MARYLAND!!! THE HALF WAY POINT...NUMBER 25!

Well, we made it through the wedding and the honeymoon and both were great…I have a separate blog about that though, this is the race blog. Brian and I left early on 05/08/2015 with a cooler full of food and really had a pretty uneventful drive. We love Ohio, because it has really nice rest areas with Starbucks in most of them, they are clean and we utilize them often. We haven’t had to drive the Pennsylvania Turnpike for any of these races yet, I had forgotten how nerve racking that is to drive, but of course Brian always does great. We arrived at Kyle(nephew) and Emily’s house, but I was totally confused. I had it in my head that they lived in a townhouse, but instead they have a single family home with a fantastic front and back yard and we met Emily’s parents and Peggy and Shannon came over with some EXCELLENT pizza. We ate and visited and Emily’s Mom, Agnes made a salad and it was delish! I drank water and water and water and felt great, though my stomach had been a little rocky on the drive out. I got in bed by 10 and what a nice bed that was. It was only a queen sized but sooooo comfortable!!! I slept great and got up and did my morning routine. Kyle was gonna come out, but he had practice so I told him to bag it and would see him later. Emily had a cold and I told her to stay home. Peggy and Shannon were going to meet us there and keep Brian company. Brian and I got there just after 7am and I did my bathroom, bathroom, bathroom stuff and put all my crap on. Some guy from Baltimore was chatting me up and annoyed me a little because I need quiet to get myself in the right frame of mind but we ditched him and I lined up. Brian was standing just off to the L after the start and I didn’t get to see Peggy and Shannon until then, I gave them a slap on the hand I as went by and set off on my run. It was not sunny, but it was so humid and thick and … of course, hilly. It’s Maryland, it’s always hilly. I felt pretty good and started with 2 water bottles with Fizz in them(electrolyte replacement for running in the heat). I drank the Fizz one first and decided to save the second one for last. I took a gel at 4.5 and 8.5 and was thinking of doing another at 10, but was just too tired to do it, hahahaha!!! I poured a ton of water over my head and ended up using all my water up just a ½ mile from the finish. It was a hard race because of the hills, but I just hunkered down and got the job done. I finished 2:03:24, 248 of 711, 7th in my AG at a pace of 9:25. I am happy with this time and pace and placement because I don’t have the opportunity to train on hills and you have to know that my diet for wedding and honeymoon couldn’t have been that great!!! Oh yea!!!

Brian, Peggy and Shannon had breakfast while I ran and scoped out a good coffee place a short walk from the finish. I got coffee less than 5 minutes after the race and had NO HEADACHE!!! We set off for Kyle and Emily’s and got cleaned up and decided to go to Gentle Giant Draft Horse Rescue because it is 20 minutes from there house. Peggy and Shannon drove separate but went with us and it was a lot of fun to experience that with them. Peggy and Shannon left and went to get the cookout started at Pat and Angie’s(other nephew and wife) and we stopped at a pub and had a couple of beers. That was a lot of fun, but we were running late and had to get to the cookout. We got there about an hour after it started and finally got to meet Angie and Madison and Delany(Pat's wife and 2 daughter's). It was a lot of fun. Angie is great!!! I took a ton of pictures and Stuart and Karen(brother and sister-in-law) were there so I had the opportunity to see them twice in as many months. Pete(brother-in-law) even showed up, but left early because he was on his scooter! We were dragging ass and left at about 9, got to Kyle’s turned in and got up early to leave. We were on the road by 6:30. About ½ way through our journey we got a call from Little B(son of Brian's best friend). He was going to be stranded at O’Hare from 8:30pm until his 9:30 am flight in the morning, so we slowed down and took our time and went to Red Robin in Norridge and swung around and picked him up. I made him a nest on my new living room couch and he and Brian stayed up til 11:30 talking, I went to bed at 11:10 and they left to go to the airport while I was still sleeping. Exhausting weekend but fun and I am …HALF WAY THROUGH MY QUEST!!! Next…Georgia!