With a super busy weekend and a lot of pictures, this will be a sentence or few per picture kind of post 🙂 Enjoy my busy weekend…and take a nap for me!!

Friday

The morning started off a bit chilly, but Angie and I were able to get in a few miles to start the day!!

I am more than willing to carb-load with some amazing sweet potatoes…I am pretty sure I had a couple before the weekend of running events 🙂

I picked up little man a little early – they had JUST walked outside for their play time outdoors. So I let him play for a little bit before hitting the road to Nana and Papa’s house.

Chatting me up about his day as we hit the highway!

I dropped off little man with Papa and got up to the expo for Saturday’s run – Rock The Parkway. For the size of the race, the expo was quite small…but I am okay with not a lot going on 🙂

After working my way around the expo, I stuck around the pacing table to help some people understand Smart Pacing and to join one of our teams 🙂 I also met my co-pacer Stephanie!

THAT sunset on my way back to the house was a fantastic way to end the day!

Once I got back to the house, my FIL, “Papa”, was relaxing a bit before heading out to pick up little man from his “party”. At the HS where both of my in-laws work, “Nana” organizes an annual Raven Kids Night Out event where teachers drop off their kids or grandkids for a few hours to play, eat, and watch a movie! Our little man went last year and had a lot of fun – so of course he was going again this year! He had a blast and wasn’t quite ready to leave…but he was getting tired around 9pm, so we headed home! He pulled EVERYTHING out of his goodie bag and made Papa try things on 🙂

Once little man was a little settled down, I started laying out my clothes for Saturday’s half marathon – in typical #flatlindsey fashion!

Off to bed!! Good day, good night!!

Saturday

I was READY to get up and get going Saturday morning! Since I put my various clothes, fuels, hydration, shoes, etc. in the bathroom the night before, I was able to sneak out of my room (with little man in his bed nearby) without waking the little one.

Up and out! I was parked, met up with another runner that I met the day before at the pacer table, walked to the start, dropped off my bag, made my way to the starting chute, and ready to run!!

The race went great! I started with a few runners that A) was their first 1/2, B) first 1/2 in a LONG time, 3) wanted to start slow enough to finish strong. My core group was mostly Mel, Bryon, and Ray. We had a good time, rode the struggle bus together, and finished!!

I totally rocked the parkway!! I ran the 2:40 group as the lead pacer – and I finished in 2:40:02.5!! Boom!!

The post race party was fun – minus being dive-bombed by ducks a couple times, ha! There was a lot to eat and drink (water, chocolate milk, yogurt, protein balls, coffee, beer, cookies, etc.), a live band, the drop bag area was close, and the results/awards. 

I spent a little too much time enjoying the post-race party and needed to hustle back to my car! I was running a little late and needed to drive back to the house, take a quick shower, grab my “day 2” bags, and head over to the meet-up area for the ride to STL for Sunday’s race!

At the second stop (the first to pick up another runner on the way out of town), we stopped for gas and snacks. I turned around to grab my purse…except my mind went blank and then the panic set in. I didn’t grab my purse out of the back of my car before I hustled out of the house to head to the meet up spot!! BUMMER!! I was SAVED by my MIL handing me a $20 as I got out of the car…so I knew that at least I could eat… 

Before TOO long, we were in STL and at the GO! St. Louis expo!

Once we picked up our packets and made a mess of the expo area (funny story of bumping curtain poles, creating a domino effect knocking down ALL of the curtains, then doing the same thing again with exiting the building… Funny, but only because no one got hurt!!)

We headed to the hotel to check-in and then out to find dinner! We decided to try the Union Station – and settled intl Landry’s. I had a wedge salad and baked potato, and ate one of the other runners broccoli 🙂

Once dinner was over, everyone was fairly tired…so we headed to our rooms and relaxed the rest of the evening., I didn’t get settled in until #flatlindsey was ready for our 5 am wake up call and 5:45 am meet-up to head to the start of the race!

Tweet: Check out the #WeekendHappenings @livinglovingrunner and other great #linkups http://ctt.ec/bbO5H+ #fitfluential #sweatpink #ffcheckin

Sunday

An early start, but we were up around 5 am and on the road to the start around 5:45!

Talk about a great view near the starting chute!

As I was contemplating my placement in the starting area, another Oiselle singlet baring gal, named Stephanie, approached me and we chatted for a bit before heading into the starting area!

As the waves left the starting chute, we started shuffling up to the start!! The change from my first view of the MLK bridge was different now and way brighter!

And, we’re off!! I stopped to take a picture around mile 2.5 / 3 for the Gateway Arch! I also stopped several times along the course for pictures and water walks (not stops in my mind, since I don’t actually STOP when getting water, just walk through!). 

Funny side story, the 2:20 pacer was a no-show…so the pacer coach asked me on Saturday if I wanted to pace that time. I said that I COULD, but I would not be an effective pacer…I would be able to talk very much…and that isn’t a good pacer. He then followed up with, “Well, then if you finish at or before 2:20, I am going to be upset. Because then you could have paced that time.” (or something relative to that) The pacing coach is a jokester, so I wasn’t intimidated…and I returned with “Since you say that, I am going to finish in 2:20 or better!” Challenge accepted!! My “little more effort than easy-easy” is a 2:25 finish…so I knew I needed to go out with a little more strategy to make the 2:20 happen. I really pushed it on the downhills and took the up-hills with short, quick strides. The last downhill was STEEP, and I pounded down it with HASTE!! I finished in 2:19:09!! So exciting!!

Yeah!! I enjoyed the post-race eats, headed up 3 flights of stairs (poor marathoners!!), saw the first place male marathoner, played around the arch for a bit, and then hit up the post-race party area. 

After wandering around and back-and-forth from the finishing area, I headed back to the hotel…except there are several Drury Hotels in the area. So, I was actually just wandering around the city for a little bit before the group drove back to the hotel… Good thing they called when they did because it was a perfect storm of me not knowing where to go, the heat setting in, my phone having 1% battery, and not going in the right direction of the correct hotel… I was saved!!

We got back to the hotel, packed up, showered, and checked out in a matter of minutes! My new Eagle Creek pack-it bags worked out great to keep my smelly running clothes and shoes contained and not stinking up my other clean clothes 🙂

We were back on the road heading home around 1 pm – a couple of stops later, we were home!! Little man was not all that impressed that I was home because he knew that he was going to have to leave… Well, we ended up staying because I was pooped and was going to have my dad come by for dinner.

We had a great meal, lots of conversation, and a little more playtime before bed.

Good day! Good night!

Tweet: Check out our Weekend Happenings with @dblred0728 and the other #linkups http://ctt.ec/70E71+ #fitfluential #sweatpink

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How was your weekend? Have any exciting adventures? 

Check out some awesome #linkups this week!

There is the great Weekly Wrap #linkup with Holly and Tricia! Also, check out a couple other weekend updates with Meghan, Katie, the Tumbleweed Contessa, and Ilka and Angela’s Sunday Fitness & Food link up!

I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment and start a conversation!

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