This one is mostly about music.

This post is light on photos, long on tangential randomness. Hooray.

1) Opera

Ben and I went with my parents to see Arabella at MNOp last Saturday. The music was lovely (I have a soft spot for Strauss having sung a bunch of his art songs in college) and the singing was amazing. The opera itself was basically 1.5 acts of exposition, followed by 1 act of stuff happening. I have constructed a plot summary to save you some time; you can thank me later.

ARABELLA
ACT 1
- Girl sees boy, girl falls in love with boy
- Girl's sister is pretending to be a boy because...being a girl is expensive apparently?
- Boy sees photo of girl, falls in love with girl
- Father approves of boy because he is loaded
- Father arranges for girl and boy to meet at party later that evening
ACT 2
- They are at the party, yay!
- Girl and boy finally meet, fall madly in love, become engaged. Girl promises to meet boy at door with glasses of fresh water every day because he will own her now. Yay?
- Due to a giant misunderstanding based on things he overhears and never bothers to verify, boy becomes convinced girl is cheating on him, gets completely blasted and starts macking on other girls at the party.
ACT 3
- Boy confronts girl. Girl insists she is not cheating on boy, but boy is unconvinced. Hilarious hijinx ensue.
- Misunderstanding is eventually cleared up. Boy is embarassed, as he should be. Girl forgives him for some reason. Love songs and sexual innuendos about glasses of water ensue.

At least we clean up well!

2) Movies
We went to see Thor: The Dark World last Sunday and I super loved it a lot. Just straight up entertainment which was exactly what I needed after seeing the *very* well done but also incredibly difficult to watch 12 Years a Slave last weekend. Also I think Loki is now my favorite character in the Marvel universe - morally ambiguous loose cannon with a some sass thrown in for good measure? Sign me up.

3) I like running to sad music?
Some people run best to fast club music because it pumps them up. I, on the other hand, seem to need a sweeping string section and some emotional torment to get me going which is probably why I listened to this song at least eight times on my Tuesday six miler. I can't explain it...it's kind of emo and sounds like something I would have loved in college, but I seriously cannot stop listening to it.



4) I like running
Speaking of running - even though I seriously question my sanity when my alarm goes off at 5am, by the time I am outside watching the sun come up I'm just excited and grateful, and remember why I do this to myself three times a week. It is 100% worth it.

This is why I get up at 5am. Right here.

Thanksgiving is almost here!! Time to start decorating for Christmas, I just bought about 60 feet of pre-lit garland from Target and two boxes of Candy Cane tea. In choir, we've started rehearsing for our Christmas concert which features the Bach Magnificat in D this year. If this doesn't make you feel  full of joy and the Christmas spirit, then you are wrong:

The end! Hope you are having a great weekend.

May the best you've ever seen, be the worst you'll ever see

Fall has definitely arrived in St Paul - actually I think winter is well on its way to arriving. The trees haven't quite figured out what's going on yet, so some of them have already dropped their leaves and some are still green. It's very odd.

Anyway, it has been a fun and super full week over here! We finally started rehearsals for our Christmas concert/service; this year we're singing the Bach Magnificat in D. I first sang this piece a few years ago, also for Christmas I think and it remains one of my favorites largely because it has a rockin Soprano II part. I am selfish :)

Thursday I did my usual early AM run followed by coffee - I usually go to Rustica because it is sort of on the way to the office and they have AMAZING coffee.  They also have yogurt/fruit/granola cups with greek yogurt and their homemade granola...they are super good and I basically dream about them. Since it is usually pre 7am when I swing by, they may or may not have the yogurts out yet, so whenever they do have them I get irrationally excited.

A little bit of heaven in a cup

That night we went to a Laphroig event at the St Paul Hotel!! I have been looking forward to this for SO LONG. In case you were not aware Ben and I are both huge fans of single malt scotch whisky. Ben actually gave me a bottle of scotch as a wedding gift. What can I say, the man knows me well. Laphroig is actually the scotch that started it all for me. I first tasted it my senior year of college - my friend offered me a sip of his, so I took one and proclaimed "huh. This tastes like a cigar". And then I immediately demanded to know where I could get more. Thus began a beautiful friendship. I would not say it's my favorite anymore but it was definitely my 'gateway scotch'... I do not mess around.

So anyway when Ben got a notice in the mail from St Paul Grill that there was a Laphroig EVENT taking place with a legit Laprhoig rep from Scotland, he asked if I wanted to go and I responded YES ARE YOU KIDDING. And he was like dude settle down. Sometimes I think I scare him with my exuberance.

(p.s. I really hope this doesn't make me sound like an alcoholic. I actually do not drink much at all, and when I drink whisky it is only in very small amounts...hence why Thursday night was...ineresting.)

Bounty of gift bags!

I was Ben's 'plus one' ...for some reason I found this deeply amusing

Starting the evening off right with a cocktail!
This would have probably been fine, had it not been followed by six pours of whisky

Bagpipers to usher us in to dinner and to...set the mood I guess?

After we had all finished our cocktails and appetizers, we were herded by bagpipers (I am not kidding) into the dining room, where we were given more food (bread, cheese and some preserved meats/sausages/etc) and five varieties of Laphroig to taste while we listened to the presentation Simon, the Laphroig rep, tell us about the history of the distillery and the island of Islay.

From left to right: 10 year, Quarter Cask, 18 year, Cask Strength, and Triple Wood

After a cocktail and five scotches, I was feelin pretty good when SURPRISE they brought out a sixth scotch for us to taste. The Cairdeas was aged in bourbon and finished in a port cask for 15 months. Port  aged or finished are my favorite - it imparts a deep flavor and sweetness to the whisky that I really like.

Love this photo

As it turns out, the appetizers and bread/cheese plate were not nearly enough food to soak up six scotches...plus fancy places make me somewhat uncomfortable so I demanded that we swing by Falafel King to even things out. Nothing rounds out a classy evening of appetizers and charcuterie quite like some fried chickpea deliciousness eaten on the couch while giggling uncontrollably.

The next morning I...did not feel awesome. Lucky for me, literally my entire team was on PTO (my entire team now being me, my manager and one other person and an open rec. Long story.) so I worked from home in my PJs for a couple of hours while drinking tons of water. At 9:30 or so, I decided I should probably wash my face and put on real clothes, and roll into the office for some afternoon meetings. P.S. how much do I love casual Friday...

Sorry corporate America, this is all you're getting from me today.

Don't worry, I put shoes on eventually

As I was heading out the door, I went to grab my favorite scarf only to find that it was already in use. This is what I get for leaving my hats and scarves on pretty much any flat surface in our house.

So, guess I am wearing a different scarf today.

After all meetings for the day had wrapped up I headed BACK home to finish a few things...it's kind of amazing how much you can get done when everyone you work with is out of the office. I heated up some leftover butternut squash soup for a late lunch (made from this recipe) and watched Pitch Perfect while I worked on a presentation.

Better than the office, fo sho

I still managed to make a hot yoga class in the evening, came home and quickly showered before heading to Overflow Cafe for a gig my friend Keith was playing with the band Flowerstalks. I had never been to Overflow before but I really like it! The space was big but still cozy, with a fireplace and tons of comfy couches, and a half second floor. They had great food and the coffee drinks looked delicious (I did not have one because if I drink coffee in the afternoon/evening I cannot sleep...).

Thai chicken wrap from Overflow

They also had board games so Ben and I played a round of Scrabble. I probably beat him ;)  

Anyway, moral of the story is don't drink on a Thursday. I will leave you with this lovely Scottish toast:

May the best you’ve ever seen

Be the worst you’ll ever see;

May a moose ne’er leave yer girnal

Wi’ a teardrop in his e’e.

May ye aye keep hale and hearty

Till ye’re auld enough tae dee,

May ye aye be just as happy

As I wish ye aye tae be.

Things! Also Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween!!! I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted...so just to get up to speed, here is a random list of what we've been up to for the last few weeks:


1. TWIN CITIES 10 MILE
If you'd have told me two years ago that I would one day run 10 miles in a race, I would have laughed in your face. Actually a year and a half ago, I probably would have still laughed in your face. Until recently I was convinced that I hated running...then some coworkers talked me into running the Warrior Dash and the rest is history. Anyway, here's a photo of Ben and I before the race (hopefully I will not get sued for snagging this proof...it does have PROOF written all over it....)

Aaaand one from after the race (courtesy of Ben's dad) looking SUPER AWESOME and not at all tired or sweaty.

Unsurprisingly, Ben smoked me by about 10 minutes...I finished in 1:26, he finished in 1:16. Speed demon, that man. Anyway I spent most of the rest of the day eating, including a delightful feast of poutine, burger, and more fries at The Happy Gnome. "But wait," you say. "Isn't poutine also fries? Why did you order fries again after you already had them?" You know what...stop. Just be quiet.

I've also become a fan of the early morning run. Occasionally I'll drag myself out of bed at the ungodly hour of 5am and drive to Lake Calhoun or some other picturesque location to get in a few miles before work. The best parts of this are 1) the sunrise and 2) getting coffee afterward...plus occasionally some granola and yogurt from Rustica. 

Totally worth it

3. DYED MY HAIR

I've been blond for 12 years, but have been thinking about going darker for at least 4-5. The only problem is, I chicken out as soon as I get to the hairdresser but this time I DID NOT CHICKEN OUT. My stylist was nervous about making too drastic of a change right away though, so she took out most of the blond but otherwise pretty much left it alone. I love it. Next time I'm going all the way.

Plus, nobody can make blond jokes at me anymore.

4. YOGA AND LOTS OF IT

Desiree Rumbaugh was in town last weekend for a three-day workshop and it was amazeballs. One of the things I love about Desiree is that each of the three times I've studied with her, she focuses on one key principle that you can apply across your practice. The last two years it's been an evolving approach of integration before expansion (last year 'RIBS BACK' this year 'INFLATE THE SERRATUS') and it's been so helpful for me. I tend to get lower back stuff in certain backbends, and in standing crescent oddly enough...but not last weekend so now I have some additional tools to integrate into my practice. Super amazing. One of these days i'm going to go on a yoga nerd tangent on this blog...watch out. 

Lovely

4. FALL THINGS

Some leaves

Some more leaves

Carving pumpkins in Chicago with Kristin

PUMPKINS

5. HALLOWEEN
Ben had his costume planned the day we saw The World's End in the theatre. Or rather, I planned it for him as soon as I saw Simon Pegg's character. "Hey," I said. "You have a coat like that! And you have a scruffy beard like that! And you could slick your hair back and wear aviators!"

Gary King rides again

Ben as Gary, and our friend Chris as ...a G-man? I think?? Basically he went as himself but with a fedora.

I had no idea what I was going as until literally 10 minutes before walking out the door. All I had to go on was a blue wig spontaneously purchased at Target about 1 hour before the party, and...yeah that was pretty much it. So I decided to make our evening an homage to Edgar Wright and went as Ramona Flowers.

Not my real hair.

Ben and I at the party

I also did some karaoke to the Backstreet Boys, which Ben took a video of but I think I will spare you...


5. HAVE YOU BY ANY CHANCE SEEN...A LITTLE LEMON...?
If you are a decent human being, you have hopefully listened to Cabin Pressure by John Finnemore. If not, you are probably unfamiliar with the game Traveling Lemon. Basically, one player hides a lemon somewhere and the other person has to find it. When the second player locates the lemon, they re-hide it and the first player has to find it and then re-hide it. Ad infinitum.

One day, without warning I put a lemon in the shower, and sent Ben an email informing him that the lemon was in play. He thought I was joking...I wasn't. He found it pretty quickly, and re-hid it in a new location. One of the rules of Traveling Lemon is that the lemon has to be in plain sight (not in a drawer or cupboard or anything), and after a couple of days I grew suspicious that he was cheating because I had looked EVERYWHERE and had yet to find the lemon.

Well.

On Monday afternoon, my mom came over for tea. The first thing she said when she walked into the dining room was "Um...did you know there's a lemon on your chandelier?"

Well played, Benjamin. Well played.

I think that's all I have for now. Hope you're having a wonderful week and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Attitude Adjustment

Hey kids. Well, work has been crazy, it's super busy, we had a product launch and some minor crises and I took on a new project. I worked a ton over the weekend. Also I haven't made it home before 9:30 any night this week until tonight. Monday I went to yoga and had dinner with a friend, Tuesday I attended a recruiting event on behalf of my employer and yesterday I had choir rehearsal until 9...and then I did 2 hours of work afterwards. Ugh. Long story short I was turning into a huge pile of crabby. Not that many of these things weren't fun but sometimes a girl just needs a night on the couch.

Ben is coaching cross country this year and his team had a meet today, so I had the house to myself in the evening. I came home, walked Sidney, and crashed on the couch with a Trader Joe's frozen mini pizza, kale salad, some cookies and How I Met Your Mother season 4.

At about 8pm I thought about logging back in to do some work but then I was like ...WHY WOULD I DO THAT. And so I watched 4 more episodes of HIMYM. It was glorious.

I seriously feel like a different person...those few hours of relaxation were much needed.

Anyway, aside from being super busy, life is pretty good. I've been consistent with my 10 mile 'training' (I use that word very loosely...basically it means I've upped my milage from about 10-15 miles a week max to ~20, with one of my runs being 8-10 - SLOW - miles).

Last weekend when we weren't working, Ben and I watched the Cornetto Trilogy in its entirety: Shaun of the Dead at 11am, Hot Fuzz (my favorite) at three, and a 7pm showing of World's end. And we ate Cornettos (er, Drumsticks...the US version of Cornettos) while doing so. Best idea ever.



We also managed to have a delightful dinner at my parents house, complete with whisky tasting.



On Sunday, I got up early and baked a cake. Then Ben and I ate that cake for breakfast. I regret nothing.



Also, Early morning runs are the way to go, especially when your view looks like this:



Tomorrow is FRIDAY. And I'm working from home...and then going to the TWINS GAME. So pumped. The Twins are terrible right now which is breaking my heart, but on the flip side I am soooo close to winning a bet with Ben and my Dad. At the beginning of the season, we took wagers on how many games the Twins would lose. I picked 93 - 100 without hesitation and for a while it looked like I was being too pessimistic, but now there appears to be a chance that my dad and husband will be buying me a glass of scotch in October.



[Just so we're clear...Ben is NOT wearing a Yankees shirt in the above photo. He's wearing a homemade shirt that says 'Yankees Suck...because they are vampires'. You don't even want to know]

HAPPY FRIDAY (almost)
(can you tell I'm pumped for the weekend)

Long runs, short trips

In case I haven't mentioned, Ben and I signed up to run the Medtronic TC 10-Mile in October. The 10-Mile is part of TC Marathon weekend and is easily one of the most popular races in the state. It's really tough to get an entry, but luckily there are a couple of 'qualifying' races over the summer which buy you an automatic entry. Not that you have to get a certain qualifying time, you just have to run the race and you receive a link to register for the 10 Mile. One such race was the brand new TC Urban Dash, a 5-ish mile urban scavenger hunt in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis. Ben and I ran The Urban Dash two weeks ago and it was a ton of fun! I would probably run it again even if it didn't result in a 10-mile entry.

Anywho, training for the 10-mile has been...interesting. As you are probably aware, I definitely do not consider myself a "runner." I'm a yogi who sometimes runs, but running has never been my main bag. I know cardio is good for me and I generally feel better when I'm running regularly but I know I won't do it without motivation, hence why I sign up for races. For training, I've been doing two shorter runs (3-6 miles) during the week and a longer run (6-9 miles) on the weekends. My training plan also instructs me to do 'cross-training' three times a week, and I'm sure Hal Higdon understands that for me, cross-training = yoga. Sorry, no intervals or tempo runs here...I am doing this for fun, not for speed ;)

This morning I did a six mile run around Lake Calhoun before work. Normally I hate exercising in the morning but it's been super hot and humid here, so I wanted to get my run in as early as possible to beat the heat. I have a 3-miler scheduled on Thursday and an eight mile run on Saturday. It is supposed to be balls-hot on Saturday...eesh.

In other news, we spent this last weekend in Montana celebrating the nuptuals of our dear friends Krista and Paul! Krista is one of Ben's best friends from childhood through high school and she was a Groomswoman in our wedding so now it was Ben's turn to be a Bridesman in hers!

Enjoying beer and s'mores with Paul and Krista in Glacier, Summer 2012

Some of the fantastic wedding decor

As always, it was great to be back in Montana and the wedding was lovely! It was held at Krista's parents ranch in Hall, Montana which is barely a town. Literally blink and you will miss it. We all stayed in nearby Phillipsburg, in a cottage with several other members of the wedding party (also HS friends of Ben's). Paul is from Manchester, UK and a number of his friends from Britain made the trip out. We had a fun time introducing them to the delights of Montana dive bars.

The ceremony was gorgeous, and we had perfect weather - that is until a massive storm blew through right after dinner. It was more a wind-storm than a rainstorm, and it completely came out of nowhere but we quickly realized that we needed to get all food and breakables inside ASAP. 

As I was rescuing some items from under the dinner tent, a HUUUGE gust of wind came through, and I turned around and quickly realized that the tent was coming un-grounded and was about to fly away over my head. It felt like it was happening in slow motion. I just kind of stood frozen to the ground with my drink in one hand and a teapot on the other, but at NO POINT did it occur to me to put either of those things down and run for it?!? I mean, it was homemade limoncello. Come on. There is no way I was abandoning homemade limoncello to a sad death by tent-pole.

Luckly, the pole and tent missed me (and probably 3 or 4 others who were also under the tent) and slammed into the fence behind us. We all yelled that we were fine, and then proceeded to run into the garage with our drinks and china in tow.

The rest of the night was a total blast. We danced, drank, and ate a lot of cupcakes. Or maybe that was just me...I seriously ate about 4 of them, but I couldn't help myself...the red velvet ones were amaaazing. Plus, gotta get all those calories back in my system somehow, after I burn them all off running ;)

Sadly, we had to fly out the next day because a) I burned most of my PTO on England/Scotland, and b) Ben had to be back for inservice on Monday so...womp womp. Our trip came to an end.

Old barn near our cottage in P-Burg

Krista's family decorated the entire ranch - it was amazing!

Literary table decor - now you know why we're all friends ;)

Ben looking dashing as a Bridesman

The lovely couple

Bride's side

Post-ceremony wagon ride!

The aftermath of the storm....

Hope you're all having a great week! Things are generally good here. It's been a rough week at work so I made a cake in an attempt to compensate. I will now proceed to eat my third slice.

Goodnight!

Not Dead

...just busy!  I can't believe I haven't written anything here for almost a month, but the weeks have just been flying by.  I'm definitely going to try to get back to a more reglar posting schedule because I need motivation to keep writing - I miss it :( 

Since the last time I posted I have:

• Finished another Warrior Dash!  This time I ran with Ben and it was super fun.  Unlike the WD I ran in June, which took place on the mountainous course of doom, this race was on an almost entirely flat course.  I took literally 17 minutes off of my time and finished 15th in my category of 1,200 (Women 20-29)!  I know this is really not much to brag about since most people do not take WD too seriously, but I was pretty proud of myself :)



Triumphant Finish!






Post-"shower" (aka getting hosed off with freezing water)

• 
  (It is also worth noting that on the last obstacle (a series of muddy hills that you use a rope to climb over), I straight up stole the rope out from under some guy in order to get ahead of him.  I then apologized.  And then kept running.)

• In the past week and a half I have somehow managed to both a) fall down while running and scrape the hell out of my knee, and b) grab a hot oven rack with my bare hand.  Yes.  I am just that awesome.  I also decided that I should probably keep running for 3 more miles, after I faceplanted onto the sidewalk.  In retrospect, maybe not the best decision.
• Attended a workshop with the amazing and talented Desiree Rumbaugh!  This was the second time I've studied with her, and both times I've left feeling like my practice was completely transformed.  Love her.
• Played Cards Against Humanity and won decisively, proving once and for all that I am the most horrible person at the table.
• Ate Free Pie at Baker's Square

• Read a LOT of books.  Including:
  - 1Q84 (Haruki Murakami)
  - The Dog Stars (Peter Heller)
  - The One and Only Ivan (for our book club)
  - The Casual Vacancy (J.K. Rowling - review pending...)
  Next Up:
  - Cloud Atlas (before Tom Hanks ruins it forever)
  - The Hobbit (re-read, before Martin Freeman definitely does not ruin it forever)
  - A Study in Scarlet (the first Sherlock Holmes... I am on a mission to read them all)
  - Joseph Anton (Salman Rushdie)
  - In Search of Lost Time (Proust...I foolishly committed to reading the entire thing in
    2013 as part of a group on Goodreads.  We'll see how that goes) 

Alright well, I'm going to try to sneak in a 5 mile run, cheer on the Twin Cities Marathoners, bake some pumpkin bread and make it to yoga today...so let's get this show on the road!  Have a lovely rest of the weekend!

Are you a warrior??

So as I've mentioned several times, my co-workers somehow talked me into running the MN Warrior dash on Saturday.  Why I agreed to this I'll never understans, but I'm so glad I did because it was a BLAST. The Warrior Dash was definitely one of the most fun experiences I've had in recent memory.  

For some reason, I was not nervous for this race at ALL.  I think it was partly because I just had no idea what I was getting into, and partly because I had virtually no expectations for my performance. My only goals for the day were:

1) Don't die

2) Don't get carted away in an ambulence

3) Have fun

(Ben came up with the last one - he thought it would be lame if I stopped after those first two, and he is probably right.  What's the point if you're not having fun??)

Ben and I got there a little early so we had time to hang out, survey the grounds and nosh on some free granola.  As the group started to arrive, we all got together for the required "before" photo:

Me with about half of our group.  That purple shirt was not purple for long...

And then we lined up to start!  We ended up pretty close to the back of our wave because it took us so long to get in line, which has impacts that I'll get to later... but finally, we were off!

Getting ready to start!

While we ran, Ben sat duitfully in the spectator area, waiting to take photos.  Poor Ben - one thing I should mention about the Afton Alps course is that there is no shade, and no covered areas anywhere.  Literally none... except for a few shady areas on the course itself.  If you're just a spectator you are in the sun the entire time.  Being that it was 90 degrees on Saturday, I almost felt worse for Ben than I did for those of us who were running.  Almost.

Since Ben's camera obviously did not capture anything between the start and the finish, I'll try to provide a brief summary what happened in the middle:

I started out with the group and the plan was to at least attempt to stick together.  The first two obstacles were cake, and the first hill was challenging but not too bad.  After the third obstacle I stopped to wait for people, but after that I got tired of waiting and decided to just go on ahead with a couple of others who wanted to keep running.  I had told myself before the race that if I could run, I would and sticking together as a big group would have meant not pushing/challenging myself very much.  Plus, there were two others whose names I will not mention...we'll call them Shmavid and Shmob... who didn't even try to stay with the group and had left us in the dust a while ago.

My co-worker and I stuck together for the next couple of obstacles, but then we hit the woods.  This was maybe the most annoying part of the race, besides the ridiculous hills.  The woods were right after this killer hill, hence many people were too tired to start running again and wanted to walk.  Unfortunately, the path through the woods was very narrow and cut into the side of a steep hill, so it was basically impossible to pass anyone.  If you should know one thing about when running or walking anywhere with me, it is probably this: getting stuck behind slow people annoys me like nothing else.  I wanted to start running again but because of the woods/path situation, I literally could not.  I finally resorted to asking people if I could sneak past them, and risked life and limb to get around all of the slow walkers.  When I looked back I had totally lost my co-worker...oops...so I just kept going.

The rest of the race was basically a lot of hills...like really, a lot.  Most people (including myself) started just walking up the hills at a certain point because 1) they were so long and steep and there were so many of them, and 2) it was so effing hot.

The obstacles themselves were not that bad.  Mostly they felt like a welcome break from the damn hills - after hiking against gravity for a quarter mile in the blazing heat, doing an army crawl through the gravel is pretty much a cakewalk.  There was only one that made me nervous - the "Dead Man's Drop", which I can't even describe...it was just high and steep and near the end of the race.  I saw several people go around it, which was probably a good choice if you were fatigued.  I went over it...and I'm still alive so yay.

After the last couple of obstacles, it was pretty much run down the ski hill, slide down the slip-and-slide, jump over the fire, crawl through the mud and you're done!  I may have gotten a little overenthusiastic with my speed on the slip-and-slide, realizing about halfway that there was no way to slow down before the end.  Needless to say I did not land gracefully and I have a couple of awesome bruises. 

Just leaping over the fire...no big deal

Crawling out of the mud like some crazy swamp monster

Wheeee

done!!

The whole gang! (most of us at least...)

Work should be a piece of cake after this...

Clean, sort of...

Even though Warrior Dash is totally about fun and it's kind of a joke that it is even timed, I was really proud of my performance!  My goal going in was basically to not look like an idiot - but even with all of the stopping/waiting for other people and not pushing myself 100% I still finished in the top 13% of my age group, and I was one of the first three people from my work group to finish (along with the two aforementioned rebels...)! 

I'm honestly not trying to brag or pat myself on the back, but I was genuinely surprised by how well it went, as I don't necessarily consider myself a "runner."  I'd be really curious to see what happened if I actually pushed myself hard for the entire race.  Here are a few tips/takeaways if you're thinking of signing up:

~~~

1: Don't Wing It

Seriously, I know a lot of people don't really prepare for this because it's supposed to be a "fun" race, but I'm guessing that if you were not in shape or didn't work out at all beforehand, this race would not be fun AT ALL.  It is challenging - I can't speak for other courses but the MN Afton Alps course with the multitude of hills is killer, and the sun and heat made it even worse.   Running three miles was the easy part, to be honest.  I saw a lot of people who looked like they probably just went "Warrior Dash woo!  Whatevs it's only three miles I'll be fiiiiine..." I'm guessing those were the same people who rested under a tree for 10 minutes and finished the course in an hour and a half. 

Not to mention, some of the obstacles present the potential for serious injury if you're fatigued or aren't being careful.  You can always go around them but then you're kind of missing the point of Warrior Dash...meh.  Anyways I guess I am probably a massochist because I loved it anyways. 

Below is my "training regimen", such as it was:

• Yoga 4-5 times a week (at least 2-3 of these were hot classes)
• Running 3 times a week (2-4 miles each time)
• CPY Bootcamp.  I am seriously so glad i did this...it gave me so much more confidence in my overall fitness level, and I think the circuits helped improve my strength too.  And as tough as warrior dash was it sort of paled in comparison to last week's outdoor workout...

...so as you can see, not exactly akin to that of an Olympic athlete, but at least I am in decent shape...

2: Don't worry about your time

....and if you are worried about your time, make sure you start at or near the front of your wave.  We started near the back and ended up waiting in a huge line for the first obstacle becuase the crowd still hadn't thinned out.  There were about five lines waiting to climb over the wall, and when you actually got over it depended on a) which line you picked, and b) how fast the people ahead of you in line were.  That combined with the whole 'being stuck behind slow people in the woods' make the timing kind of a crap-shoot if you aren't in the front to start with.

3: Have fun!!

Ben was totally right about this, by the way.  You get to be a bad ass!  You get to leap over fire and crawl through the mud like a champion, and in this setting it is completely socially acceptable to do these things.  Do not underestimate how awesome this is.  Enjoy it!!

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Anyways, Warrior Dash was awesome and I am SO glad I decided to sign up.  I will definitely be doing this again.

Another takeaway from this whole experience is that I realized I probably don't hate running.  I also realized that without some external motivation, i.e. an upcoming race during which I would prefer not to die, I probably won't run that much.  So, I'll be making running dates with my husband/sister/whoever just because someone needs to hold me accountable for these things.

That's really all for today!  Only one more day in the office this week, and then I am out until July 9!  We're not going anywhere, just hanging out at home but I'm pretty excited because this is the first real "vacation" time I've taken since Jaunary and even then I was sick for half of it.  Unfortunately it will be 95 degrees and humid the entire week, and we only have one AC unit in the bedroom...so I might end up wishing I was in my air-conditioned office building.  Either way, it will be nice to relax for a few days.

Happy almost 4th of July!