Within 5 minutes of getting to our room, we received a phone call from the front desk saying they had gotten complaints about the noise we were making. JR said, "Are you serious? We just checked in." She said she was serious and he said, "OK." and hung up. I guess I was turning the pages too loudly in the Holiday Inn Express amenities binder I was flipping through or possibly JR farted too loud in the bathroom? Not sure, but I'm sure the kids running up and down the hall yelling at one another were bothered by our obnoxious behavior.
We left a message with Morgan and Nancy saying we were in town and had the brilliant idea of going to Morgan's work at Applebees. There was only one Applebees in the hotel phone book, so we drove about 20 minutes and went inside. I asked the cross eyed hostess if Morgan was working and she made a very confused face, if you can look anymore confused than when you have crossed eyes, and she said, "Morgan? Do we have a Morgan that works here?" A guy walking past said, "MorGAN?" with an accent on the second syllable. "No, I don't think we do." So we left because those 2 were weird and to tell you the truth, the clientele looked scary.
On our way back to the hotel, Morgan called and gave us the right directions to the Applebees she worked at out of the EIGHT there were in Austin. Why was there only one listed in the phone book?
We drove to the right Applebees and had white queso, chips and jalapenos, my latest persistent craving I have been having and a beer. I had ordered a Cherry Limeade, but after taking the first sip and realizing it was pure sugar and felt guilty, switched drinks with JR who I knew would like it more anyway. We had a nice little visit then returned to the hotel where I promptly fell asleep.
And woke up at 4 am, 4:30 am, 5:30 am and finally got out of bed at 6 am to make myself instant oatmeal and pecans I had packed. I got dressed and went to the bathroom, then went to the bathroom and then drank a little water and went to the bathroom and then went downstairs to eat some yogurt while JR ate his breakfast and then went back to the room and went to the bathroom. We stopped to pick up Morgan and JR dropped us near the start line and I went to the bathroom and then JR left to find a parking space and when he finally returned to us, I went to the bathroom. I WAS VERY NERVOUS! There were a LOT of people. Luckily it was cold and breezy, so I wasn't nauseous, well, OK, a little nauseous.
Here is a picture of us in the line to go to the bathroom before the run.
Here are what all the people looked like:
Amazing, huh?!? Just under 23,000 registrants.
Morgan and I got in line. Nancy and her girls, Jenna and Kiley, were running late and it wasn't until about the 5th mile that I actually saw Jenna. I never did see Nancy or Kiley, but with all those people, it isn't surprising.
I didn't realize there were going to be so many hills on this course! It wasn't going up them that was so hard, but going down. They were steep! I was afraid my feet were going to slip out from under me and I was going to fall on my face. Morgan told me to lean back, which helped, but she would take off like a bat out of hell and I would practically crawl down and then catch back up with her when we went up the next hill.
I am a consistent 10 min mile runner. Doesn't matter what I'm doing, my legs go one speed and the less I think about it, the better. I did try to run as fast as I could at the end, but there were so many people, it was almost impossible to go as fast as you were capable of.
I finished in 1 hour 2 min 21 seconds. And I will take it. Duh, Winning! lol
I saw JR on the side, trying to take photos of me and Morgan finishing, finished the race and then lost him. I went to find water and then moseyed over to where I had last seen him and he wasn't there. I went to the bathroom, AGAIN, not sure how that was possible, and then wandered all over the place looking for him and Morgan. After about 20 min. I started feeling hopeless and had that, "I'm never ever ever going to find them and will have to sleep on the streets in a cardboard box feeling". And then I saw them! I was so relieved! Truly, the number of people were amazing. Finding them was pure luck.
We stood in lines getting our free bananas, coconut water, brown rice, chocolate milk, etc. and then headed back to get cleaned up at the hotel and have lunch with Morgan and Tonya.
We decided to eat at Pluckers, a wing place. The food was really good and the waitress was a complete doll. My sister, Tonya, showed up shortly after we ordered and we had a really nice talk about her music and what had been going on with both of us. We hadn't seen each other in a long time!
And here we are:
After dropping Morgan off at home, we headed towards Houston. Surprisingly I stayed awake the 3 and a half hour ride.
Today I woke up and wasn't even sore. I toyed with the idea of working out, but decided I would give myself a break. I drove to the garden center to buy dirt to cover up my potatoes, which I did, and to Big Lots to get more canned cat food and bunch of other junk.
I need to find a cheaper source for plain ole dirt. I spent $10 a bag for dirt and it took 2 bags. This defeats the purpose of growing potatoes if it is going to cost me $20 everytime I need to bury them. Um...no.
The rest of today I have sat on my rear, but I am going to research training to run the half marathon and figure out what to do with the chicken I took out this morning.
And off I go!
Pam
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