What up, peeps?
I know you've missed me. Don't worry, I'm still here. And I even finished another race this past weekend: the Go! St. Louis half marathon. I should warn you now, this post will be long, so feel free to stop reading after the race.
I was so excited to head to St. Louis for the weekend. I went to college at Mizzou and now many of my friends live and work in STL. This trip allowed me to run another race and visit a bunch of friends AT THE SAME TIME!
Now onto the race! One of the coolest things about this race was that five years ago to the day I ran my very first full marathon. My very first marathon also happened to be the Go! St. Louis marathon.
After half marathon #3, I wanted to make sure I arrived bright and early. I arrived an hour early. Because I had run this race before, I also had an idea of what the course was like. I remembered lots of hills. Unfortunately, the memory of those hills softened after five years. Silly, naive, little Kristen, you thought running the bayou would be sufficient training. How wrong you were. And I told myself, "Kristen, don't fret, for every uphill, there is a downhill!" Here's the thing about hills: running uphill puts a strain on the hamstrings and calves, while running downhill puts a strain on quads and joints. I could not get a break. I almost preferred the uphill to the downhill because at least that relieved the pounding on my joints.
My goal for this race was originally an hour and 55 minutes. By the time I reached the first water station, I knew I wasn't going to make it. The STL course is tough. As soon as I passed the water station, all I could think about was how long it would be until I reached the next one. I even took two cups of water at every station. I was so thirsty. I was starting to regret those bottles of wine I split with Taylor and Charles on Saturday (yes, that is correct, I said "bottles"). I adjusted my goals pretty early in the race. I would have been happy to finish in under 2:20. Fortunately, I somehow managed to run my second fastest time. My chip time ended up reading 2:06:05. And those sadists in St. Louis actually made the last .3 miles of the race all uphill.
The race was challenging, but I never hit that wall where I felt like I couldn't do it. Every race I had run previously, I encountered one mile that was just physically and mentally tougher than the rest. They all were equally brutal for this race. Thankfully, John was at the finish line ready to greet me and I immediately forgot about how much I hated that race when I was overcome with joy. My first non-family supporter! I enjoyed my now traditional post-race beer while John and I watched the very first of the marathon finishers. I still can't believe marathon winners finish 26.2 miles only about 20-30 minutes after I finished 13.1.
John and I then went back to Sean and Charles' place where I proceeded to wake everyone up and be as obnoxious as possible. Naturally, I encouraged all of them to mix a few drinks and join me for Sunday Funday. Being the supportive friends they are, they obliged. Then they let me do "man things" with them like watch sports and blow things up (we didn't blow anything up). The boys (Sean, John, and Charles) then accompanied me to partake in my favorite post-race/Sunday ritual: eating oysters. Sean and I ended up eating three dozen between the two of us. Three. Dozen. Oysters. And I loved every single one of them. I probably could have eaten more but I decided after 18 it was time to start exercising some self restraint.
I had such a great weekend visiting my friends. It's great to know that even though time continues to pass, we still manage to stay close and keep in touch. Forgive me as I cheese it up a bit, but the rest of this post is for those friends.
When I was little and aspired to be a famous actress, I would practice my Academy Award acceptance speech. Now I am in my mid-twenties and no closer to giving that speech, so I am going to offer a cheesy and special thanks to a few select people on here (feel free to skip down if you're not interested in this part):
First, I want to thank my friends, Sean and Charles, for opening up their home and allowing me to stay with them for most of the weekend. If it weren't for the two of you, I would be staying at someone's parents' house. Sean also drove me to the airport Monday morning. Because he's awesome. I would also like to thank Taylor for letting my stay with her the night before the race. God knows those boys would have done everything in their power to get me good and drunk. She also woke up with me at 5:45am on a Sunday morning to drive me to the starting line. If you're in your mid-twenties, you know we don't typically wake up that early on Sunday mornings. In fact, sometimes we even finish Saturday night around that time. So that was pretty cool for Taylor to do. I was just going to wing it, maybe jog to the race as my warm up (I probably would have just called a cab). I want to thank Desi for taking me to a lovely dinner on Friday night. He always picks a place right up my alley (i.e. wine bar) and I feel like I never get to spend enough time with him whenever I visit.
Finally, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, I want to thank John. First, John picked me up from the airport when I arrived Friday night. John was also the very first non-family member to actually show up for my race. Let me tell you why his presence was such a big deal: John has been promising me for months that he would be at the finish line with beer for me. He has been promising me for MONTHS (maybe a month and a half)! John also spent Saturday afternoon at the opening day Cardinals v. Cubs game. Additionally, John went to the STL Blues play-off game Saturday night. I don't know if you've ever met any Cards/Blues fans but I'll tell you a little bit about them: they drink like sailors. If they lose, they drink away their sorrows and if they win, they drink to celebrate, and they celebrate all night long. Now let me tell you about my friends: they drink twice as much as your average fan. The Cards and Blues both won. I seem to have that affect on STL sports teams. Every time I come around my awesomeness affects the whole city. But I digress. Considering the events of Saturday, I was convinced that there was no way John would be at the finish line waiting for me. Sunday morning, 9am, John was at the finish line. I was so incredibly happy. I don't think he realizes how much it meant to me. And he even brought me a beer.
I know you've missed me. Don't worry, I'm still here. And I even finished another race this past weekend: the Go! St. Louis half marathon. I should warn you now, this post will be long, so feel free to stop reading after the race.
I was so excited to head to St. Louis for the weekend. I went to college at Mizzou and now many of my friends live and work in STL. This trip allowed me to run another race and visit a bunch of friends AT THE SAME TIME!
Now onto the race! One of the coolest things about this race was that five years ago to the day I ran my very first full marathon. My very first marathon also happened to be the Go! St. Louis marathon.
 |
| In my coral at the starting line, the sun is starting to come up behind the arch. |
My goal for this race was originally an hour and 55 minutes. By the time I reached the first water station, I knew I wasn't going to make it. The STL course is tough. As soon as I passed the water station, all I could think about was how long it would be until I reached the next one. I even took two cups of water at every station. I was so thirsty. I was starting to regret those bottles of wine I split with Taylor and Charles on Saturday (yes, that is correct, I said "bottles"). I adjusted my goals pretty early in the race. I would have been happy to finish in under 2:20. Fortunately, I somehow managed to run my second fastest time. My chip time ended up reading 2:06:05. And those sadists in St. Louis actually made the last .3 miles of the race all uphill.
 |
| Post race, holding my finisher's medal from my 4th half marathon this year. |
John and I then went back to Sean and Charles' place where I proceeded to wake everyone up and be as obnoxious as possible. Naturally, I encouraged all of them to mix a few drinks and join me for Sunday Funday. Being the supportive friends they are, they obliged. Then they let me do "man things" with them like watch sports and blow things up (we didn't blow anything up). The boys (Sean, John, and Charles) then accompanied me to partake in my favorite post-race/Sunday ritual: eating oysters. Sean and I ended up eating three dozen between the two of us. Three. Dozen. Oysters. And I loved every single one of them. I probably could have eaten more but I decided after 18 it was time to start exercising some self restraint.
I had such a great weekend visiting my friends. It's great to know that even though time continues to pass, we still manage to stay close and keep in touch. Forgive me as I cheese it up a bit, but the rest of this post is for those friends.
When I was little and aspired to be a famous actress, I would practice my Academy Award acceptance speech. Now I am in my mid-twenties and no closer to giving that speech, so I am going to offer a cheesy and special thanks to a few select people on here (feel free to skip down if you're not interested in this part):
First, I want to thank my friends, Sean and Charles, for opening up their home and allowing me to stay with them for most of the weekend. If it weren't for the two of you, I would be staying at someone's parents' house. Sean also drove me to the airport Monday morning. Because he's awesome. I would also like to thank Taylor for letting my stay with her the night before the race. God knows those boys would have done everything in their power to get me good and drunk. She also woke up with me at 5:45am on a Sunday morning to drive me to the starting line. If you're in your mid-twenties, you know we don't typically wake up that early on Sunday mornings. In fact, sometimes we even finish Saturday night around that time. So that was pretty cool for Taylor to do. I was just going to wing it, maybe jog to the race as my warm up (I probably would have just called a cab). I want to thank Desi for taking me to a lovely dinner on Friday night. He always picks a place right up my alley (i.e. wine bar) and I feel like I never get to spend enough time with him whenever I visit.
Finally, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, I want to thank John. First, John picked me up from the airport when I arrived Friday night. John was also the very first non-family member to actually show up for my race. Let me tell you why his presence was such a big deal: John has been promising me for months that he would be at the finish line with beer for me. He has been promising me for MONTHS (maybe a month and a half)! John also spent Saturday afternoon at the opening day Cardinals v. Cubs game. Additionally, John went to the STL Blues play-off game Saturday night. I don't know if you've ever met any Cards/Blues fans but I'll tell you a little bit about them: they drink like sailors. If they lose, they drink away their sorrows and if they win, they drink to celebrate, and they celebrate all night long. Now let me tell you about my friends: they drink twice as much as your average fan. The Cards and Blues both won. I seem to have that affect on STL sports teams. Every time I come around my awesomeness affects the whole city. But I digress. Considering the events of Saturday, I was convinced that there was no way John would be at the finish line waiting for me. Sunday morning, 9am, John was at the finish line. I was so incredibly happy. I don't think he realizes how much it meant to me. And he even brought me a beer.
 |
| Kraftig beer, courtesy of Johnny dearest. |
