23 Going On 60

Still Here...

2011-03-31T07:59:00.003-05:00

Things are clicking right along for the Brooks family this spring. After almost five years in Kentucky, we are finally wrapping things up. Chad will be graduating with his Master of Divinity at the end of May, and we will be moving back to Louisiana at some point in June. We are both so excited to get back home and start the next stage of our lives!

June feels so far away right now, but I know that it will be here before I know it. When I look at the calendar and see the things we have lined up for the next few weekends, I know the time is going to fly by and before we know it we will be loading a moving truck.

Here are some of the things on my calendar this spring:
April 2&3 - volunteering at the Run the Bluegrass Half-Marathon expo and race. This will be my first time to volunteer at a large race, and I am really excited about it.

April 4&5 - Spring Break! Asbury Seminary is closed for two days during spring break, so the staff gets a short break, too. I am looking forward to this long weekend! My plan is to use the days to do a deep spring clean on our house. We're talking ceiling to baseboard type cleaning.

April 29&30 - Derby Festival half-marathon expo and race. This was my first half-marathon in Kentucky, and will be my last half-marathon in Kentucky! It will be great to run this race with my friend Kelly. This will be our 5th half-marathon to run together!

May 7 - In honor of the Garage Sale King's birthday (aka my dad), I will be holding our first ever garage sale! We have a ton of stuff to get rid of before we move, so I am looking forward to the garage sale. Getting rid of stuff + making cash = a win/win situation for me.

May 21 - Graduation weekend! My parents and Chad's parents will be in town to celebrate, so I am really looking forward to this weekend. I love when they come to visit. We will have to make it special, as it will be one of our last weekends in Kentucky.

So, that is what we have going on the next few months. I have been running pretty consistently since January in preparation for the Derby Festival half, but I need to add in some swimming and biking sometime soon. My sister has challenged me to a re-match at the River Cities triathlon this summer, but I am not sure if I will have adequate time to train and prepare with our big move this summer. We will see!

Touched by an Angel

2011-03-15T18:16:00.001-05:00

There are not many things that I could gorge myself on, but I am pretty sure I could easily eat an entire Angel Food cake. Easily.

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Rental Car

2011-02-18T07:12:00.001-05:00

When I made our rental car reservation through Enterprise, I requested a "standard car", so we were expecting to get a Chevy Malibu, Ford Focus, or something like that. When I got home from work yesterday, this was in our driveway!

(note: this is not our driveway)

A fully loaded 2010 Suburban. Enterprise was out of everything but this and a single cab work truck, so they told Chad he could upgrade to the Suburban for free. It is way more than we need, but it is pretty comfortable!

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Bootleg Texas Half Photos

2011-02-12T07:18:00.001-05:00

I got an e- mail yesterday with the link to my Texas Half photos. It was awesome to see that almost all of them included Megan and Kourtney, too! We really stuck together the entire way.

I was able to bootleg a few of them off the site with screen shots - I think it is ridiculous that photo companies charge $20 for one digital print! I wanted to post a few here, so I had to get a little creative.

At the start-me in green (#354) with Megan behind me in gray shirt and sunglasses

Me, Kourt, Megan getting it done!

Me and Kourtney spotting our family at the end (Megan was just out of the frame)

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6 Day Forecast...

2011-02-10T07:12:00.001-05:00

...looks amazing! It is incredibly cold right now (7!) but we are warming up tomorrow.

I can't wait to start running outside regularly again!

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Evolution of a Watch Dog

2011-02-05T08:35:00.001-05:00

On alert

Growling at potential danger

Nothing to worry about

Back to sleep

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Bye Bye Beard

2011-02-03T19:53:00.001-05:00

After working on his beard for almost 2 years, Chad decided to shave it off last night. It needed to go for a variety of reasons, but it was still a sad day in the Brooks household. Chad doesn't seem to miss it too much, but I do! A lot of people assumed that I didn't like it, but I did like it and actually encouraged him to grow it out. Either way, he is still a handsome devil!

Let's reminisce...

Before...

After...

Goodnight beard, goodnight moon.

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Groundhog Day

2011-02-02T07:47:00.003-05:00

Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow this morning, which means that we should have an early spring. I am very pleased!

"His handlers insist, whimsically, that Punxsutawney Phil is over 100 years old and that he drinks an "elixir of life" each year which adds seven more years to his life. In reality, groundhogs have a typical lifespan of about six years."

Texas Half

2011-01-31T19:28:00.001-05:00

The Texas Half in Dallas was a fantastic race. It is not too big and not too small (there were about 1,000 runners) and it was very well organized. I highly recommend it!

Saturday morning started bright and early at 5:30am when Megan and I got up to start getting ready. I took a quick shower and then ate a Clif Bar and drank a Starbucks Doubleshot (breakfast of champs).

At 6:30, our friend Kourtney came over to our room (she was staying in the room next door with Emily and Amy) and me, Megan and Kourtney headed to White Rock Lake. Emily planned to run with us, but she has been plagued with IT band issues all fall and was unable to train.

We made it to the boathouse at Winfrey Point around 7:00 and had time to park, get our shirts and bib numbers, and make a bathroom stop before the gun went off at 8:00. We all pretty much had the same goal for the race - stay together, have fun, and keep a nice and steady pace.

The race FLEW by! We talked and laughed the entire time. The route was basically one huge loop around White Rock lake, and the weather and scenery were beautiful. Kourtney did an amazing job for her first half-marathon - she never slowed down or walked once, she just got it done!

Before we knew it we were heading back to our cheering section and the finish line at Winfrey Point. My mom, Emily, Amy, and Kourtney's husband Cassidy were all there to cheer us on. We finished in 2:24 - 6 minutes faster than our projected 2:30 finish time. The Texas Half is definitely in my "top 5 races" list!

Kourtney and Emily

Emily, me, Kourt, Megan, Amy

Me, Kourtney, Megan
(the sun was pretty bright!)

Lunch at Cafe Express post-race

Dinner at Cheesecake Factory Saturday night...I had a slice of this while we waited for our table!

I had such a fantastic time in Dallas this weekend and look forward to moving back much closer to my family this summer. We are already planning on doing another half marathon together in the fall, but this time hopefully Emily will be running with us!

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Memory Lane

2011-01-28T18:32:00.001-05:00

I landed in Dallas Friday afternoon and my mom and sister picked me up from DFW. We headed to Arlington for lunch and to visit our childhood home. It was so crazy to be back there! We lived there from pre-school through 5th grade, but I haven't been back to visit in 16 years!

We went to Braum's for lunch (a delicious hamburger & ice cream place) and then stopped by our old house. It was crazy to see! It was for sale, so we walked around the backyard and peeked in the windows.

I loved that house because it had a huge, amazing backyard with a 2 story playhouse that my dad built, a tree house, a half court basketball court, and a long split level deck. It was sad to see that it is all overgrown now and the tree house is gone.

We also talked with our neighbor who still lives in the house next door. She had a precious 8 week old dachshund/chihuahua puppy! After looking at the house we drove by our elementary school and Lake Arlington. It was such a surreal feeling to be back in the places I knew so well as a child, but are just memories now.

We headed back into Dallas to check into our hotel and meet up with our cousins, Emily and Amy. When they arrived we went to get dinner at J. Pepe's, a Mexican food place that was close to our hotel. It was so good to see Emily and Amy-they are the most hilarious people I know and the four of us (me, Megan, Emily, Amy) have been BFF's since birth. I can't wait to be back in Louisiana with them!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and turned in early-we needed to rest up for the race!

Braum's = delicious

Dachshund/chihuahua puppy!

Lake Arlington

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Questionable Reading

2011-01-28T11:49:00.001-05:00

So I'm at the airport going through security when a TSA agent looks at me and says "Girl, what are you reading...?"

I looked down at my bag and saw this peeking out:

Which is the top half of this:

I said "Oh, it is about a guy who got run over by a bus." She gave me a look like "yeah right" so after I got through security I did this:

PS: The girl in front of me got a more, ahem, thorough screening and it was crazy! I thought people were maybe overreacting a bit with all the hype around the screenings, but now I believe it.

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Shoes Are In

2011-01-27T19:56:00.001-05:00

My new pair of Nike Free's arrived yesterday! I took them out for a short run this morning and they felt good. I did take a spill on some black ice though!

It has been cold & snowy here for weeks, which has resulted in some pretty icy sidewalks. Since I run in the dark, it is not always easy to distinguish a clear path vs an icy one, but I like to think this helps with my agility.

Heading to Dallas tomorrow - can't wait!

The Livestrong Free's

The result from my slip down!

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Texas Half

2011-01-23T07:23:00.005-05:00

Just over five years ago, on a cold, dark December morning, my sister Megan and I pulled up in front of the American Airlines Center in Dallas. It is probably most famously known as the home of the Dallas Mavericks, but on one day in December each year it is also home to the starting line of the White Rock Marathon.

Megan was anxious and jittery that morning as she prepared to toe the line of her first marathon, and I just stood there in awe of my surroundings, and her. She had trained diligently for months and was in great shape. I definitely felt fat and pale standing next to her, and there are pictures to prove that was actually the reality of things. I had never seen so many people of all shapes and sizes and abilities gathered in one place to do what a lot of people think is the unthinkable - run 26.2 miles. On purpose. During the time span of one morning. And pay good money to do so!

This morning in December of 2005 was my first real introduction to the world of endurance sports, and from that moment I was hooked. I'm actually not sure what the motivating factor was for Megan to get her to sign up for the marathon, but I am forever grateful that she did. And thankful that she invited me, my sister Michelle, and my parents to Dallas that weekend to be a part of her marathon experience. One year later, in November 2006, I began training for my first marathon. Five years later, I am still running and training every week and loving it. I have an active and healthy lifestyle, have made lifelong friends through running and have been able to travel to places I probably never would have visited (such as the exotic Columbus, OH) if it weren't for a race. Needless to say, I am thankful I was a spectator that December morning! If you are a runner, know that you could be inspiring someone to start running - just by getting out there and putting one foot in front of the other.

All that to say, this weekend I will be heading to Dallas to meet up with my mom, Megan, my cousins Amy and Emily and friend Kourtney to run the Texas Half. I suppose I am feeling nostalgic because this race will also be held at White Rock Lake. After running a 15k this summer, Emily and Kourtney decided that they would like to train for the Texas Half. Unfortunately, Emily has been plagued with IT band and knee issues all fall and will not be able to run this weekend, but hopefully we will get to do a race together this year. I am looking forward to the race, but more excited about spending time with my family! Hopefully I will have a race report and pictures posted fairly soon after I get back home.

With three of my favorite people in the world -
me, Emily, Megan and Amy in May 2010

Kourtney, in an amazing picture with a dachshund bride!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-20T09:04:00.002-05:00

A few years ago Chad and I played Mary & Joseph in the children's Christmas play at the small baptist church that we attended. I came across the picture today and it cracked me up. Since we are only 5 days out from Christmas (so exciting!) I thought it would be an appropriate time to post the picture.

The most memorable part of the play for me was getting whacked in the head with the North Star. It was attached to a fishing pole, and our music minister was responsible for reeling it down into the manager. There was some sort of malfunction with the rod and I ended up getting hit upside the head with the star. It was pretty funny!

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!

NYC: The End

2010-12-11T12:10:00.001-05:00

After Mr. David rested for a few hours, we all got cleaned up and headed down the street for dinner at Pigalle. Pigalle is a french bistro that the Brooks have eaten at during each of their trips to NYC. Mr. David said it was all he wanted to eat after eating so much pasta in the past few days. It was one of my favorite meals of the trip - but it was also kind of sad because it was our last night in New York. After a delicious dinner, we headed back over to Junior's for dessert. Chad got cheesecake, I got a slice of their cherry cream cheese pie (so rich, so delicious), Mrs. Suzy got a black & white cookie, and Mr. David got a huge slice of this coconut lemon layer cake. I think I had a bite of them all!

Monday morning we got up and got packed, and then walked around the city a little bit more. I walked a few blocks and found a Tim Horton's. I've heard great things about Tim Horton's from our Canadian friends, so I picked up some donuts for me and Chad. They were pretty good!

Mr. David, Mrs. Suzy and I took another trip down around Rockefeller Plaza, but it started hailing so we high-tailed it back to the hotel. We left the hotel around 10:30am for LaGuardia, and then headed home. It was an amazing trip, and we will forever be grateful to Chad's parents for taking us on such a fantastic trip to New York. It has been a little over a month since we got back, but I still think about the trip all the time. Every time I watch show or movie that was filmed in New York, I think about all of the fun things we got to do and the memories we made as a family. Hopefully we will all get to go back in 2012 or 2013 when I run NYC!

NYC: Day 4 (pt. 2 The NYC Marathon)

2010-12-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

Although Sunday morning was kind of a comedy of errors (the phone dying, we couldn't find a cab, we finally found a cab but then a wreck held us up for awhile) but we ended up arriving at Central Park at almost the perfect time. Since our hotel was just a few blocks down from Columbus Circle we were able to walk down and find a great spot between mile 25 and 26. There were a ton of people lining the course, but we were able to find a pretty good spot.

It was so inspiring to see all of the runners re-enter Central Park (the course takes them Central Park at an earlier point in the race), because they knew they were at the end. Runners were cheering, crying, filming with their iPhones. It was pretty incredible, and definitely inspired me to run another marathon this spring. I hardly ever get the chance to be a spectator at running events, and I loved being able to give the runners high 5's and tell them that they were almost there. I know it is annoying for runners to hear "you're almost there!" at mile 17 or 18 of a race, but these folks really were almost there.

I was hoping to catch a glimpse of just one of the many celebrities who were running the race - Al Roker, Meredith Vieria, Jared from Subway, Bobby Flay, that tennis player who had a bet with Andy Roddick, Edison Pena or the Fat Cyclist, but alas I didn't see any of them. However, we did manage to catch a glimpse of Mr. David in the crowd! The stream of runners never thinned out the entire time we were watching, so it would have been pretty easy to miss him. We spotted him right at the entrance to the park and yelled for him but he didn't see us. Chad took off running into the park (I have never seen him run so fast) and he ran right up the barricade and bellowed out "DAD!!!!" and Mr. David turned and saw him. It was beautiful! Mr. David finished strong and then got swallowed up among all of the finishers in the finishers area.

Chad, Mrs. Suzy and I headed back to the hotel and made a pit stop at Starbucks. It was cool outside, but it was a really beautiful day. The streets were crowded with proud finishers and spectators and New Yorkers and tourists - it was pretty amazing to be a small part of something as huge as the NYC marathon.

Spectators lining the course in the park

"Almost there!"

A four-legged spectator

Runners in the home stretch

The Subway cheering team - I bet they went crazy when Jared ran by!

Runners re-entering Central Park

Proud finishers!
Mr. David & Mr. Doug

NYC: Day 4 (pt. 1)

2010-12-11T12:00:00.001-05:00

Whew! Well, things have been pretty uneventful around here the past few weeks. I was knocked flat on my butt last week when I managed to catch both the flu and strep throat at the same time. After a few days of total rest and recovery, and lots and lots of Powerade and antibiotics, I am finally feeling normal again. Chad and I are really looking forward to heading home for Christmas in just a few weeks. I can't believe it is already mid-December! This year has really flown by.

Without further ado, here is the remainder of the NYC posts!

On Sunday morning, Mr. David and Mr. Doug headed over to Staten Island at about 5:00am. The caught a subway over to the ferry, and then once they were on the island they took a bus to the Runner's Village. I have heard the village is amazing - it is where they corral all 40,000+ runners for several hours before the start of the marathon. Mr. David said it was really well organized, and he never had to wait in line for a port-a-potty. I can't even imagine not having to wait for a port-a-potty at a race!

While they were hanging out on Staten Island, Chad, Mrs. Suzy and I hopped back on the Gray Line bus to head back to Battery Park. It was about 10:00am on Sunday morning when we arrived at Battery Park and there was no line at all for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tour. We hopped on the ferry and headed over to Lady Liberty. It was amazing! It was a beautiful day and it was very cool to stand at the base of the statue. We only had like 5 minutes to get back on the boat, and despite our best efforts, we missed it. We spent some time in the gift shop and then got on the next boat over to Ellis Island.

While on the boat we realized that Chad's cell phone was dead, and it was the one phone we signed up for the athlete alerts! Oy vei! I couldn't believe it was dead - I had plugged it in the night before specifically so that it would be fully charged for the day. However, while I plugged the charger into the phone...I forgot to make sure the charger was plugged into the wall. The screen on his Blackberry changes to charger mode if the charger is plugged into the phone, regardless of if it is actually charging or not! So, I felt like an idiot. But, our plan was to take a cab back to the hotel, plug in the phone, grab some lunch, go get the phone, and then head down to Central Park to see Mr. David finish the marathon.

While the phone was charging we walked around mid-town in search of lunch. Mrs. Suzy and I got hot dogs and cold cans of Dr. Pepper (both were delicious!) and Chad got a plate of Greek food from a street vendor. After eating, we headed back to the hotel to get the phone.

Times Square, Sunday morning

Times Square NYPD

A random Elvis crossing the road in SoHo

Chad & Mrs. Suzy on the ferry

Chad & me on the ferry

Ellis Island

Chad & a very friendly bird

Lady Liberty!

We walked past this on our quest for hot dogs

NYC: Day 3

2010-11-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday, November 6th

On Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to Times Square to board a Grayline "Hop On, Hop Off" bus. We got 48 hour "all loops" pass, which included the Downtown Loop, the Uptown Loop, and the Brooklyn Loop. Our aim was to see the Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero, so we got on the Downtown Loop bus.

We started in Times Square and headed south. We passed Madison Square Garden, Macy's, the Empire State Building, the Flat Iron Building, Greenwich Village, SoHo, Canal St., Wall St., Ground Zero, and ended at Battery Park. We got off at Battery Park with the intent of getting on the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, but the line was already hours long, and it was only about 10:30am! We decided that Chad, Mrs. Suzy and I would return Sunday morning to the Statue of Liberty while Mr. David was over on Staten Island waiting to start the marathon.

Battery Park was a bustling little place, and there were tons of food vendors, t-shirt stands, and people dressed as the Statue of Liberty. Chad bought me some roasted cashews and they were out of this world. You can smell the roasted nuts from a mile away, and the scent is pretty much intoxicating.

After leaving Battery Park, we walked north up to Wall St. and Ground Zero. We stopped to see Alexander Hamilton's grave at the beautiful Trinity Church, and then stopped to see the 9/11 memorials at St. Paul's Chapel. This was incredibly moving, and I definitely teared up a little bit. I had to stop reading some of the accounts from 9/11 so that I wouldn't start downright sobbing in the chapel. When you walk out of the back doors of St. Paul's Chapel you are looking straight at Ground Zero. It is almost inconceivable to think that not even a single window was broken during the collapse of the buildings. From their website:

The Little Chapel That Stood

On September 11, 2001, St. Paul’s Chapel escaped destruction when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed across the street. Although the churchyard and church were filled with debris and dust, there was no physical damage to the building.

After looking at Ground Zero, we hopped back on the Grayline bus, headed north and got off at South Street Seaport, aka Pier 17. We were looking for lunch, and ended up eating at Uno's. Ironically, one of our best meals on the trip came from a chain restaurant that serves Chicago style pizza, ha. There was about a 30 minute wait, due mostly to the fact that a kid's birthday party was taking up about half the restaurant. In order to get the bathroom I had to traverse a group of 4 year-olds taking swings at a pinata. Seriously, who brings a pinata to a restaurant? It was interesting to see all of the nannies lined up with strollers, waiting to take the kids home. You don't see that in Central Kentucky!

One kind of funny/kind of sad thing that happened was a guy bent down to pick up a baby and then stood up really fast. The only problem was that he was right under a low-hanging light fixture, so the poor little kid's head crashed right into the light fixture. The only thing that made it kind of funny was that it wasn't the guy's baby - it was his friends. He obviously felt terrible, and the parents were very gracious. It was pretty entertaining to watch all of this going on while we were waiting for our table.

After lunch we got back on the bus and headed back to midtown. We passed the United Nations building, the Trump Towers, the East Village, and Turtle Bay. Once we were back at Rockefeller Center we got off the bus and walked around some more. We stopped at The Christmas Cottage and picked up some ornaments, and then got coffee and desserts at Fluffy's Cafe & Bakery. We thought about going to Magnolia Bakery, but the line was unbelievably long. Fluffy's was pretty good though! I had a red velvet cupcake that was about the size of my head. Chad had a cannoli, Mr. David had cheesecake, and Mrs. Suzy had a black and white cookie.

We headed back to the hotel to rest up a little before dinner. Mr. David wanted to get off his feet and get his gear together for the marathon, and Mrs. Suzy and I wanted to watch Zenyatta in her historic race at the Breeder's Cup. Zenyatta almost had it, but lost by a head.

We ventured back out Saturday night for dinner. Mr. David had one meal in mind - pancakes. He had been eating pasta for lunch and dinner for the past three days and he said he wanted to hurl at the thought of eating another noodle. He normally eats pancakes before his long runs in training, so he felt that would be a good pre-race meal. We walked a few blocks over from the hotel and found the Morning Star cafe, a small diner that served breakfast 24/7.

After dinner, we stopped in at a drugstore so that Mr. David could buy a disposable rain pancho to sit on at the Runner's Village in Staten Island. His start time for the marathon was 10:10am, but they had to be over on Staten Island around 7:30am, so he wanted to make sure he had a warm dry place to sit in case of rain. We could not find rain panchos anywhere (they had been cleaned out of umbrellas and panchos), but Chad, Mrs. Suzy and I did find a Dracula cape that was on clearance from Halloween. We were laughing so hard at the thought of Mr. David carrying a Dracula cape to sit on, but we knew he wouldn't go for it. When we told him about it he actually did consider it for a minute, but then Chad found one pancho stuck behind a display. It worked out for Mr. David, but we would have loved to see him wearing a cape.

Pictures from Saturday:

Battery Park

Roasted cashews are da bomb.

The WTC Sphere at Battery Park

Wall Street subway station

Alexander Hamilton's grave.
(I bet he always wanted to be buried next to a factory shoe outlet.)

Inside St. Paul's Chapel

The back of St. Paul's Chapel,
directly across from Ground Zero

Ground Zero

Me and Chad on the bus

Pier 17

Zarin Fabrics

(sadly, there were no Bobby or Jill sightings)

Cell phone picture of my cupcake at Fluffy's

Pancakes at Morning Star Cafe

NYC: Day 2 (pt. 2)

2010-11-23T10:43:00.000-05:00

Friday, November 5th

After breakfast, we hopped in a cab and made our way to the American Museum of Natural History. Chad loves museums so he was pretty excited - I was just hoping to catch a glimpse of Dexter, the little monkey in "A Night at the Museum." We didn't see Dexter, Ben Stiller, or Robin Williams, but we did see a ton of cool artifacts and exhibits.

After leaving the museum, we walked through Central Park from the museum over to Columbus Circle. Even though the day started off cold and rainy, it gradually warmed up and cleared up. It ended up being a gorgeous day. The leaves in Central Park were beautiful, and the park was everything I imagined it would be based on my multiple viewings of "You've Got Mail."

After exiting the park through Columbus Circle, we made our way back to the hotel and stopped at a little pizza place called Luigi's Gourmet Grill for lunch. I shared a pepperoni pizza with Mr. David and Mrs. Suzy, and Chad had a meatball sandwich. Delizioso!

After our late lunch we headed to Starbucks and then back to the hotel to rest for a little bit before going to dinner and to see The Lion King.

We had a few hours to spare, so Mr. David and I headed back to the expo. Mr. David wanted to buy a jacket and I was eager to buy some more stuff, too. Once back at the expo, I bought a Saucony t-shirt and another Asics hat. I saw Tyson Gay signing autographs, and I walked right past Bart Yasso in the crowd. I said "Bart Yasso!" and he looked at me, so I said "I am a big fan" and patted him on the back. It was pretty cool! I wish I would have brought my latest issue of Runner's World with me so that Bart Yasso, Mark Remy and Tyson Gay could have signed it.

Once we got back from the expo, I changed into my evening wear (ha) and we headed out to get dinner before the Lion King. We ended up at Roxy's, a delicatessen in Time Square, and it was pretty disappointing. No one really enjoyed their dinner but me - I had a meatloaf sandwich that was pretty good - and it was extremely over-priced. I guess that is what you get for eating in Times Square! But we were seated right next to a lady who has run something like 50 marathons in the past 5 years, so it was very interesting to talk with her about her marathon experiences.

After dinner, we walked a few blocks to the Minskoff Theater to see The Lion King. It was pretty incredible. We had fantastic seats that were smack dab in the middle of the theater, so it was very easy to see. It was very interesting to see how they interpreted the characters and brought the cartoon to life. I did nod off a little during the second half, but I think it was from sheer exhaustion. The little guy who played Simba was very talented, but he wasn't quite as good as Jonathan Taylor Thomas. After leaving the theater, we headed back to the hotel and (after a 19 hour day) I immediately fell asleep!

Some pictures from Friday afternoon:

Theodore Roosevelt statue in front
of the Museum of Natural History

"Leopard Man" in the rafters of the museum.
It was terrifying!

They even had flying turtles.

Mr. David and Chad with a T-Rex

Chad made a souvenir penny at the museum

Skyline view from Central Park

Mrs. Suzy and Mr. David in Central Park

Chad and me in Central Park

A pretty bridge in Central Park

No soup for you!

Tyson Gay and some random guy at the expo

Definitely unlike anything I had ever seen!

NYC: Day 2 (pt. 1)

2010-11-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

Friday, November 5th

After a good night's rest, I was up at 4:00am on Friday morning to get ready to walk down to the the Today Show. This was probably one of the top things I was looking forward to doing on the trip - I love the Today Show and watch it every morning. I couldn't wait to be there in person and hopefully touch Al Roker.

I met Mrs. Suzy in the lobby at 5:15am (major props to Mrs. Suzy for agreeing to go with me at the crack of dawn!!) and we headed to Rockefeller Plaza. I had done some research online and found that it was best to arrive by 5:30am if you wanted to get a prime spot for the taping. We arrived right at 5:30am, and there was only a handful of people there - yes!! There was a group of women promoting a new show for BET, and a group of women who were on a girl's trip, so we got behind them in line. The way it works is that the actual plaza is barricaded until about 6:45am. Then, the police open it up and you enter the plaza in the order of the line. With only 10 people ahead of us, we were primed to get a great spot!

There was a coffee truck parked right next to us giving away free coffee, hot chocolate and bagels. We spoke to the guy who runs the truck - turns out he was featured on The Marriage Ref last year. After waiting in line for a while, I realized that I needed to find a bathroom before we moved into the plaza. I asked the guy in the truck if there was a public restroom anywhere nearby, and he told me to go into the parking garage across the street and find an open space! I'm sure my eyes just about bulged out of my head when he told me that, because he started laughing and said "or you could go down to that little diner down there." I opted for the diner.

Pretty soon Lenny arrived, and then the police began allowing us to move into the plaza area. A large section of the plaza was blocked off, as the Rockettes were scheduled to perform that morning. We tried to get as close to Lenny as we could. We ended up being right on the fence, at the corner near Rockefeller Center. We were told this was a good location, as when Matt, Meredith, Al, Anne and Natalie come out, they normally head straight for this corner. This wasn't the case for our morning, but oh well!

They have large monitors and speakers outside so that you can hear what they are saying as you watch them filming inside. We watched Matt do the pre-Today show teasers for local news stations to play and watched as Meredith had her make-up touched up. It was all very fascinating.

Around 7:15 or so, the Rockettes came walking down the street - they were making their way from Radio City Music Hall to the NBC Studios. It was very surreal to see this group of 30 or so Rockettes just walking down the street in their trademark Santa outfits!

At about 7:30, Matt, Meredith and Al came outside! The crowd went wild and everyone was clamoring for them to come and see them. Matt walked right up to us and we got to shake his hand. I saw him coming closer and closer to us and I ended up with my camera right in his face. So, of course, I took a picture. I told him I was sorry and that I had no idea he was coming so close! A few people asked if he was running the marathon and he said "no, I'm a cyclist." He was also much smaller in person, and very stylish. I was happy to meet Matt, but my goal was to meet Al - I even had a sign for him.

The Today Show was a lot of fun, but it did involve long portions of standing around and waiting. They would normally come out of the studio every 30 minutes or so which wasn't bad at all, but it was a cold and rainy morning so they didn't spend too much extra time outside. Can't say that I blame them! I was wearing jeans, running shoes, a short sleeved shirt, a long sleeved shirt, a light jacket, and my Brooks running jacket and I was STILL cold! I lost feeling in my feet about half way through, but it was all worth it to experience the live taping of the Today Show. The main guest that morning was Christine O'Donnell, and I didn't really care to see her. I was very excited though when they interviewed Mary Wittenberg (President of the New York Road Runners) and the Chilean miner who was going to be running the marathon. Mary is a big inspiration to me, so it was really neat to see her in person. They also interviewed three Olympians outside, but I didn't catch who they were. While they never filmed a segment directly in front of us, at some point during the broadcast me and Mrs. Suzy made it on screen! It was one of the times where they were panning across the crowd. Chad texted me to let me know he had just seen us, so it was then I knew that we had made it on the big screen. It was exhilarating. Later that day, my boss sent me a text of a screen shot of me and Mrs. Suzy that they had taken off their DVR! Al did come by and shake our hands, but it was very brief and I didn't get to wish him good luck in the marathon. He is much smaller in person, too!

After four hours in, we gave up the fight and headed back towards our hotel in search of breakfast and a bathroom. I was really hoping to go to Dean and Deluca, but the Rockefeller store closed in August! I was not able to channel my inner Felicity.

By now Chad and Mr. David were up and ready to hit the city, so we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and get breakfast in the lobby. After breakfast, we headed to the Museum of Natural Science. More on that in Day 2 (pt. 2)!

Pictures from Friday morning:

Waiting to enter this area!

Rooting for Al.
The window over my right shoulder is where Matt and Meredith sit!
(Note to self: do something about those puffy eyes!)

The crew was always right in front of us -
filming to our right and to our left!

The Rockettes!

The screen shot from my boss' DVR!

Matt, Meredith and Al
(that's Lenny in the black plaid coat.
The BET girls were between me and him)

Matt Lauer, up close and personal!

Mary Wittenberg

Rockefeller Center

We passed St. Patrick's Cathedral on our way back to the hotel.
It was odd to see such a beautiful cathedral amongst skyscrapers!

Inside St. Patrick's

NYC: Day 1

2010-11-23T08:07:00.001-05:00

Thursday, November 4th

On Thursday morning, Chad and I boarded a plane in Lexington, KY that was bound for the bright lights of New York City. I was so excited to get to the airport and get the gears in motion for our vacation to New York. We had been planning for the trip for exactly one year - Chad's parents called to invite us to go with them to New York for the 2010 NYC Marathon on the day of the 2009 NYC marathon. When we found out that we would be going, I immediately entered the lottery for the marathon. I didn't get in, but I was ok with that. I was looking forward to being a Grade A Tourist on this trip - walking for blocks, taking pictures of everything, and eating all of the food that NYC has to offer - without having to worry about resting up for Marathon Sunday.

After a short flight to Charlotte, NC., we switched planes and headed to LaGuardia. Our flight was scheduled to arrive around 1:30, and Chad's parents would be arriving from Louisiana around 2:00. Once we arrived at LaGuardia we picked up our bags and then managed to successfully use the airport shuttle to get from the US Airways terminal over to the Continental terminal. Now I grew up in Houston, which is a pretty big city, but it is absolutely nothing like New York. And Chad gets nervous in big crowds. And our time in central Kentucky has us accustomed to a slower pace of life. It was kind of like "country comes to town" there for a few minutes, so successfully managing the airport shuttle on our own was quite an accomplishment.

Once we made it to the Continental terminal we staked out their baggage claim area and then headed over to a small food court to get a snack. After splitting a piece of pizza, we headed back to the baggage claim and Chad's parents arrived pretty soon. It was so good to see them! I felt much better after we met up with them - it was so comforting to know that we wouldn't have to traverse through New York on our own anymore. Even though at this point we had only had to manage the airport on our own, ha ha.

It was a cold and rainy day, and a lot of flights were delayed. A limo driver came up to us and asked if we needed a ride - he said his client's flight was delayed, so he could give us a good deal on a quick ride to our hotel. We couldn't really pass up the offer to arrive at our hotel in a white stretch limo, so we followed him to the parking garage. I probably should have been thinking "this guy is probably going to take us to an old warehouse, kill us, and then dump us in the East River" but all I was thinking was "limo, limo, limo, limo." We hopped in the limo and headed to mid-town Manhattan.

We pulled up to the Hampton Inn - Times Square North and got checked in. This hotel was perfect - the rooms were very comfortable, they had a 24/7 complimentary coffee and tea bar, and a free continental breakfast every morning. But the best part was the location. We were in the heart of midtown - just a few blocks from Broadway, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Lincoln Center, and Central Park. It was awesome and I highly recommend this hotel.

After we got checked in and dropped our bags off, we headed across the street to the Cosmic Diner for a late lunch. It felt very Seinfeld-esque, and I ordered the chicken noodle soup. It was the perfect meal for a cold and rainy day. After lunch, we met up with Mr. Doug and Mrs. Leslie Gaithright. Mr. Doug is Mr. David's running partner, and they have been planning on running this race together for years.

(Note: even after five years of marriage, I still refer to Chad's parents as Mr. David and Mrs. Suzy, and Chad refers to my parents as Mr. Ron and Mrs. Jan - this might seem weird, but this is what we called each others parents when we were dating, and it just stuck. I can't imagine calling them David and Suzy, although I know they wouldn't mind at all. Must be a Southern thing! I will be referring to them a lot in these posts, so I just wanted to give a little explanation!)

So after lunch we met up with the Gaithrights and hopped on a free shuttle bus from our hotel to the marathon expo at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. I was really looking forward to going to the expo, even though I wasn't running! I knew there would be all kinds of vendors and speakers and interesting stuff to see. Once we got to the convention center, Mr. David and Mr. Doug got in line to pick up their packets, and the rest of us walked around the expo. I saw Bart Yasso speaking at the Runner's World booth, and then I saw Mark Remy signing books. I bought a shirt and a hat at the Asics' Village (which was amazing, I could have done some serious damage in there), and then bought shirts from the New Balance booth and the Mizuno booth. All of the vendors had such cool New York 2010 merchandise that I just had to pick some up. Plus I had been saving for a year for this very moment! I was glad we went to the expo on the very first night so that I would know what kind of spending money I had to work with for the rest of the trip. : ) Who knows what kind of damage I will do when I finally run the dang thing!

After the expo, we headed back our neck of the woods and walked around Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza and then stopped at Junior's for dinner. I had a BLT that was pretty amazing. We were pretty stuffed, but we had to try their world famous cheesecake. For dessert we all split a black and white cookie and a piece of original cheesecake. It was incredible - definitely worth the hype!

Here are some pictures from Day 1:

Mr. David and Chad in the limo.
Chad was probably tweeting about it!

Cold and rainy evening in Times Square

Bart Yasso speaking at the expo and making strange hand gestures

Mark Remy and me

NBC Studios!
Mrs. Suzy and I were scoping it out for our visit to the Today Show on Friday morning.

People ice skating at Rockefeller Center

Cheesecake at Juniors' - a perfect end to the day!

Stay Tuned

2010-11-15T10:13:00.001-05:00

Coming up soon (probably over the course of the next few weeks) I will have a few posts recapping our recent vacation to New York City! It was an incredible trip and I took tons of pictures, so it will take me a little while to get it all organized in blog posts.

First up will be NYC: Day 1 and Day 2. Stay tuned!

Iron Horse Half Marathon race report

2010-11-02T07:38:00.012-05:00

This past weekend my friend Kelly and I ran the inaugural Iron Horse Half Marathon in Midway, KY. It was a pretty good sized race (800+ runners), but it was also fairly low key.

The race started at 8:00am, and we arrived in Midway around 7:00am. It was dark and freezing when we arrived, but things warmed up a little bit as the sun came up. The race started in the middle of Midway and went out to the east (or north) and then back into town, and then out west (or south) and then back into town for the finish (a guy who ran the race posted the map and elevation of the course here: http://runkeeper.com/user/bencjedi/activity/19251117?&channel=web.activity.shared.facebook.manual)

The first part of the course was beautiful and we knocked out the first 6 miles keeping between an 8:50 and 9:00 pace. Our goal was to finish under 2:00 hours, so we were hoping to build in a little bit of a time cushion. The 6 mile mark was right in the middle of town, and then we headed back out into horse farm country to finish up the rest of the miles. The second half of the race was the Midway 10k course that I did earlier in October, and it is pretty hilly. The word brutal even comes to mind!

Nonetheless we kept chugging along at a pretty good pace. As we were nearing the end of the 11 mile mark, I was definitely starting to get fatigued. I was actually feeling pretty fatigued at the 10 mile mark, but Kelly is great at keeping the pace up so I just tried to hang with her. So when we were almost to mile 12, a girl came up behind us and said "we have 11 minutes to finish under 2 hours, let's do it!" And we were like "we are sticking with you!" I'm not sure who the girl was, but we stuck with her and really picked up the pace for the last 1.3 or 1.4 miles - more than I would have picked it up if I was on my own. We came back into downtown Midway and crossed the line at 1:58:44! At the Lexington Half I finished in 2:00 on the nose and set a PR, so it was nice to set a new PR by 1 min. 22 seconds!

After the race we got some water, food and Gatorade and headed home. Once I got back to Nicholasville, I went straight to Taco Bell! Then I took Emma for a long walk to ease some of the soreness in my legs.

A special thanks to Kelly who has been my running partner for the last 3 years (or is it 4?)! We have trained together and raced together many times, and I know I wouldn't have made it in 1:58 without her!

And another shout out-to Tony, Kelly's husband, who came to the race and carried our bags, cheered for us, and took lots of great pictures. Thanks, Tony!

Here are some pictures from the day (taken from Kelly's Facebook):

A dark and spooky shot for Halloween morning

Walking to the start

(Ok, Megan. I guess you are right after all these years...I DO have a big butt!)

Ready to race!

At the start

The Midway water tower was like a beacon to us!

Downtown Midway - so cute!

Proud finishers! We got engraved rail road spikes instead of medals, pretty cool!

Darlin' Jeans, which was race HQ

The end.

Midway Race for Education 10k race report

2010-10-17T11:00:00.000-05:00

I repeated my normal pre-race meal of gnocchi, green beans, and toasted sourdough bread before the Midway Race for Education 10k on October 9th.

I was up at 5:30am, had breakfast, got ready, and hit the road at 6:50am. Midway is about 40 minutes away, and I wanted to get to the race site around 7:45 to pick up my packet and be ready for the 8:30am race start. It was about 39 degrees that morning, so I didn't want to have too much standing around time.

I made my way to Midway, which is nestled right in between Lexington, Versailles and Frankfort. It is an awesome little town! I've heard great things about it, but never been. It is a great little place with a cute downtown that is filled with local restraunts, cafes, shops and art galleries. There is a place called Darlin' Jeans Apple Cobbler Cafe and that is where the packet pick-up was located. I hear they have amazing cobbler! Chad was out of town and couldn't go to the race, but I think he would really love the town. We are planning on going out to Midway to have lunch and pick up my race packet the Saturday before the IronHorse half-marathon, which is in Midway. I will probably make my way to Darlin' Jeans, too.

So it was pretty cold that morning, but it warmed up and was a perfect clear morning for a race. I think there were around 200 or 300 people racing the 5k and 10k. The race started in downtown Midway and went through town and then out into horse farm country. It was a nice out and back course that was pretty flat for the first part, got hilly near the turnaround, and then flattened out again near the finish. I was really hoping for a sub 55 finish, but I ended up finishing in 55:06. The only bad thing about the race is that there was a pretty narrow finish line, and so as I was finishing running the 10k there were also groups of people who were finishing walking the 5k so it was a little congested there at the end. Overall it was a great race and I wish that I would have done it the past few years. The race packet was great and came with a long sleeved t-shirt, a water bottle, cereal samples and Larabar samples.

When I got back from the race I relaxed outside and read the November issue of Runner's World while Emma played in the backyard. It was a perfect morning/afternoon - and it was my birthday, too! Chad got home from Atlanta around 4:30 and then we went to dinner at my favorite mexican place, La Hacienda, then we went to see Secretariat. If you haven't seen Secretariat yet, it is a must see!

A lot of it was filmed in Lexington and Louisville, so it was really cool to recognize a lot of the locations. Spindletop Hall (which is basically UK's country club) was in the film, and that is where I did the Markey Race for Women's Cancer triathlon this summer. Keeneland was used for all of the Belmont scenes, and (obviously) Churchill Downs was used for the Kentucky Derby scenes.

It is a fantastic story of triumph of the human (and equine!) spirit. That is something about horse racing that I have really come to appreciate during our time in Kentucky - the stories of dedication and determination and perserverance that the owners, trainers, and jockeys put into these thoroughbred horses is pretty incredible. In honor of Secretariat, I will leave you with some horse-related pictures from our time here in Kentucky!

Dan the Bluegrass Man at the Old Friends horse farm
Georgetown, KY

Me petting a horse's nose at the Kentucky Horse Park
Georgetown, KY

Chad and Emma at the Mutt Strutt at Keeneland
Lexington, KY

Emma and me at Keeneland
Lexington, KY

The Barbaro statue at the Churchill Downs Kentucky Derby Museum
Louisville, KY

The famous Twin Spires at Churchill Downs
Louisville, KY

RJ Corman Duathlon Race Report

2010-10-04T09:08:00.020-05:00

On Friday evening I had a pre-race dinner of whole wheat gnocchi with marinara sauce, toasted sourdough bread and green beans. It was a good meal! I went to bed around 9:00pm and slept soundly until my alarm went off at 5:30am.

I got up at 5:30am and had a bowl of Cheerios with a banana, and a cup of coffee. I woke up Chad around 6:15 - I was so happy that he was able to come to the race! We finished getting ready and left the house around 6:50, getting to the race site about 6:55. Yep - it was only 5 minutes away! That was really nice. It was freezing outside. Not quite 32 degrees, but 45! It was very chilly. I was dressed in layers and moving around a lot, so it wasn't too bad. And it did warm up a good bit once the sun came out.

After dropping off my bike and bag in transition, I picked up my chip and got body marked. The race was held at the RJ Corman Railroad company property, which is extremely nice. RJ Corman is a big runner and cyclist, so he has his whole property (which is huge) paved with running and biking trails. He hosts a lot of 5ks on his properties, but this was the first duathlon.

There was a duathlon and a 5k going on that morning, and we all gathered at the starting line around 8:00am. I think there were about 100 duathlon participants and 100 5k runners, but I'm not 100% sure on the totals. The men's duathlon started first, then three minutes later the women started, and then a few minutes later the general 5k started.

The women's field was pretty small, so it was tempting to want to take off and be near the front of the small pack. But 1) I am not that fast and 2) there was no way I could maintain that pace for even 5k without burning out. I tried to stay nice and steady during the first 5k, and I was shooting for a 9:00/9:15 pace. I felt good and finished the first 5k in 25:35, an 8:15 pace. Whoops! A little fast, but I felt good at the end. I wore my tri shorts, a t-shirt, a long sleeve tech tee, and gloves. I really warmed up during the run, and I took the gloves off for the last mile of the 5k.

The transition area was about a quarter mile from the start and finish of the 5k, so I crossed the finish line and kept going right on through to transition. Once there, I decided to keep my long sleeve shirt on but ditch the gloves. I pulled on my sunglasses, helmet, and bike shoes and headed out on the bike course. The bike course is steep, hilly and pretty fun. I was really excited about this race because I know the majority of this bike course pretty intimately. I've been riding these roads for two years now, and the duathlon course covered a lot of my regular riding routes. The course also featured some great riding on RJ Corman's property, including riding the length of his private air strip! I was hoping to finish the bike course in 1 hour, and I pulled in at 1:00:17...pretty close. The whole pack was pretty spread out, so most of my ride was alone. I really liked that - I hate when courses get congested and a lot of drafting occurs. My legs were hurting when I got off the bike, but I knew I had one more 5k in me. As I was running out of T2 Chad saw me and said "oh, you look tired!" Well, thanks! It was pretty funny though. As I was heading back down to the 5k start I took off my long sleeve shirt and tossed it on the ground for Chad to pick up like 10 seconds later. I didn't think anything of it, but after the race Chad told me I almost got DQ'd for doing that! I couldn't believe it! He said the volunteers saw me do it and almost reported me for getting "off course assistance". I know abandonment is a USAT rule (littering on the course), but I didn't know that you can't hand an article of clothing to a spectator. Now I know! Luckily I didn't get DQ'd.

The last 5k was a steady shuffle. I felt like I was on the course all by myself - it was like a ghost town out there! The 5k course is one big loop, and towards the end I started to catch up to some guys but they were still a good bit ahead of me. My goal was 2 hours, and I finished right at 1:59:34:30, so I was pleased. I think I could have raced smarter and trained better for this race, but this was my first duathlon and I had a great time. I do think that duathlons are much harder than triathlons! The swim in a tri is a great warm up and doesn't tax the legs quite like a 5k does. Overall, it was a beautiful day and a great race!

Here are some race details, and some pictures!

Total time: 1:59:34:30
3rd place in 25-29 age group
Run 1: 25:35 (8:15/mile)
T1: 3:33
Bike: 1:00:17
T2: 2:43
Run 2: 27:23 (8:50/mile)

Time to get up, sleepy heads!

Our extra bedroom doubles as a staging ground for my races

He was being sassy here, but he really did have a good time!

Ready to start (#107)

It was a true shotgun start.

Coming in on the bike

Heading out of T2, exhaling!

Bringing it on home

Trying to pick it up at the end (that's Chad in the black jacket)

The fantastic volunteers handed me Gatorade at the finish

I ran into some friends who ran the 5k!
Some of these pictures are from Tammy's (#426) Facebook album.
She set a PR and got 3rd in her age group in the 5k-awesome job, Tammy!!

25-29 age group winners - I got 3rd!
The lady on the right is the President of RJ Corman Railroad Group.