All My Friends Are Pirates, That's Just Who I Am

I'm not sure what it is about a tailgate that inspires the "back to back" pose, but MA* and I are 2 for 2 on this one. The pose originated at the Colts tailgate during October '07's DLO Reunion and once again came to life this past Sunday at the Bengals tailgate during DLO CountryFest. I won't go into the particulars of our fabulous weekend as I think Em has already done a fine job on her blog.

Here we are pictured at the first of the weekend's tailgates, near Lucas Oil in Indianapolis. We arrived early to, as Kenny would say: "Mix us up some strong libations. No worries, just good vibrations." During our tailgate for the Kenny Chensey/Keith Urban concert is was v.windy. My only concern was for my tangled hair and the consequent ruining of ALL pictures because I look like a wild-abeast (see above picture as an example). The threat of any serious weather never crossed my Kenny/Keith/Miller Lite soaked mind. Which brings us to the Bengals game on Sunday and yet another series of windblown wild-abeast pictures (I will spare you more examples). All leading up to a huge windstorm, several people without power for days, and a rampant run on all local gas stations and grocery stores. Luckily I was not affected by any of this and had plenty of time to focus my angst and pain on my upcoming 20 MILE run.

Due to a scheduling conflict the 20 mile run had to happen Friday night. I was a nervous whiney mess at work (sorry kids), and an even more nervous whiney wreck once I got home and laced up my shoes. The run was rough, both mentally and physically. But for the most part I felt confident that I would finish. I split the run into 4 loops of 5 miles with 2 different 5 mile routes, so I only ran each loop twice. It helped to break things up a bit mentally. I really tried to focus on just 5 miles at a time, even re-starting my stop watch each 5 miles so I knew my "split" times. Overall I am very happy with myself, mostly just for finishing, but also for staying strong and really resisting the urge for multiple walk breaks. I was very focused on FINISHING and if that meant running more, running faster, then so be it. Now of course I am an achy noodle type who doesn't expect to accomplish much on what I am sure is going to turn into a very lazy Saturday.

But I've got my 20 mile run finished, I enjoyed a traditional 20 miler celebratory Zip's dinner with Em and Casey, and I am free to let my leg-olays recover the rest of the weekend.