And then there was one…

Well the first day is in the book for Seattle. And I have officially been to 49 states. The only state missing is Hawaii. We had a very early morning flight. We barely made it to our gate thanks to MSP security nightmare. In case you weren’t aware, MSP airport went from 6 checkpoints to 2. We stood in line for almost an hour between dropping our bag and getting through security. The lines were ridiculous. TSA says it is because of cut backs. I think it is because they want everybody to sign up for TSA Pre check and pay the $99 to join. It sucks. We got on our flight for a fairly uneventful 3 hour flight. We got our bags and hopped on the light rail to downtown Seattle.

Hyatt Olive 8

We had planned on just dropping our bags and run but thankfully we were able to get into our room. At 9:30am!  Amazing! Our room at the Hyatt Olive 8 is great. I love it. The bed is comfy and the view isn’t bad. We relaxed for a bit and then we headed up to Pike’s Place Market. We got to see them throw some fish which is the thing to do. We walked around the market and grabbed some lunch at the cheese place and watch them make cheese. After lunch, we walked down to the waterfront and checked out the piers and took a harbor cruise. It was a nice cruise, we got to see cruise ships, the coast guard perform a water drill and a big cargo ship.

Safeco Field 

Last night we went to Safeco Field for a Mariners game. It was a close game. King Felix was pitching. They were a lively crowd. The stadium reminds me of Miller Park in Milwaukee. Nothing special but it was nice to visit. We got home and crashed. It was an early morning.

Run, Swim, Bike

This morning I went for a 3 mile run up to the Space Needle (the line was huge) and down to the water front and back to our hotel. It was a nice run. But there were hills! Eric did some work…yes he has turned into one of those…working on vacation. This afternoon we did a bike tour of the city. It was interesting. The guide really liked to talk and talk and talk. We covered the city and mostly went downhill. We took the bikes on 2 elevators! I am so glad we did! There were some hills by the Space Needle (which I ran on early today). It was a very active day for me because I also went swimming. Now we are heading out for some dinner and a sunset view of the city in Kerry Park.

I am race day curse. Another thunderstorm on race day. Great! We arrived at Lola’s about an hour before race time. The line for bib pick up was crazy. And it was pour rain so we were soaked before we even start the race…and I had a rain jacket on! As we were standing in line there was an announcement that the race was on and if there was any lightning there would be an automatic 30 minute rain delay. About 15 seconds after that <Boom>, <crack>, <flash>.

Yep, 30 minute delay.

It is probably a good thing because the wifi went down so all of us standing in line to get our bibs had to just stand there until they could register us. Not cool but I guess not their fault. We got our bib and ran back to the car to warm up. It was also cold. We eventually made our way to the start and we were on our way. 

The first part was downhill which is awesome but of course what goes down must go up and so after the first downhill we immediately had to go back up. Argh. The first mile was great. I finished under 11 minutes. I was so happy especially since my runs lately have been terrible.

Mile 2 was much slower but still under 12 so that is good. I don’t really remember much about mile 2 other than being passed by some of the dogs, the Dog Day 5K started 10 minutes after us so these people seriously were booking it. I know there were more hills.

Mile 3 was even slower than 2 but it was still under 12:30 so I guess I’m ok with this. Again more hills. This course had way more hills than I had planned for. But a good thing is I never walked any of them. The only place I walked was during the water break.  My time was 36:04. Yep…If I would have just myself a little bit more I would have cracked in to the 35s. I was disappointed by that but it gives me something to strive for on the next 5K.

The rain went away before the race started and pretty much stayed away for the run. It was drizzling a bit but that was it. After the race we got out bananas, Salted Nut Roll, shirt and medal:

After Race Crash

We stopped at Mc Donald’s for some breakfast. We were starving because we didn’t plan on the delay so we didn’t eat breakfast. We got home and I crashed. I started falling asleep on the couch and couldn’t warm up so I went up to bed and crawled under the covers with the heated mattress pad ON!  I couldn’t believe how cold I was. About 2 hours later Eric woke me up. I want to stay sleeping. I think standing in the rain for almost an hour and then running knocked me out.

We went to 4:30 Mass and found out we are losing two of our priests in July. Thankfully Father Boedy, the retired Jesuit, is staying around. I like him…and he seems to be the only priest we ever see.

I made a quick dinner and did laundry the rest of the night and that was it.

We have had one busy week. Eric had his running test on Tuesday. Which he passed of course. He always stresses about it and says he isn’t going to pass and then he comes home all cocky and said yeah I passed. Every year!

Abbie's Graduation

After work on Wednesday we headed to Mankato for Abbie’s Graduation. We meet the family, including Eric’s parents, at the high school for some pictures. We eventually went to the big arena on MSU campus. There were about 270 graduates. Thanks to Danielle’s mathematics abilities she figured out that if the top 10% of the class was 27 that the class had 270 kids. I would have done it the slow, dumb approach by counting how many names were in the program. I have to keep her around. Surprisingly the graduation was done in an hour and 15 minutes. I was impressed. However, considering the graduation started at 8pm, we didn’t get home until almost 11. Not a problem for me, but Eric had to work. 

Day Off

I took yesterday off because Danielle came up after the graduation to spend the night. We played Frisbee golf were if we would have kept score she would have killed me. I’m not very good at the sport! It was a beautiful day to be outside but the wind played a factor on our game. I have to blame my poor performance on something!

Wedding Planning

After the Frisbee golf we retreated back to the house to watch old tv shows and search Pinterest for wedding table decoration ideas. We have a few ideas but it is hard to imagine it, it is much easier to go to Michael’s craft store and play. We spent a lot of time walking around look for ideas. I think we came up with a good one. People will just have to wait and see.  We also went shopping for shoes. Danielle found her wedding shoes and a new pair of hiking shoes. Shockingly all I bought was inserts for my running shoes. Amazing…I know!

A grand slam wasn't enough...

We took the 5pm bus to the Twins/Brewers game downtown. I was anxious to get to the game because it was Kirby Puckett Jersey Night. I wanted a jersey. We got there just in time, they were running out fast. The game was good. We had a grand slam but that wasn't enough. Twins lost, Eric was mad and we left early. It was a long night. We get to do the Twins game again tonight. Back-to-back nights with great promotions means 2 games in a row for us. Tomorrow is another early morning race. I sure hope the rain holds off this time!

This weekend was filled with adventure and family. Friday night we drove down to Mankato to pick up our packet for the Zombie Run. We had pizza at the house with DJ and kids and Danielle. We spent the night at DJ because we had to be at the Zombie Run in the morning.

Zombie Run Mankato

Well this race wasn’t really about time and as such I’m not even sure what my time was. I think my pace was like 19:00 per mile and I think we did 1.25 miles. I’m not really sure. This was a challenge. The course was entirely on grass, mud and sand. There were zombies all over that you had to dodge so you did more side stepping then running. It was really a sprint through the zombie field, then walk to the next one and sprint again. So I guess it was more like a speed workout. Ha!  We had to run through 2 buildings, one had a maze and it was dark and there were zombies. The killer was the steep hill that had no really path and we were walking sideways trying not to slide down it. Pulling on trees to make sure we can get to the top. Oh and through brambles. It wasn’t the best part. On top there was a water stop. I never imagined I’d need a water stop on such a short run but it was really hot and it was more of a workout than I had expected. We finished with flags so we all got a corny “medal” that says we survived.

Packet Pick up!

After the Zombie Run we headed for Downtown Minneapolis to pick up our Minneapolis Marathon Relay packet. It was a busy place. We also pick up our stuff for Women Rock and Monster Dash. We got some stuff. I got a nice headband for Women Rock and we got the nice gray Marathon Training tee. It was a fun time. We drove the race course and checked out the exchange areas and our plan for picking people up and picked up some Chinese food and meet Beth, Abbie and Abbie’s teammate at our house. We had a fun house! We called it an early night since we had an early walk up call. The race started at 6:30 so we had to leave the house by 5:30 at the latest.

Minneapolis non-Marathon

I was rudely awaken at 4:15 am by the National Weather Service because there was a flash flood warning for my location. Really?  You had to call me? Where did I sign up for this?  I was mad! I tried getting back to sleep, even though it would only be for an hour at most. But then the rain came. And it was the type of rain that I probably would have slept through if I was sleeping but since I was up there was no way I was getting back to sleep. So I grabbed my nook and started surfing. At some point the marathon time was delayed an hour. I changed the alarm clock up an hour since Eric was still sleeping. Man he can sleep through anything! I went downstairs to let Brenda and DJ that the race was delayed an hour. They were already ready to go so we went to Caribou for our morning fix. It was pouring when we ran out to the car but when we got to Caribou, which is less than 2 miles away. It was not raining. We sat around there for a while talking about the day and I kept checking for a cancellation. I forgot to mention we were getting a lot of lightning too. Nothing was being updated. So we went home I put on my race gear and got Eric up. We headed out the door and made our way to the drop off point for the start. We wished Eric good luck and said we would see him later. We drove to place along the route at mile 2 or so and hunkered down for the runners. Well they never came. The course marshal said that she didn’t hear anything about cancellation so we waited. Then there was a car that was driving down the parkway. She stopped him and said he had to get off because there was a race coming through very soon. The driver said there was no race and the first water station was already taken down. Poor communication! Well we got in our car and started driving down a different street and then we saw the hordes of runners. Some of them decided there were going to do the course anyways. We panicked because we didn’t think Eric would have decided to run but we were not sure. So I jumped out of the car and ran toward the start line to see if I could find Eric. I never saw him. HE wasn’t anywhere to be found. Thankfully Eric and DJ share the Williams’ brain and DJ instinctively knew where he was. Very bizarre! So we found Eric on a park bench about a half of mile down the road from the start line. I never would have thought of that. We drove downtown to get our medals (I earned it!), stopped at Caribou again and drove down the last part of the race route. There were runners running it. Good for them. We drove. LOL!

Minnehaha Falls

We stopped at Minnehaha Falls. With all this rain I was figuring it was going pretty good. It was!  It was busting its banks!  Crazy! 

So we got home and DJ and the kids went home. Abbie’s soccer games were cancelled too. Eric and I just lounged on the coach watching movies the rest of the day. I never did go for my run.