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November 08, 2004
Back in VA
My weekend in Key West went by very quickly and with plenty of comical memories. We hardly got to sightsee, as I was in the wedding party and D. and M. had lots of activities planned for us already. No underwater wedding, though. :) I have plenty of stories that I could tell, but I'm going to try to keep it to the high- and low-lights, since I'm playing catch up on school reading/work tonight.
Thursday night: R. and I arrive after dusk, and the airline loses his bag. While this was frustrating, it would have been much worse if they lost my luggage with the bridesmaid dress. We make it to the rehearsal dinner just in time, despite my stressing out about being late...one of my hugest stressors.
Friday: My priorities are straight, and I'm up at 6: 30am for my long run. It was already warm but bearable, and I was properly equipped with my water bottle holder, one Gu, and local street map... and later on, my hat and sunglasses when the sun came out full force. I enjoyed the first 30 minutes of "discovering" Key West, then it simply got too sunny, hot, and monotonous. I ran for 1 hr and 54 minutes around the same main streets, including Ernest Hemingway's house a number of times. Because I only had the hotel map with only the nearby touristy streets and since we flew in at night, I didn't realize there was a whole other part of the island until Sunday when we were leaving. I felt totally gypped. That evening D. and M. had booked a sunset cruise for all their guests. It was cloudy and had rained right before we boarded, so alas, no beautiful sunset to watch. Dramamine and keeping my mind occupied by eating non-stop and watching the girls play quarters and "Never Have I Ever..." did wonders on my sea sick-prone self. We continued to food fest after at an terrific seafood restaurant where about 8 of us had some delicious raw oysters and blackened seafood platters with scallops, shrimp, and fish. It's hard to find good seafood like that in DC.
Saturday: The maid of honor, D's sister, broke the zipper on her bridesmaid dress. I ended up sewing/pinning her into the the dress and then covering the five-minute job with a black scarf. She looked awkward since the dress was cornflower blue, but at least it covered up her back side. Even more hilarious (in retrospect) was when, in the middle of the wedding ceremony, a nearby beach bar started cranking up the song "Rocky Top Tennessee". Everyone was snickering, but luckily, the bride and groom who were too nervous to even notice. We coined it their unofficial wedding song. The wedding was a beautiful sunset ceremony in a gazebo on the beach, and the reception had delicious food - including 8 different flavored mini-wedding cakes! D. was a gorgeous and elated bride.
Even with the end of last week being quite busy, I still succeeded in fitting in my runs:
Thursday, Nov 4: 46 min medium effort, rainy and cold
Friday, Nov 5: 1 hr 54 min easy long run, hot and mostly on concrete
Sunday, Nov 7: 41 min easy, faster at finish
I started this week off with a new work schedule, one that will allow me to separate my run and lifting/crosstraining sessions. Joy!! I did a 1 1/2 mile warm up, 4 mile tempo run, and 1 1/2 mile (53 minutes total) cool down this morning on the gym treadmill. Since I didn't check email until today, I didn't see that my coach had assigned me an 8 mile tempo workout. He said not to worry about making up the rest. I'm more confident in the program after he answered all of my speed/mileage questions and eased my doubts late last week.
I'm off to get some work done. Congrats to everyone who ran NYC Marathon!
Posted by Leilani at November 8, 2004 08:50 PM
Comments
Your story about the ripped dress brought me back to this summer when the very same thing happened to me! I was the matron of honor in my best friend's wedding and as the other girls were zipping up my dress I heard them all gasp and go "oh no..." Not a very good feeling. They rigged it up though and we had shaws so it was all good. :) Glad you had such a good time in Key West. Hope the training continues to go well! :)
Posted by: Beth at November 9, 2004 07:34 PM