Weekend Review {01/14}

FRIDAY

After packet pickup on Friday, I headed home for a 1:30 call.  That lasted an hour.and.a.half and I was pretty stabby by the end.  Incompetence never bodes well with me, and someone saying, "I didn't know what I was doing, so I just skipped it," had me seeing red.  This is not the email-coworker and is, unfortunately, someone I cannot say, "HOW ARE YOU THE WAY THAT YOU ARE?" to.  Ugh.  I went to Teh German for soothing snuggles, but he didn't really understand just how aggravated I was with the situation. 

Fortunately, the dogs are home, so Meri helped.

We had reservations at Oak Steakhouse at 5 since it's restaurant week.  It's always a toss up for me if restaurant week is worth it.  We got 3 courses for $45, which is good since it's a "$$$$" rated restaurant, buttt I probably spend more during restaurant week since I wouldn't normally order and appetizer, entree, and dessert at a "$$$$" restaurant.  It's weird.  But, we went and we wouldn't have went to this place if it wasn't for restaurant week, so that's a plus.  The food was delicious, as expected.  Teh German and I split our entrees so we could have surf and turf.

Swordfish over risotto and veggies.

Filet with asparagus and the saltiest potatoes I've ever eaten in public.
I could feel my body dehydrating.

Dessert: Nutella bar
It was underwhelming.

After dinner, we headed back home.  We watched a few episode of The Office and then it was bedtime since the half marathon was the next morning.  Everyone said we went to bed early, but it was still after 10 when I got to sleep, so they are all wrong.

SATURDAY

Saturday morning started at 6 and I was a few minutes late because I'm me and I was worried we weren't gonna make it in time.. and all that worry was for naught.  *Knock on wood* I didn't get a ticket after passing 2 State Troopers while going ~13mph over the speed limit.  The roads I was planning to take to find parking were blocked (which is what happens when you're late, MEGAN), so we had to find somewhere to park, which happened to be a residental area, and I, thankfully, didn't get a ticket for that infraction either. 

I kind of assume on race days, the city is 1- busy blocking the roads off, 2- knows there will be people parking in all kinds of crazy places.

It was kinda chilly at the start since it was around 37°F when left, but it didn't feel like an east coast 37°, it felt warmer than that, which was nice.  We did miss the National Anthem, which is Teh Running Bestie's fave thing, I have some guilt about that, but she didn't express any sadness, so I didn't offer my backup plan, which was to sing it to her in the car.

The race course was changed this year, and it was awesome.

We still started near The Joe (Riley Baseball field), but instead of running straight to the Battery, we detoured and ran around Hampton Park, through The Citadel's campus, then to the Battery, then up King Street all the way into North Charleston, then into the old Navy base, finishing at Riverfront Park, instead of in Park Circle.

I stayed with Teh Running Bestie through the first 3.5ish miles, to give her a run-by tour of campus and then as we approached the Battery, I broke off on my own.  I showed her where motorcycle parking is, where my German class is held, how I come into school, the most stinky staircase on the entire campus, the building where most of my classes are held, pointed out the dining hall and gym, and then I heckled Cadets who were standing guard about how it was PT time.  There were Cadets in the barracks courtyard?/atrium? (not sure what they call it) doing muster, so runners got to see them in their fancy uniforms.  Soon, we were off campus, passing The Joe, and at the Battery.

Very importantly, Friday night, there had been a debate about how I should have gotten on Hwy 17.  Teh German said I should have went straight and then turned right, but I have taken the "detour" many times per GPS instructions after being on Lockwood Drive, so I took the "detour", which happens to be the ONLY way to get onto Hwy 17 in that direction.  When we ran under the overpass where Teh German had said I would turn to get onto the highway and that road and turn didn't exist, I was validated in my rightness.  #SorryNotSorry.

Running down King Street is always interesting.  You get to see all the fancy shops and you run through the expensive parts of downtown into the ghetto parts of downtown and finally into the warehouse district between Charleston and North Charleston.  I was happy to see that the Charleston Library Society (where I had my bridal portraits done) no longer has scaffolding on the outside.  That was a real cockblock for my photos.  #RUDE.  But I had to get a selfie because #BookHunting is REAL.

Charleston Library Society

I also passed another library before leaving downtown:

This is actually the library where I got my Charleston county library card,
since being a Citadel student made me eligible for a Charleston county card.

My final time was 2:41:and some change.  I'll take it.  My bad (right) hip was fine for the entire run, but my right foot was giving me problems (probably stemming from my gimp toe), which led to some left knee and left hip problems.  I was definitely limping it up after mile 9, which is always the pinnacle of shittiness.  Generally, miles 8.5-10.5 are my least favorite.  I'm the most tired, I start to feel like this madness will never end.  Then, by mile 11, I'm like 2 more miles, beyotch, you got this, finish up strong.

DUN.

Fun fact you didn't see: Teh PT Wife was also running "with" us.  Except, she did the 5k since it was her first post-surgery race and she's not cray-cray like some of us.  She met us at the finish.  In a solid friendship move, I had put my beverage tickets in her race packet stuff, so when I finally made it through the finish line, she'd gotten to enjoy both of our beverages (which didn't make me sad, since I knew I wouldn't be partaking of either finish line beer or mimosas).

#NaturalBeauty
LOL

The difference between a 5k and Half:
Crazy face and exhausted faces lol

After the race, Teh PT Wife drove us to Rutledge Cab Company for brunch, where we met Teh German and Teh Chief Smartass.  No pics of food because it was just pancakes and I was starving and it took forever to get anything, and I was hangry.. and well, you understand.

After 3 glasses of well-earned sweet tea and breakfast, I was sassafied.  Teh German brought us to Willow.  Since we had to go that way anyways, I stopped for Teh Running Bestie to pick up the toss sweatshirt I had given to her for the race.

If "toss" clothes is weird to you, let me explain this weird/normal runner thing.  Toss Clothes are usually warm clothes worn before a race starts and either taken off right before the race starts or after you've warmed up.  It's a common occurrence to see all these mismatched runners before a race starts and then after the race starts, you see all these pajama pants, sweatshirts, bathrobes, comforters, etc items that have been left at the race start or along the race course.  I actually have a "toss" section in the clothes for cold races.  These are items of clothing that I don't mind parting with.  Items that are discarded along the course are gathered up after the race.  Items that are unclaimed are then donated.  So I consider it a donation if I leave a toss item behind.

After getting home, we stretched, played with the beasts, showered, and napped.  I woke up and finished up a book before the library stole is back (you'd think I'd eventually learn my lesson).  After some scheduling drama, we ended up at Proof for 2 Nixons ramen for dinner with company.

Egg salad sando.

Steak on a stick with kimche (I can't remember the actual name)

RAAAHHHMMEEEENNNNNNN.

After dinner, we made a stop at Cookout for dessert, then headed home.  Olive-Walive was lost for a few minutes, but turns out, she was just "stuck" on the rug in the office.  Phil rubbed off on Olive and she picked up his floor phobia and very slowly, she's coming out of it, but sometimes, she relapses.

I got through about half of my milkshake, then I was tired, so I stored the remainder in the freezer and took my ass to bed.

SUNDAY

Sunday was bittersweet because while I thought I had an additonal day with Teh Running Bestie, they decided to leave before the weather up north got worse.  *All the bawling emojis*  Since they were leaving early, I put off my homework until after they'd left.

A new thing in our house: Teh German has decided that the dogs can be allowed on the downstairs couches.  I had agreed to the no dogs on the couch rule because I agreed with Teh German that I didn't want muddy paws on the couches and it was nice not having all the fur on us.. blah blah blah.  But I won't even pretend...  I LOVE having couch snuggles more than I care about the fur.  Also, it's less likely now that muddy paws will be on the couch since we have the pergola with the rug and the runner, where before, there was no pergola, no rug, and only the runner, which used to get WAYYY dirtier (pre-pergola days).

I set up my pillows and moved the blanket so I could sit.. and this hussy took my spot.
It's good she's cute.

She got the shitty end of the stick when I snuggled HER.
HA!

Eventually, our company was MD bound, and the house was back to "normal."  I started on homework and the dogs barely lifted their heads from their slumber balls and Teh German worked on his stuff.

I worked on homework until about 3:30/4, and then I called it quits.  I had put a pork butt in the crockpot for shredded pork for dinner, and after checking the temp, I determined it was done and started the shredding/cutting process.  It wasn't as tender as I wanted, but I didn't overly care since I'd had to defrost it for 15 minutes before putting it in the crockpot since it was frozen and was too big to fit into the crockpot.  Womp, womp.

I cut/shredded while the carrots cooked and then it was old-people dinner time at 5:15.  I hadn't eaten lunch, only my leftover milkshake, so early dinner it was.  Overall, not too bad, but I did use too much apple cider vinegar, so it was a bit more tangy than I prefer.  Whatevs.  After eating, I partitioned out what we'd need for leftovers for lunch, dinner later in the week, and then put the rest in bags to freeze for later.

The biggest lesson I learned is that I will have the butchers at Sam's cut the next boston butt I buy into 2 pieces so I don't have to cook a 7.5lb piece of meat all at once.

After dinner was cleaned up, it was time for The Office and couch time with Meri.

You'd think the dogs had a rough day, but they didn't.  They slept all.day.long.  I guess being with the pack is exhausting?  Our visitors didn't have such a bad drive back to MD this time around, despite the weather, which was a relief. 

______________________________________________

Very good weekend = check.  I'm sad that I don't get to see Teh Running Bestie again until March.  We get spoiled when we see each other frequently (Nov, Nov, Dec, Dec, Jan).  I was able to finish up my German homework for the entire week, which takes off some homework pressure and frees up my time to work on computer science class(es's) homework.

I came away with this sexy chafing from the half marathon:

Underboob chafing is seriously THE.WORST.

I'll survive, but barely. 

Our next race is in March, the Myrtle Beach half marathon.  After that is the i5k (5k) and the Bridge Run (10k). I am also doing a Rugged Maniac (5k + obstacles) between MB and the Bridge.  After that.. I have no races scheduled, which is scary and exciting.  I pointed out to Matilda and Teh Running Bestie that we didn't have any runcations scheduled together and I didn't know who we were.  That will probably be remedied in the near future.


This week is looking quiet.  Next Monday is MLK day and we're actually out of school, which is bizarre since The Citadel doesn't let school out for Veterans Day, which is military related.. like the "military" school.  IDK.  No body asked this pigeon peon.  Depending on my homework load, I considered asking Teh German if he wants to go somewhere, but we'll see.  I'm kinda thinking that he'll want to stay home and just enjoy being at home with nothing to do, but sometimes he surprises me.


Keep calm and January on, Gentle Readers.
May you enjoy whatever weather you are getting and know that if you get any amount of snow, I'm jealous AF.