phones out recording video as they ran into the stadium, but one of them was paying too much attention to the video and not enough to his surroundings and ended up hitting another runner in the face with his outstretched arm. *sigh*.

Here's Yoshi at the final stretch:


I took the photo when not a lot of people were running because I didn't want to miss when Sarah came in, but of course that also made for a rather boring photo. Meh.

And then we saw Sarah finish and got to cheer her on!  And our team officially finished at exactly 4:16!  Not too shabby, especially considering that Sarah is injured and I'm so very slow!

We then went to "enjoy" our free beer. I put that in quotes because it's Michelob Ultra. I didn't even have one, because... gross.



Oh, and also, it was incredibly bright out at this point, so I couldn't actually see the screen of my phone, thus everyone getting chopped off in the photo.

Steve actually FOUND us (we didn't even know if he was planning on coming to the finish line, so we weren't even looking for him, so it was a miracle that he stumbled upon us. In the beer tent, of course), so we were able to get a Team Photo at the finish!



For the record, we all smelled SO BAD.  Also, yes, I did debate putting "Moo" or "iffles" on my bib instead of Jennifer, but I figured I'd go traditional for my first run.

After that, it was over and we headed back to our house to pick up John and go out to the Winking Lizard for food and drinks... oh, and stop at the game store so I could get a game for MY NEW TOY!  Because, in case you don't recall, John was giving me a 3DS if I finished my leg without stopping!  AND I DID!



And that's it!  I know it's more detail than most of you probably wanted, but I really wanted to document the whole thing for my own sake!