The rest of the story

Hey guys! First up, the latest rundown is over at Danny's site so head over there and check it out if you haven't already. I LOVE reading the rundown each week! I usually hear of at least a couple of new blogs, and it helps me keep up with the blogs I may be a bit behind on.

Secondly, if you think it's too cold in your 'hood to run check out Dawn's latest race post. THAT is cold winter weather! Yikes!

Ok, so Saturday after the race we walked (literally!) across the street to our hotel room. We took a few more pics (shocking), watched more finishers pouring out of the ballpark, and showered up. Then we just kicked it in the AMAZINGLY comfortable bed at the Doubletree (I swear I never wanted to leave). A little while later we looked at the window again and there were still some finishers coming out. At this point it was about 4.5 hours from the start of the race, and Brent said 'Geez, those people are slow'. To which I pointed out that in January my best case finish time is 4.5 hours and that will most likely be me! By then we were pretty hungry so we headed out to find some food. I was in the mood for something crunchy so we decided on Mexican. We had no clue where a Mexican restaurant might be so we asked a janitor sweeping the streets outside the Peabody. He looked at us like we were speaking French and said 'A Mexican restaurant!?!? No, I don't know where that might be'. Uh, thanks. We kept walking and exactly ONE block from the Peabody there were TWO Mexican restaurants. We ate at Pancho's. YUM! They have awesome cheese dip, we used to be able to buy it at Kroger here but since Publix opened nearly a year ago we don't shop there anymore. Anyway, the food was great and pretty much everyone there was wearing their race medals and race T-shirts. There were also a lot of people hobbling around which was pretty funny.

For some strange reason the sun had come out and it was HOT! I was wearing a big sweater and my coat and burning up. We dropped our coats off at the hotel and headed down to walk by the Mississippi River. It was a really warm afternoon and the sunset was gorgeous. We window shopped downtown and headed over to the roof of the Peabody to watch the rest of the sunset. Sat night was a Rolling Stones concert, and between the runners and the rockers downtown was PACKED! The Peabody was insane, the elevators were jammed and people were grouchy. We later heard the Stones were leaving right as we were in the hotel, and Brent actually captured the crowd and their van in one of our pics, completely by accident! We enjoyed the roof view, and I did my "I am standing exactly where Tom Cruise stood during the filming of The Firm" for the millionth time. It was a lot more fun when I was in high school and he wasn't completely off his rocker. It was only about 6 by then, and since we had had a huge late lunch we decided to go back to our room for a little while and wait until the crowds thinned for dinner. We ended up eating ribs at Rendezvous. It's a Memphis institution, one of those places you really have to eat. The waiters are pretty rude, but I think that's just part of the 'atmosphere'. It's OK, I do think I like wet ribs better than dry ribs, though. Then it was the part of the evening I'd been waiting for - DESSERT! In high school there was a little cafe in the Peabody called Cafe Espresso. They had THE best desserts. Fantastic peanut butter pie, cakes that were a foot tall, an absolute sweet lovers best friend. So, ever since we'd talked about doing this race we've planned to go back and have some dessert there! In college I'd even taken Brent down there so he had a love for it too! It was also a place where you might run into a celebrity - once in high school we saw Mr Big there! Ok, who knows what they're doing now but it was huge then! So, in we go to the Peabody, and it takes us a little while until we find it. Except it's now been chopped in half (the other half turned into a dark bar), renamed the Peabody deli, and is closed. At 9 pm. This was a major late night hangout spot back in the day! SUCKS!! So, we ended up having a mediocre dessert in a loud TGIFridays. No famous people present.

Sunday morning we got up to leave and headed down to the valet. I think the whole hotel was checking out, so it was a 20 minute wait for the car. And it was now COLD! Thanks stupid cold front! Our valet come back and our car won't start. Yeah, the car that was wrecked and just got out of the shop, that is 'better than new'. Our valet went back, jiggled the battery cables and got it to start. He was the sweetest valet ever! And rude people were yelling at them all over the place. I think I hugged him. We drove past the house I grew up in, and it was so strange to see it now. I think it's been about 5 or 6 years since I've seen it. Everything looked so different. That part of town has gone downhill, and the house next door to ours looked terrible. It was really sad to me because the older couple that lived there took immaculate care of it. On our way back to Nashville we listened to all of Simba's Mom's podcasts and some we downloaded from Runner's World. It was really fun and made the trip go by super fast. We got home just in time to unpack and head back to pick up Pips from the kennel.

Memphis was GREAT! Even though crowd support is low, the volunteers were top notch and the food afterwards was the best ever. I'd highly recommend it if you're looking for a late year race in the South!

Here are my splits:

Mile 1 - 9.10
Mile 2 - 8.48
Mile 3 - 9.05
Mile 4 - 9.01
Mile 5 - 8.44
Mile 6 - 9.01
Mile 7 - 9.03
Mile 8 - 8.52
Mile 9 - 9.58 (this isn't correct - i had been running .1 ahead of the marked mileage until this mile when suddenly my watch and the course mileage were the same)
Mile 10 - 8.59
Mile 11 - 9.28
Mile 12 -9.12
Mile 13 - 8.58
remaining .1 - 7.36 pace (hence the near puke!)

My watch actually came up with 13.17 miles, total time 1.59.34, 9.05 pace.

Tonight we ran 6.3 miles, starting the first 3 miles at marathon pace (10-10.30) and then the last three a bit more quickly between 9 - 9.30. It was cool - mid-30's, but you really don't notice it with all the nice, warm tech gear. Pips and I haven't been walking this morning. I've decided 30 degrees is our cut-off. He doesn't like walking with his sweaters/jackets and pulling him for a mile at 5.30 am doesn't appeal to me. So, he's getting a slight break and I'm getting a little extra sleep.

Take care!

Exercise-
Tues - 40 min elliptical
Wed - 6.3 mile run, 20 minutes toning (focus:hips/thighs)