Two Weeks in Review

Well, I'm back! Not that I've been "away" for THAT long, per se, but the last two weeks have been crazy. Not that I couldn't have blogged, but...I chose not to. For whatever reason. Let's recap:

Saturday, July 18: Weird Ale Fest going on at Lincoln Park; was gonna go, but didn't. Ate at Dish with Claire and Derek for lunch and then at the Bistro on Lincoln Park for dinner.

Sunday, July 19: Taste of Tremont! People were trying to explain what this was to me, and they were like, "All the restaurants come out onto Professor Avenue, and you can buy stuff..." I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like a STREET FAIR! And it was glorious! Tried Edison's Pizza for the first time, which was actually very good. Also, Derek had the loaded chips from Farenheit which he loved.

Week of July 20: Study, train, study, study, train, train, study, cram, pratice test, train, study.

Friday, July 24: Drive over an hour to Ashland, OH to stay at a weird hotel the night before the NTE/Praxis-II exams (yes, I had to take those even though I've been teaching for 7 years. Go figure). Figured out where the exam was to be held (at Ashland University - nice campus!), got some mango sorbet at the supermarket and watched What Not To Wear and Say Yes to the Dress in the hotel room ;)

Saturday, July 25: Exams at 7:30 and 10:30. Busted outta there and came home. Stuffed my face with delicious rolls from Blackbird Baking Company (which we had gotten in this week's large CSA package from Fresh Fork Market), drank some gatorade, and then...ran 2 miles downtown to the Winking Lizard's A Shot in the Dark 4-mile race! I love night races. It started at 5:25, so I left around 4:45 from the apartment to make sure I made it there in time to use the restroom and find the starting line (uh, no problem there; there were burgers grilling and Chumbawumba playing, not to mention that most people were drinking BEFORE the race - not my way to get a PR! ;)

The course was really great, we went through Ohio City and part of downtown. I saw bits of Ohio City that I had never seen before which was awesome. The only part(s) that were a little annoying were 1) there were not one, but TWO bridges involved - but of course I was thinking about the NY marathon and how this is just good practice for that!, and 2) I had to listen to two women talk about ovulation, and trying to get pregnant, for the middle 2 miles or so (that gave me the motivation to run faster to avoid hearing this conversation). I mean, does anyone else feel as though people talk about the most personal things during races that, like, nobody else really wants to hear? I don't know.

Started strong, kept it going through the middle, and finished VERY strong. A great race overall, although I didn't PR. But I am still happy that I rocked those bridges and I ran negative splits!!! That almost never happens. I was definitely reigning it in at the beginning, which is why that probably happened. But I usually have trouble pacing myself at the start because I get so excited and end up running at least one min/mile faster than I intended. Actually, for this race I was very shocked when I saw 10:40 for the first mile because, based on the huge bridge and the fact that I was trying to go slowly, I thought it was going to be around 11:30 for that mile.

Mile 1 - 10:40
Mile 2 - 10:36
Mile 3 - 10:13
Mile 4 - 9:39

Finishing Time: 41:08, 108/144 women 25-29. Hey, maybe I'll place better in these races next year....when I turn 30!!!! Yikes!

And on to last week...

Monday, July 27 - Put together IKEA bookshelves! All by myself! Wow!

Wednesday, July 28 - Sent my Ohio state teacher license application out, finally (although they have to wait to process it until my Praxis scores come in in 3 weeks - D'oh!), and then went to the airport to DETROIT! Becca picked me up and we drove 4+ hrs to Walloon Lake, Michigan. Paradise...pictures to follow (perhaps - I forgot my camera!! But Amy brought hers).

Now, back to the grind...training, looking for jobs (sent out 2 more resumes this week), etc. Roasting beets as we speak, actually! Always better to multitask. ;)