056. It's a Sad Blogger Day for Me

So, I wish I could say I have all kinds of fantastic pictures of the wedding last night to share with you all, but sadly I don't. I think my camera is dying a slow and painful death. Every picture I took last night came out super blurry. I noticed this problem in my New Years Eve pictures a little bit, but it wasn't terrible. My dad is trying to see if he can fix it, but I might be in the market for a new one very soon. Until the problem is resolved my photos are going to be pretty limits and taken with my iPhone.

The wedding was fantastic. It was such a great time, and it was so awesome to see a bunch of my friends that I haven't seen in at least a year. My friend Dan managed to break his nose. How does one manage to break their nose during a wedding reception you ask. Well, back in high school at a NYE party this tradition of singing along to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody got started. It starts with the guys and the girls in circles swaying and singing along. When the song reaches the "heavy" part the girls get the hell out of the way and the guys start moshing. Once the song slows back down we all end up in one big circle. This was repeated at every party and major even through high school and college. We even managed to pull it off at senior prom. It's also been part of every wedding as well. The whole thing is ridiculous, and to an outside observer we probably look positively insane, but it's part of the tradition of our friendships. Anyway, during the moshing Dan's nose connected with our friend Atom's head and Atom's head won.

I definitely drank a bit more than originally intended, but I only had a slight hangover this morning. It was nothing a couple huge glasses of water couldn't fix.

This morning I went out with my family for a late breakfast at Flapjack's Pancake House which is my favorite place to go for breakfast. I had stuffed French toast with apple compote and a side of hash browns.

My mom and I ran some errands. I managed to get my hands on a pair of YakTrax. Now I just need the temp needs to increase a few degrees so I can test them out. I would really like to go out for a run this afternoon, but it's so cold outside breathing would be a struggle. I do think I'm going to head over to the indoor track once Chris gets home from work.

I really need to get some run time in. I'm running a virtual 5K on January 23rd. The three girls I ran with for the Santa Shuffle 5K and I are going to run a 5K on treadmills on the 23rd and report back to each other. It's a pretty brilliant idea if you ask me. A great way to keep ourselves motivated since it's not really race season in the Midwest right now.

Since breakfast was huge, I had half an everything bagel with some onion and chive cream cheese for lunch just now.

I'm quite tired today so I'm going to go relax on the couch and read a book (I've got both of my container gardening books to get through, and I just started reading Skinny Bitch.) or watch some TV with a cup of tea. I also need to decide what to make for dinner tonight. Any suggestions?

025. Santa Shuffle 5K Weekend and Race Recap

So this weekend I met up with some friends from Sparkpeople to run a 5K. Courtney, Sarah, Tara, and I all ran in the Santa Shuffle in beautiful Lincoln Park. Sarah's fiance Jon also ran with us.

Friday after work, we all met up at Sarah's place to head to Universal Sole and pick up our race packets. We snapped a few photos and browsed the merch. Some of us needed some more cold running gear.

Courtney and Sarah hanging out on the other side of the running shoe display. Pretty perfect if you ask me!

We headed back to Sarah's place where she modeled the sweet Santa hat, bead, and jacket t-shirt we got in our race packets.

The we hit Old Town Pub for dinner. I had the Hawaiian Ham Panini with tater tots which was pretty much amazing. Ham, Swiss cheese, pineapple, and onions. The chipotle mayo on the side was a little too spicy for my liking.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early (which was really only 7am). I made myself a tasty bowl of apple cinnamon breakfast quinoa, but I didn't get a photo because my camera was also packed up in my bag and I didn't want to forget to bring it!

I met Sarah, Jon, and Courtney on the walk to the race course. We met up with Tara and her husband along the way.

A sea of Santas at the starting line.

The course map. We got to run around the Lincoln Park Zoo.

The upside to cold weather running is I can carry my camera in my pocket so I was able to get some action shots during the race.

Courtney managed to look this adorable in pretty much every picture I took!

Hydration station - very important! This race actually had water at miles 2 and 3!

This was Tara's first race and Sarah, Courtney, and I were all on board to support her. We finished in just under 45 minutes shattering Tara's goal of running it in under 50 minutes!

After the race we went back to Sarah and Jon's place to warm up and change into some clothes that weren't drenched in sweat before we headed out to brunch at Adobo Grill.

We got pretty much the yummiest mimosa I have ever had. It was your usual champagne and orange juice, but it also had a splash of passion fruit juice which gave it a nice kick.
To eat I got blue corn plantain pancakes with eggs and chorizo. It was delish!
For the few remaining pics from the race check out my Picasa album.

014. Girls on the Run 5K

I know I've been super lame about posting recently. I've started about 4 blogs that haven't finished. I've had a lot rolling around in my head lately. Add to that the fact that I've been super busy at work (which, let's be honest, is where I type up a lot of my blogs!) There will be a major coming soon. I promise.

In the mean time, I ran the Girls of the Run 5K this morning. It was seriously an amazing event! It was so awesome to see all these girls out there running with their parents and coaches and friends. It makes me want to get involved with the program even more! The race took place at Toyota Park which is home to the Chicago Fire and the Chicago Red Stars. I'm not a soccer fan at all (in fact it's quite possibly my LEAST favorite sport ever), but it was really cool to get to finish inside the stadium. I could only imagine how totally awesome it would be if I were 10 years old!

And now what you all really want...photos!!!

Walking up from my car. I got there about 45 minutes before start time and there were a TON of people there already!

Toyota Park main entrance.

The pink signs where the meeting places for the various program groups. There were over 50 schools represented. It was massive and totally awesome!

They had face-painting and tiara decorating. No, I didn't do either. I figured I'd save that for the girls.

We all know how important it is to warm up before a race. The three photos above are some girls getting their stretch on, the group leading the warm-up (two girls from Bally's Total Fitness, The Chicago Fire mascot Sparky, the Chicago Wolves mascot Skates, some superhero type guy, the Fox weather-woman Amy Freeze (Yes, that's actually her last name), and Ella Masar from the Chicago Red Stars.

The starting line. I made sure I was toward the front because I hate feeling like I'm going to step on someone!The sea of people behind me at the starting line. It was amazing how many people were there. You can't even see all the shorty kiddos that were there!

Here's the finish line inside the stadium. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to finish on the field, but the Fire does have a game tonight so we wouldn't wanna mess up the grass.Some of the runners coming around the final bend to the finish line.

They were broadcasting the finishes on the jumbo-tron which was pretty cool. Sadly my mom didn't come with me so there was no one there to take a picture of me finishing. It's cool though.

Here's my Operation Beautiful-ized race number. It says "You are STRONG! You are POWERFUL! You are BEAUTIFUL!" You are strong and you are powerful are both GOTR mantras.

Seriously, coolest.goodie-bag.ever! Awesome long sleeve t-shirt, some yummy mini-luna bars, ponytail holders, a GOTR/ New Balance water bottle (which is awesome since I can't find my water bottle!), and an issue of American Girl Magazine. I used to love AG Magazine. I subscribed to it forever!

Those are about half my pictures from the event. It was so awesome, and I will definitely be looking for a way to be more involved next year!

Oh, and as for how I did. I finished in 30:10 which is 40 seconds slower than my first 5K. I'm happy with it though. I was running alone, and my pacing was definitely a little off. I thought we were a lot closer to the finish than we actually were so I picked up the pace a little too early. Either way 30:10 is still a really great time so I'm happy about it. Besides, I knew it would be hard to be my first 5K time anyway!