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!

EHRMAGERD

So, it occurred to me that I haven't posted in almost two weeks, and that the last time I did was not the happiest post ever.  Needless to say I'm still here, still definitely wanting to write.

Actually, the main reason I haven't been posting is that I have been on vacation in Montana!  Sweet, sweet vacation...I haven't taken a whole week off from work since our honeymoon, almost exactly one year ago, so this was much needed.

It was glorious.  I ate awesome food, read a shit ton of fiction (1,972 pages actually), hiked 38 miles over 5 days, saw two black bears and three mountain goats, and remembered why life is awesome.  There's nothing like the mountains and fresh air to put the world in perspective.

I OWN YOU, mountains.
Just kidding, you cannot own the earth...haven't you people ever seen Disney's Pocahontas??

I have a number of recipes to share, but some of them just don't result in pretty photos and some of them are very summerish, and summer is almost over.  So instead, here's a brief recap of what I've been doing other than tromping through the wilderness and not checking my email.

Being a baby-carrying bridesmaid in Alex and Karl's wedding

Love :)

Celebrating this little nugget's 24th birthday...

...with Tequila!!

Speaking of Julianna, she is moving to Chicago on Friday :(  Wah wah wah... I can't believe she's moving away, and this time the move is somewhat permanent since her degree will take at least 5 years, and who knows where she'll end up afterwards.  But, while this means she probably won't be calling me up to ask if she can pop by and use my shower anytime soon (yes, this actually does happen with some regularity), it also means lots of Chicago road trips!  That can only be a good thing right?

OK...well it's been a long and weird day.  I'm off to yoga and then to make myself some dinner... I'll post more photos from Montana as soon as I can combine the ones from our camera with my dad's photos... huzzah.

Happy Monday?