Due to lots small trips and big events last week + weekend, today does not even feel like a Monday, I'm not sure my brain has wrapped itself around the fact that this will be a 'normal' week schedule wise...here is what we have been up to:
1. Whirlwind trip to St. Louis to support our good friends Kevin + Jordan as they received their placement for Kevin's vicarage this upcoming year
 |
| Love being able to support our friends! |
- We left early Monday morning to make the drive down and saw as many people as possible Monday night-Tuesday afternoon. So many more friends I would have loved to connect with, so I guess we will just 'have' to make another trip sometime... :)
- Thankful for our friends Robert + Joanne who hosted us for our mini-visit!
- Tuesday afternoon was the service - Kevin + Jordan will be living in Georgia for the next year - yay!
- After the service we went to dinner to celebrate and then had the bonus of meeting up with Adam's dad for drinks afterwards
- I should add that Adam and I enjoyed the spring weather 'down south' too :)
- Wednesday morning it was back to being up really early to drive home in time for work Wednesday night #youthdirectorlife
 |
| Family photo. |
 |
| Traditional shot to add the the collection. |
 |
| Family reunion! |
2. Thursday & Friday were kind of weird days since we had been out of town for the beginning of the week, we were out of routine in general AND we were leaving again Friday afternoon so we were playing catch up and trying to work ahead on things all at once.
- Our race this past weekend was in a (cute) town called Kenosha which is about 3 hours away from where we live. Our friend Kevin used to live in Wisconsin pre-college and his Mom said we would be welcome to stay with her Friday night to be closer to our race destination Saturday morning.
- Since she lives 1 hour away from Kenosha that sounded like a much better plan than our original one which was to just get up in time to drive to the race on Saturday (which would have been awful haha)
3. Pre-Race adventures.
- We did not go to the expo for this race, we picked up our packets & race bibs at a pre-race event the weekend before
- We had an uneventful drive down to Mrs. T's house Friday night however that was followed by a VERY eventful dinner together
- We went out to Olive Garden for some pasta goodness which seems like a normal enough night until our waitress had an angry outburst that pretty much cleared out the restaurant. Not 100% sure what happened but as we were eating all of the sudden there was someone screaming and swearing at the top of their lungs...our waitress had gotten soup spilled on her in the kitchen or something and threw a fit. It was sad and funny at all the same time...we quickly finished our meals and left!
- Despite getting up at 4am Saturday morning we still managed to be cutting it a little close on time as we headed for the race
- By the time we parked, walked to the race area, found the bathrooms, and got to the start line...they were already singing the National Anthem!
- We had just enough time for a few pre-race pictures, a good luck kiss, and then it was time to run
4. Race life.
 |
| The start line for the race, right along the water! |
- The course for this race was BEAUTIFUL. 9 of the 13 miles were along the lake which was much prettier than the farm fields we usually have for scenery :)
- I had read online that it was somewhat hilly and could be quite windy but thankfully while we were running the wind was not truly a factor and the hills were more minimal than what we were expecting
- The only part of the course that we were not big fans of was that there were 2 parts where we ran down a road, reached a certain point, and then had to turn around and run back the other direction...that got a little old
- The positive to these turn around/overlap parts was that Adam and I got to see each other during the race which was encouraging for both of us!
- We both ran strong races!
- I was less than a minute off of a PR for my race time. The first half marathon I ever ran (October 2012) I finished in 2:17:34. I finished this race in 2:18:51...so close! I have said/written before that I really enjoy the half marathon distance, and I still agree with myself on that, ha!
- Despite running the Chicago Marathon last fall, this was technically Adam's first half :) He was aiming for a 2:05 finish and came across the finish line at 2:07:36!!
- We were both really proud of each other and excited that our training served us well in our racing efforts this weekend.
- The 3 hour drive home was a little much but getting home meant being able to shower + nap so the drive was non-negotiable.
 |
| Pictures on the left are PRE-race and the pictures on the right are POST-race |
|
So in light of spending most of last week not at home - that means working to get back into the swing of things today.
Read: Laundry. :)
