St. Paddy's weekend

I hope you all had a great weekend, and celebrated St. Paddy's day to it's fullest! I know I did! Let us back up a little more before I get into the holiday festivities.

I've mentioned before that I'm a member of the Kalamazoo Area Runners and Thursday night was the anual banquet. We had dinner, listened to guest speaker, Carey Pinkowski, the race director for the Chicago Marathon, and runner recognition awards were given out. This event is fairly casual in nature, some people show up in shorts and t's some in polos in khakis. A few of us in the EPIC Crew decided to stand out this year. We went with Dress shirts, ties, and the shortest running shorts we own :-) When I first heard the idea I thought it was going to be hilarious. I was right, everyone got a kick out of it, including the race director for Chicago. We for sure got some stares from general public as we walked into the banquet hall. I figure if one person laughs, then it was worth it.

That's a lot of leg!

Myself, Carey Pinkowski, Nicole, Jonathon

As you can tell Michigan winters are not good for my legs...they're kinda pasty!

After the Banquet, Jonathon managed to talk me into meeting him for a run at rediculous-o'clock Friday morning. We knocked out 8 miles with an average pace around 7:11 and I felt great during the run. After though I noticed my right calf seemed extra tight. Then I realized it was actually below my calf, in what I've come to find is known as the soleous muscle. I figured it was nothing big as it loosened up throughout the day.

Saturday morning we went for our long run on the Kal-Haven Trail (the location of this weekends upcoming race). We did 16 miles (8 out 8 back) and around mile ten I started noticing my soleous was tightening up again. That coupled with the gradual uphill that is the return trip on the trail made our pace drop significantly for the last two miles. I'm not sure what to make of it at this point. I've been icing it, using my compression socks and resting it so hopefully it'll feel okay for the race Saturday.

I'll be running the second leg of the race with my original partner so Team McSmitty is a go! Originally she was going to take the second leg because she wanted the more difficult of the two but since she's coming off of an injury she's taking the slightly longer, yet easier leg. I'm excited, I've never done a relay before so I think it will be fun, and I'm ready for spring racing to begin!

Even though I wanted to get out and celebrate my Irish heritage with a Guinness ASAP following the run, I ended up not getting to the bar til about 3:00. I know what you're thinking. What took so long? Well 75% of my friends were stuck working, 13% were out of town, 10% were waiting to go out til later, and 2% are just plain silly and didn't go out at all. This leads me to question my friendship with that last 2%..... Anywho, I managed to enjoy many a pint of Guinness, green beer (Bud Light I believe) and a number of Irish Car Bombs (delicious). I managed to celebrate until 12:11 when I promptly went to sleep passed out. I know this because that's when I sent the last text message haha.

Yes. Yes I do wear my sunglasses at night. Thanks for asking.

I didn't have homework this weekend so I spent yesterday relaxing, took the dog for a walk, and stopped by the parents for a bit. A pretty good Sunday with some beautiful weather. Hopefully you all enjoyed your weekends too. Clearly I made the best of mine! Oh I almost forgot, I went and saw 21 Jump Street Friday night too and I enjoyed it. It was kind of stupid humor, but I went in to it expecting that so I wasn't disappointed. Sometimes it's nice to just relax and laugh and not get caught up in the plausibility of a movie.